XSysStats(1)XSysStats(1)NAMExsysstats - displays system statistics in a strip graph.
SYNOPSISxsysstats-type type -geometry geometry -display display -name name
-title title -border value -background color -baseline color -color
color -foreground color -host hostname -min min -max max -sample sam‐
ple_time -allnames-samescale -hidelabels -hidehosts-scale value
-ruler seconds -solid -showmax -splitwidthxheight -window number -def‐
color graphtype color -wtitle name
DESCRIPTION
XSysStats is a tool to show various system statistics. It shows them
in the form of a strip graph in a window.
It can show multiple graphs in one window, and the graphs can be
detailing information about several machines.
At the bottom of the window, what graph types and their scale is dis‐
played. These are displayed in the color of the graph.
While XSysStats is running, graphs will be downscaled and upscaled as
require. And upscale doubles the graph scale, and only occurs when a
new point is beyond the graph bounds.
Downscaling occurs when the running average falls below the scale, and
all points on the graph are less than half the present scale. Down‐
scaling halves the scale of the graph.
Upscaling and Downscaling by default do not occur on graphs of cpu
time. Scaling can further be controlled by the -min and -max argu‐
ments.
A black and white display system will not likely be able to make much
sense of multiple graphs in the same window. However, using the -split
option can be used to create several windows, each detailing a differ‐
ent statistic.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
Note: unlike many programs, the order the command line arguments are
given in is relevant. The -host, -color, -min and -max operate on the
last -type argument given. Also, at least one -type argument needs to
be supplied before -host, -color, -min or -max can be used, otherwise
an error will result.
-type type
This is the type of graph to display. The types are:
collisions: number of incoming ethernet collisions since last
update
context: number of context switches per second
cpu: percentage of cpu time being used
scpu, ucpu, ncpu, icpu: Displays percentage of system, user,
and niced cpu that is being used. Note that icpu is the same
as just cpu but
that icpu is inverted - if the system is 80% idle, the graph
will show 20% use.
disk: number of disk transfers per second
errors: number of incoming ethernet errors since last update
interrupts: average number of device interrupts, per second
load1, load5, load15: The average number of jobs in the load
queue for the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.
packets: number of incoming + outgoing ethernet packets per
second
packetsi: number of incoming ethernet packets per second. This
was formerly just known as 'packets'
packetso: number of outgoing ethernet packets per second
pagei: page ins since last update. This was formally called
just 'page'
apagei: average page ins per second.
pageo: page outs since last update
apageo: average page outs per second.
swap: swap ins and outs since last update
swapi: swap ins since last update. This was formally just
called 'swap'.
swapo: swap outs since last update.
Instead of just the type name, a host name can be appended to
graph information from that host (see -host below.) Syntax
would be -type page@host to graph page information from 'host'.
Note: Unlike perfmeter, collisions, errors, page and swap are
not averaged over the sample time. This is a personal prefer‐
ence on my part, to be able to see the activity in these fields
more clearly. For this reason, the scale of these graphs may
appear different than perfmeter if the sample time is not one
second.
Multiple graphs are selected by specifying multiple -type argu‐
ments. The graphs are graphed in the order of the -type argu‐
ments. This means that the first -type graph given will be
drawn first, and graphs specified later will overwrite this
graph data. The graph which you want to see most clearly
should be the last -type argument.
-geometry geometry
The geometry of the window.
-allnames
This forces the hostname for all hosts to be displayed along
with the graph type at the bottom of the window, including the
localhost.
-display display
what screen/system to display the window on.
-name name
Set the application resource name to name. Default is the name
of the executable.
-title title
Set the window manager title to title.
-background color
background color of the window.
-baseline color
this tells XSysStats to draw a baseline of color color. The
baseline is a zero line, the minimum value any graph can have.
-border vlaue
this sets border width between graphs (when using -split mode)
as well as spacing between graphs and the window edge. By
default, this value is 1. This is a global value, and can not
be set on a graph by graph bases.
-color color
this sets the color of the last graph specified with the -type
argument.
-defclor graphtype color
this sets the default color for all graphs of graphtype to
color. This can be very useful for situation where you are
displaying information for many systems in -split mode. The
-color option can be used to override individual graph colors.
-foreground color
this sets the default foreground color. Any graphs that do not
have a -color argument specified will use this color instead.
-hidehosts
Don't show hostnames for any host when displaying labels.
Removes clutter if all graphs are of the same host.
-hidelabels
Prevent all graph labels and scale from being drawn at the bot‐
tom of the screen. Makes better use of space. Limited use if
you need to know the scale of the graph and the graphs scale
changes. Certain keys can toggle the labels on or off while
running. See the section below on KEYBOARD CONTROL for more
information.
-host host
this specifies the host to report information on. It applies
to the last -type argument given. There is no checking done to
see if this is a valid host. If no hosts exists with the host
name, then the graph for which this host applied will not be
graphed in any reasonable fashion. This option is now obso‐
lete, -type graph@host can now be used instead.
-min min
this is the minimum value the last graph specified by -type
will downscale to.
-max max
this is the maximum value the graph specified by -type will
scale to. If points are beyond this scale, they will be drawn
out of bounds.
If both min and max are the same, the graph will never change
scale. By default, most graphs have a min value of 2 and a
very large max value. The cpu graph is the one exception, both
its min and max value is 100.
-ruler seconds
This causes XSysStats to draw a ruler below the graph and above
the labels, with a mark and a label every seconds seconds.
This is useful to see how long ago an event happened. The min‐
imum value that is useful with a 2 second sample time is about
30 seconds. Depending on the width and value of seconds, the
left most value may have a digit or two cut off. This is tog‐
glable at run time by pressing 'r'.
-sample sample_time
This is how long the program sleeps between each update. The
minimum value is 1. By default, it is 2.
-samescale
Graphs of similar type will always have the same scale. This
can be useful if the same -type is being used to graph informa‐
tion on multiple hosts. It allows for easy comparison of the
graph data.
-scale value
Causes dotted horizontal scale lines every value points on the
graph. Thus, if value is 32 and the scale of the graph is 64,
a dotted line will be drawn in the middle of the window. This
operates on the last -type argument given. If scale lines
become too close together in the window, value will doubled
until the lines are adequately spread out. The threshold value
is about 5 pixels. If two of these lines would be drawn closer
together than that, the doubling will occur. The value of the
lines are not drawn anyplace in the window.
-solid This causes the graphs to be drawn as solid lines (histograms)
instead of curves. Thus, a line is drawn from the baseline to
the present value. Use of this with multiple graphs in one
window is not suggested, as they will be drawn over each other.
I also recommend using the -baseline option in conjunction with
-solid.
-showmax
Shows the maximum value seen so far for each graph since
xsysstats was invoked. The value is shown on the labels line
(so if you have -hidelabels set you won't see this value) next
to the current scale; the format is "scale/max".
-split widthxheight
This splits the XSysStats display into several smaller windows
for graphing. All of the windows will be the same size. By
using this option, one XSysStats program can be used to graph
many different things. By default, if no -window options are
used (see below), the graphs are positioned from left to right,
then top to bottom. Thus, if the split is 3x1, the first graph
would be in the upper left, second in top center, third in top
right, fourth in bottom left, etc. This needs to be specified
before any -type or -window options are given for it to work
properly.
-window window
This specifies the window to plot all the following graphs in.
If the window has not been split (via -split), this options has
no use. Otherwise, all following graphs specified will be
plotted in the window specified until another -window option is
given. The windows are numbers the same way graphs are plotted
above with -split - top left would be window 1, then next on
the top row would be 2, and so on. If a window value of 0 is
specified, then windows will be plotted as was described in the
-split command above - from left to right, top to bottom,
starting at the last window plotted before a -window options
was specified.
-wtitle title
This sets up a default title for the bottom of the window.
This can be useful if you are displaying multiple graph types
but know what the colors mean.
X DEFAULTS
XSysStats does not support any standard resource values. This is based
some on ease of programming and on usefulness of having resources.
It seems to me that very seldom will people want to have XSysStats run
with all the same resources more than once. If X Defaults were sup‐
ported, then there would also need to be a way not to use them.
KEYBOARD CONTROL
While XSysStats is running, the following keys will cause various
events to happen:
l,L This will toggle through the label modes. As of now, there are
three modes - None, in which case nothing is displayed. Mini‐
mal, in which the window title (if specified) and just the scale
values are displayed, but the graph types are not, and Normal,
in which case graph types with scale is displayed.
-hidelabels sets the initial state to None, and -wtitle sets it
to Minimal.
m,M This will toggle display of maximum values on or off. This is
the same behavior as the -showmax command line option. Note
that maximum values aren't displayed unless labels are turned on
(see above).
r,R This will toggle the ruler on or off. If -ruler was not speci‐
fied on the command line, a default value of 30 seconds will be
used for the ruler markings.
q,Q If XSysStats was compiled with the KEYQUIT option, this will
cause xsysstats
to exit. Otherwise, it does nothing.
C-l (CTRL-L) Causes the window to redraw.
BUGS
Valid host name checking should be done when the -host argument is
specified.
Timeouts of rstat on remote hosts will pretty much stop all the graphs.
AUTHOR
Mark Wedel (mwedel@scruz.net)
August 26, 1993 XSysStats(1)
