.TH LOADMETER 1 "December 18, 2001"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
loadmeter \- System load/resource monitor for X
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B loadmeter
[
.B -display
.I "display"
] [
.B -geometry
.I "geometry"
] [
.B -name
.I "name"
] [
.B -numfont
.I "font"
] [
.B -labelfont
.I "font"
] [
.B -label
.I "label"
] [
.B -popupfont
.I "font"
] [
.B -popupbg
.I "colour"
] [
.B -popupfg
.I "colour"
] [
.B -warn
.I "percent"
] [
.B -warnbg
.I "colour"
] [
.B -meter
.I "colour"
] [
.B -override
] [
.B -sync
] [
.B -bh
.I height
] [
.B -parent
.I "window"
] [
.B -disk
] [
.B -noshrink
] [
.B -nogeom
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B loadmeter
is a utility to monitor various system resources. It runs (currently) under
Linux and Solaris systems running the X Window System. It displays information
about system hostname, load average, uptime, disk usage and memory information.
.B loadmeter
uses the /proc filesystem to gather most of this information under
Linux, and under Solaris it reads kernel symbols
.IR "(What a headache!)" .
In its normal state it displays a window with a coloured bar graph
showing the load average for the past minute. This is also shown
in digits at the top of the window. Both are updated every second. A
red notch marks the maximum load since
.B loadmeter
was started, and can be reset by pressing Button2 or hidden with Button3.
A blue notch shows the 5 minute load average.
.PP
By clicking with Button1, a pop-up window appears showing the uptime, the
load average for the past 1, 5 and 15 minutes, the capacity of each
filesystem, and memory/swap usage. More detailed information on each
filesystem is available by highlighting the corresponding one. The way this
window pops down is intentional, just to make it interesting. :)
(Can be disabled with
.BR -noshrink ).
.PP
Any filesystems with higher usage than specified by the
.B -warn
option (default 90%) are shown with a (default) green background in the
popup menu. If the
.B -disk
option is specified, the text 'disk' appears on the main window if the
usage of any filesystem exceeds the value given by
.BR -warn ,
or 90% if that option is not supplied. Popping up the stats window
causes this message to go away, until either another filesystem
exceeds this value, or the usage of the filesystem that filled falls
below the warning value and then subsequently exceeds it.
.PP
Press Escape within the top level window to exit.
.PP
The following bindings are in effect if either the
.B -override
or
.B -parent
options is specified.
.PP
.TP
Ctrl-button1 lowers the window (\-override only).
.TP
Ctrl-button2 raises and moves the window.
.TP
Ctrl-button3 raises and resizes the window.
.PP
A SIGUSR1 sent to the
.B loadmeter
process will also raise the top level window. This can be used to raise a
window that has been obscured by a parent that was specified with the
.B -parent
option.
.SH OPTIONS
The following options are available. They may be abbreviated so long as
ambiguity is not reached.
.PP
.TP 0.6i
.BI \-display "\| dpy\^"
Specifies which X server to connect to. If unspecified, the value of
the environment variable
.B DISPLAY
is used.
.TP 0.6i
.BI \-geometry "\| geometry\^"
Sets the initial geometry of the top level window, given in
standard XxY+W+H format. The default is 40x100.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -name "\| name\^"
The name of the application to present to the window manager.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -numfont "\| font\^"
Use the specified font for the load average digits on the top level window. The
default is 6x10. Rastermans
.I nexus
font is highly recommended.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -labelfont "\| font\^"
Use the specified font for the label displayed behind the bar graph. The
default is \-schumacher\-clean\-medium\-r\-*\-*\-7\-*\-*\-*\-*\-*\-*\-*.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -label "\| label\^"
Specify the string to be displayed behind the bar graph. The default is the
hostname given by
.BI uname(2).
.TP 0.6i
.BI -popupfont "\| font\^"
Use the specified font for the text in the popup menus. The default is
\-misc\-fixed\-medium\-r\-*\-*\-10\-*\-*\-*\-*\-*\-*\-*.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -popupbg "\| colour\^"
Sets the background colour of the popup menus. Default is grey30.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -popupfg "\| colour\^"
Sets the foreground colour of the popup menus. Default is yellow.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -warn "\| percent\^"
Causes the menu entry for a particular filesystem to be highlighted if the
usage for it is greater than the given percentage. The default is 90%.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -warnbg "\| colour\^"
Specify the colour to use for highlighting a filesystem whose usage is
greater than or equal to 90% or whichever is specified with the
.B -warn
option. The default is seagreen4.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -meter "\| colour\^"
Specify the colour to use for the bar in the graphical representation
of filesystem usages. The default is black.
.TP 0.6i
.B -override
Causes
.B loadmeter
to set the
.I override_redirect
bit on the top level window. This will then cause it to bypass the window
manager and display itself undecorated on the root window. This is
useful for using it with window managers such as
.I Enlightenment
(to DR 0.13 at least) which insist on decorating all top level windows. With
this option set, the built in move and resize features are enabled.
.TP 0.6i
.B -sync
Causes
.B
loadmeter
to call
.BI sync(2)
\.
each time it checks the disk usages. This can slow things down on systems
with busy filesystems, but is more accurate as the filesystems are
properly synced.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -bh "\| height\^"
Specify the height in pixels of each of the bars (blocks) in the main
bar graph. The default is two pixels.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -parent "\| window\^"
This option allows you to specify a particular window for
.B loadmeter
to use as its parent window. Normally
.B loadmeter
will attempt to map itself onto the root window, however there may be
times when you wish to map it as a child of another window on the
screen. The author uses this to map several instances of
.B loadmeter
onto an xclock window, making it easy to move the bank around by
just moving the xclock window. It's left as an exercise to the
reader to think of other uses for this option.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -disk
Causes a warning message on the top level window to be given when
the usage of a filesystem exceeds 90%, or the value given by
.BR -warn .
The warning goes away when the stats window is popped up, until
either another filesystem's usage is excessive or the usage of the
filesystem that caused the warning falls below the threshold and
then subsequently exceeds it.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -noshrink
Disables the slow-popdown eye candy feature of the stats window. This
option is useful for slow network connections to the display and/or
when there is a large number of filesystems being monitored.
.TP 0.6i
.BI -nogeom
Disables the displaying of the window geometry in the cursor as the
main window is being moved or resized.
.PP
Note that
.B -override
and
.B -parent
cannot both be given in the same instance.
.SH RESOURCES
.B loadmeter
reads the X server database for several resources that can be used
to specify options for all instances of
.B loadmeter
running on the display. The resources have the same names as each
of the command line options, thus there is no point specifying
them here again.
.PP
Boolean options (i.e. those that don't take an argument) are enabled
by setting the corresponding resource to
.I True.
.SH LICENSE
.B loadmeter
is covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL).
.SH BUGS
.B loadmeter
does no checking as to whether a colour was successfully allocated by the
X server.
.PP
Memory info in Solaris isn't particularly correct. Patches for this would
be appreciated...
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR xload (1).
.SH AUTHOR
Ben Buxton <bb@zip.com.au>