procstat: show linux statistics from the proc filesystem

This is a utility that reads statistics from the /proc and /sys linux pseudo-filesystems and tries to show the information the most convenient and useful ways possible.

Because many people are very used to using tools like sar and iostat, this utility does provide output that is a copy of these tools. That means that you do not have to change your procedure for linux analysis, except for running another executable. However, what procstat tries to do is provide more, better or different information using modern linux statistics.

By default, procstat shows CPU information in the same way that sar does:

$ procstat
Timestamp  cpu             %usr     %nice      %sys   %iowait    %steal     %idle
10:26:36   all             0.00      0.00      0.40      0.00      0.00     99.60
10:26:37   all             0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00    100.00
10:26:38   all             0.00      0.00      0.20      0.00      0.00     99.80
10:26:39   all             0.20      0.00      0.20      0.00      0.00     99.60

Nothing shocking here. However, I do like using absolute amount of CPU time better than percentages. procstat has the cpu-all option:

$ procstat -o cpu-all
Timestamp  cpu            usr_s    nice_s     sys_s  iowait_s   steal_s     irq_s    soft_s   guest_s   gnice_s    idle_s sched_r_s sched_w_s
10:40:21   all             0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      4.99      0.01      0.00
10:40:22   all             0.01      0.00      0.01      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      4.98      0.02      0.00
10:40:23   all             0.00      0.00      0.03      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      4.97      0.03      0.00
10:40:24   all             0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      4.99      0.01      0.00
10:40:25   all             0.01      0.00      0.01      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.01      0.00      0.00      4.98      0.02      0.00
10:40:26   all             0.01      0.00      0.01      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      0.00      4.99      0.02      0.00

(scroll to the right to see the idle time) This is the reason why procstat is created.

Current output options:

• iostat
• iostat-x
• sar-b
• sar-B
• sar-d
• sar-H
• sar-n-DEV
• sar-n-EDEV
• sar-q (= sar-q-LOAD)
• sar-q-CPU
• sar-q-IO
• sar-q-MEM
• sar-r
• sar-r-ALL
• sar-S
• sar-u (default)
• sar-u-ALL
• sar-w
• sar-W
• mpstat-P-ALL
• vmstat
• cpu-all (custom option showing CPU time instead of percentages)
• per-cpu-all (custom option showing CPU time instead of percentages per CPU)

The webserver

Currently, procstat always starts a webserver on port 1111. I am considering enabling and disabling this via a switch, and the port should be configurable in the future.

The webserver allows to see graphs of CPU, memory, disk IO and networking. Examples:

CPU usage: Memory usage: System wide disk IO: System wide network IO:

Warning

This is a preview version. Feedback is appreciated, as well as any issues that are encountered.

Getting a backtrace

If an error is encountered, and you want a backtrace for it, set:

RUST_BACKTRACE=1

Building procstat

Please mind the building steps are validated for linux and MacOS. procstat requires the linux operating system and access to the /proc and /sys filesystems to perform its function.

Basic steps:

• Install the rust suite: see https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install
• Clone the this repository: git clone https://github.com/FritsHoogland/procstat.git
• Build the executable:

cd procstat
cargo build --release

The executable is available at ./target/release/procstat after compilation (cargo build). The executable can also be run using cargo: cargo run --release. Please mind any switches must be set after adding -- to the cargo run command.