Command line tool for PostgreSQL server activity monitoring.

Installation

pg_activity is available in many Linux distributions; the PostgreSQL Global Development Group (PGDG) also provides packages for RPM-based (https://yum.postgresql.org/) and Debian-based distributions (https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Apt). Using distribution packages is the recommended way to install pg_activity.

Alternatively, pg_activity can be installed using pip on Python 3.6 or later along with psycopg2 (version 2.8 or higher):

$ python3 -m pip install pg_activity psycopg2-binary

Usage

pg_activity works locally or remotely. In local execution context, to obtain sufficient rights to display system informations, the system user running pg_activity must be the same user running postgresql server (postgres by default), or have more rights like root. Otherwise, pg_activity can fallback to a degraded mode without displaying system informations. On the same way, PostgreSQL user used to connect to the database must be super-user. ex:

sudo -u postgres pg_activity -U postgres

Options

pg_activity [options]

Options:
    --version             Show program's version number and exit
    -U USERNAME, --username=USERNAME
                          Database user name (default: "postgres").
    -p PORT, --port=PORT  Database server port (default: "5432").
    -h HOSTNAME, --host=HOSTNAME
                          Database server host or socket directory (default:
                          "localhost").
    -d DBNAME, --dbname=DBNAME
                          Database name to connect to (default: "postgres").
    --blocksize=BLOCKSIZE Filesystem blocksize (default: 4096).
    --rds                 Enable support for AWS RDS.
    --output=FILEPATH     Store running queries as CSV.
    --help                Show this help message and exit.
    --no-db-size          Skip total size of DB.
    --min-duration        Don't display queries with smaller than specified
                          duration (in seconds).
    --verbose-mode=VERBOSE_MODE
                          Queries display mode. Values: 1-TRUNCATED,
                          2-FULL(default), 3-INDENTED
    --duration-mode=DURATION_MODE
                          Duration mode. Values: 1-QUERY(default),
                          2-TRANSACTION, 3-BACKEND


Display options, you can exclude some columns by using them :
    --no-database         Disable DATABASE.
    --no-user             Disable USER.
    --no-client           Disable CLIENT.
    --no-cpu              Disable CPU%.
    --no-mem              Disable MEM%.
    --no-read             Disable READ/s.
    --no-write            Disable WRITE/s.
    --no-time             Disable TIME+.
    --no-wait             Disable W.
    --no-app-name         Disable App.

Notes

Length of SQL query text that pg_activity reports relies on PostgreSQL parameter track_activity_query_size. Default value is 1024 (expressed in bytes). If your SQL query text look truncated, you should increase track_activity_query_size.

Interactives commands

Key	Action
r	Sort by READ/s, descending
w	Sort by WRITE/s, descending
c	Sort by CPU%, descending
m	Sort by MEM%, descending
t	Sort by TIME+, descending
T	Change duration mode: query, transaction, backend
Space	Pause on/off
v	Change queries display mode: full, indented, truncated
UP/DOWN	Scroll processes list
k/j	Scroll processes list
q	Quit
+	Increase refresh time. Maximum value : 5s
-	Decrease refresh time. Minimum Value : 0.5s
F1/1	Running queries list
F2/2	Waiting queries list
F3/3	Blocking queries list
h	Help page
R	Refresh
D	Refresh Database Size (including when --no-dbzise option applied)

Navigation mode

Key	Action
UP/k	Move up the cursor
DOWN/j	Move down the cursor
K	Terminate the current backend/tagged backends
C	Cancel the current backend/tagged backends
Space	Tag or untag the process
q	Quit
Other	Back to activity

FAQ

I can't see my queries only TPS is shown

pg_activity scans the view pg_stat_activity with a user defined refresh time comprised between O.5 and 5 seconds. It can be modified in the interface with the + and - keys. Any query executed between two scans won't be displayed.

What is more, pg_activity uses different queries to get :

• settings from pg_settings
• version info using version()
• queries and number of connections from pg_stat_activity
• locks from pg_locks
• tps from pg_database using pg_stat_get_db_xact_commit() and pg_stat_get_db_xact_rollback()
• and more ( eg : pg_cancel_backend() and pg_terminate_backend() )

Thoses queries cannot be seen in the query tab because all queries issued from the pg_activity backend are considered as noise and are not displayed . On the other hand, the transactions used to get the info for pg_activity's reporting are still accounted for by postgres in pg_stat_get_db_xact_commit() and pg_stat_get_db_xact_commit(). Therefore pg_activity will display a non zero TPS even with no activity on the database, and/or no activity displayed on screen.