activity_logger

http://github.com/goerz/activity_logger

Author: Michael Goerz

Collection of scripts to log and analyze computer usage on Mac OS X

activity_logger.pl runs in the background and monitors when the computer is active or idle, and which program is in the foreground. It will store this data in a log file.

Several scripts are provided to aid in the analysis of the logged data.

This code is licensed under the GPL

Install

Store the activity_logger.pl script anywhere in your $PATH. Edit it to set the user to monitor and the location where log files should be stored.

Run it in the background by setting a launch agent. For example put a file net.michaelgoerz.activity_logger.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents with the following content (adapt to your home directory path):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>KeepAlive</key>
	<true/>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>net.michaelgoerz.activity_logger</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/Users/goerz/bin/activity_logger.pl</string>
	</array>
</dict>
</plist>

You can also do this with Lingon.

Note that that this software will only work on Mac OS X.

Usage

Activity Logger

Keep activity_logger.pl running in the background (see above). Information about the system activity will be stored in a (monthly) log file. Each line in the log file is a "switching event". There are three columns. The first column is the time stamp in epoch second, the second column is an integer code ('1' for 'computer is active', '0' for 'computer is idle', '-1' for 'computer is off/sleeping or activity_logger.pl is not running'). The third column is the name of the active application, in the case that the computer is active. Each event entry marks the start of that event; an event ends with the start of the following event.