PGauge

PGauge is a command-line utility for macOS that parses power metrics from the powermetrics command and displays them in a user-friendly format. It provides real-time CPU and GPU power usage statistics, helping you monitor your system's performance efficiently.

Motivation

While there are existing alternatives like MX Power Gadget, I found that they consume a significant amount of system resources themselves (investigation in russian), which defeats the purpose of lightweight power monitoring. PGauge was developed as a more efficient solution that minimizes resource usage while providing accurate power metrics.

Features

• Real-time monitoring: Shows up-to-date statistics on CPU and GPU power usage.
• Summary Statistics: Shows minimum and maximum values over a specified period.
• History Keeping: Provides an option to keep a history of all updates.
• Automatic Terminal Resizing: Adjusts the terminal window size for optimal display.

Requirements

• Operating System: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel)
• Permissions: Administrator privileges (requires admin password)
• Python Version: Python 3.8 or higher

Installation

Install PGauge using pip:

pip install pgauge

Alternatively:

python3 -m pip install pgauge

Usage

pgauge [-h] [-i mS] [-s S] [-k] [-r WxH]

Alternatively, you can run PGauge as a Python module:

python3 -m pgauge [-h] [-i mS] [-s S] [-k] [-r WxH]

Optional Arguments

• -h, --help
  Show the help message and exit.

• -i mS, --interval mS
  Set the stats update interval in milliseconds. Default is 1000 (one second).

• -s S, --summary S
  Display the minimum and maximum values for a period in seconds. Set to 0 to disable history. Default is 60 (one minute).

• -k, --keep-history
  Print each update on a new line instead of refreshing the current line.

• -r WxH, --resize WxH
  Resize the terminal window to the specified width and height (WxH). You can also set it to auto for automatic resizing.

Examples

• Run with Default Settings

  pgauge
  

  

• Set Update Interval to 500ms

  pgauge -i 500
  

• Disable Summary History

  pgauge -s 0
  

  

• Keep History of All Updates

  pgauge -k
  

  

• Automatically Resize Terminal Window

  pgauge -r auto
  

Important Notes

• Administrator Privileges Required: PGauge uses the powermetrics command, which requires administrator privileges. You will be prompted for your admin password when running pgauge. You can grant privileges for the current user to run powermetrics without a password by running the following command:

  echo `whoami` "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/powermetrics *" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/powermetrics