Added release notes for LibGTop 1.0.6.
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Martin Baulig
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RELEASE NOTES FOR LIBGTOP 1.0.6
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===============================
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OVERVIEW
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--------
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LibGTop is a library that read information about processes and the
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running systems. This information include:
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General System Information:
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cpu - CPU Usage
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mem - Memory Usage
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swap - Swap Usage (including paging activity)
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loadavg - Load average (including nr_running, nr_tasks, last_pid)
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uptime - Uptime and Idle time, can be calculated from CPU usage
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SYS V IPC Limits:
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shm_limits - Shared Memory Limits
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msg_limits - Message Queue Limits
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sem_limits - Semaphore Set Limits
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Network:
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netload - Network load
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ppp - PPP statistics
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Process List:
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proclist - List of processes
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Process information:
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proc_state - cmd, state, uid, gid
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proc_uid - uid,euid,gid,egid,pid,ppid,pgrp
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session,tty,tpgid,priority,nice
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proc_mem - size,vsize,resident,share,rss,rss_rlim
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proc_time - start_time,rtime,utime,stime,cutime,cstime
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timeout,it_real_value,frequency
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proc_signal - signal,blocked,sigignore,sigcatch
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proc_kernel - k_flags,min_flt,maj_flt,cmin_flt,cmaj_flt
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kstk_esp,kstk_eip,nwchan,wchan
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proc_segment - text_rss,shlib_rss,data_rss,stack_rss,dirty_size
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start_code,end_code,start_stack
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Process maps:
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proc_args - Command line arguments
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proc_map - Process map (/proc/<pid>/maps under Linux)
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File system usage:
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mountlist - List of currently mounted filesystems
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fsusage - File system usage
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PORTABILITY:
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-----------
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LibGTop is designed to be as portable as possible. None of the
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functions and retrieved information should be specific to a specific
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operating system. So you only need to port the system dependent part
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of the library to a new system and all application programs can then
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use libgtop on this new system.
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CLIENT/SERVER MODEL:
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-------------------
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Some systems like DEC OSF/1 or BSD require special privileges for the
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calling process to fetch the required information (SUID root/SGID
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kmem). To solve this problem, I designed a client/server model which
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makes a call to a SUID/SGID server which fetches the required
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information whenever it is required. This server is only called for
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features that really require privileges, otherwise the sysdeps code
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is called directory (every user can get the CPU usage on DEC OSF/1,
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but only root can get information about processes other than the
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current one).
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There is also some kind of daemon which can be used to fetch
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information from remote systems (still experimental). This daemon
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normally runs as nobody and calls the SUID/SGID itself when needed.
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LIBGTOP AND GNOME:
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-----------------
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Although LibGTop is part of the GNOME desktop environment, its main
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interface is totally independent from any particular desktop environment,
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so you can also use it as a standalone library in any piece of GPLed
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software which makes it also a valuable part of the GNU project.
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LibGTop is currently used in various places in the GNOME Project,
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for instance in some of the applets in gnome-core and - of cause -
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this ultra-cool application called GTop ...
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However, you need to give the configure.in script the `--without-gnome'
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parameter when you want to use LibGTop without GNOME (this is because,
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if you want to use it with GNOME, you need to compile it after the main
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GNOME libraries and I wanted to avoid getting unnecessary bug reports
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about this).
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LIBGTOP AND GNOME - PART II:
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---------------------------
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LibGTop was tested with FreeBSD 3.0 but it should also work with
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FreeBSD 2.2.7, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
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Unfortunately, I don't have the power and disk space to install all
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possible operating systems out there on my machine and test things myself,
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so I depend on people telling me whether it works and sending me bug
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reports and patches if not.
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However, I consider FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD as supported systems for
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LibGTop and whenever I get bug reports I will do my best to fix them as
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quickly as possible.
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PLATFORM SPECIFIC NOTES FOR LINUX:
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==================================
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[I am speaking of the Linux kernel here.]
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Under Linux, LibGTop should work without problems and read everything
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from /proc.
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LibGTop 0.25 also had an experimental kernel interface to read this
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information directly from the kernel with a system call - but I have
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currently dropped support for this as I am too busy with GNOME
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development to keep current with kernel hacking.
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PLATFORM SPECIFIC NOTES FOR SOLARIS:
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====================================
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The development branch of LibGTop (the 1.1.x series) has a first version
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of the Solaris port which works at least on Solaris 7.
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If you are on a Solaris system and want to give it a try, just fetch the
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latest 1.1.x tarball from ftp://ftp.home-of-linux.org/pub/libgtop/1.1/
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and try it out.
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PLATFORM SPECIFIC NOTES FOR BSD:
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=================================
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There are a few caveats:
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* You need to manually make the `$(prefix)/bin/libgtop_server' SGID to
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kmem after installation and mount the /proc file system of FreeBSD
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(/proc/<pid>/mem is used within kvm_uread ()).
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* To get the filenames of the process maps displayed in GTop, you need
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to configure with the `--with-libgtop-inodedb' option (you need GDBM
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for this to work).
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You have then to create an inode database which is used to look up
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filenames. This is done using the `mkinodedb' program which comes
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along with libgtop.
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See the file src/inodedb/README for details:
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The `mkinodedb' program which is build in this directory takes two
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command line arguments: the full pathname of the database to be
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created and the name of a configuration file consisting of directory
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and file names each on a line by itself - see `/etc/ld.so.conf' for
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an example.
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Putting a directory name in this file means all regular files found
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in this directory are included in the database, but it will not
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recursively descend into subdirectories (for instance, we want
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everything in `/usr/lib' but not every single file in `/usr/lib/sgml').
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You can also use filenames to include a single file.
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Have fun,
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Martin <martin@home-of-linux.org>
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