93 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
93 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>Gmemusage LG #25</title>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H2>Gmemusage: A Distinctive Memory Monitor</H2>
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<h4>By <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
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<p>Linux may not have many office-suites available, but it sure does have a
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wide variety of system, process, and memory monitors! I use ProcMeter quite a
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bit, mainly for the incoming and outgoing TCPIP packet display, but recently I
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happened upon an unusual memory monitor which displays the relative
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proportions of memory in use by running processes. Gmemusage is a small X
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application written by Raju Mathur. He has been attempting to emulate a
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monitor (also called gmemusage) which is used on Silicon Graphics
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workstations.
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<center><h3>Features</h3></center>
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<p>Here is a screenshot, which will save me several paragraphs of description:
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<br>
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<p><center><img alt="Gmemusage window" src="./gx/ayers/gmem.gif"></center>
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<p>As with many other such monitors, the information shown is essentially the
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same as what is shown in the memory fields produced by <code>ps
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-aux</code>, which derives its information from pseudo-files in the /proc
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directory. These files, such as <i>meminfo</i> and <i>loadavg</i>, are
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generated dynamically by the kernel. You can read them directly, by running a
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command such as <kbd>cat /proc/meminfo</kbd>.
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<p>Although a plethora of information is presented by the output of
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<kbd>ps -aux</kbd> or <kbd>top</kbd>, more detail is shown than is
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needed for a quick overview and comparison, and tabular data doesn't easily
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lend itself to comparative analysis. You won't see precise differences
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between memory usage while contemplating a gmemusage display, but the
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proportions are shown in a graphical and easily interpreted format. In most
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cases the relative proportions are more useful than the decimally exact detail
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shown by <kbd>ps</kbd> or <kbd>top</kbd>.
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<p>Raju Mathur has plans to enhance gmemusage. One possibility (mentioned in
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his TODO file) is to add a pop-up window which would give
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additional information about a process when its name in the main display is
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selected with the mouse.
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<p>I like this small utility, partly because it diverges from the usual
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dynamic bar-chart display found in many memory monitors, and also because it
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is small and specialized. You don't have to spend time configuring it either;
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it works well "out of the box". If you would like to try it, the source
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archive is available at the gmemusage home WWW
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<a href="http://reality.sgi.com/raju/software">site.</a>
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<!-- hhmts start -->
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Last modified: Sat 31 Jan 1998
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<!-- hhmts end -->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 25 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, February 1998</H5></center>
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