System resource monitoring with bpytop
Fast and Functional
Linux users have many options for monitoring system resources, but bpytop, a new Python port of bashtop, more than stands out from the crowd.
With a system like Linux, which is available to multiple users at the same time, it is important to keep an eye on the available resources. Is a graphical application running haywire and blocking all of the CPU's cores? Is a user running a computationally intensive script and thus making work agonizingly slow for the server's other users? Has a process gone wild and started to write increasing amounts of corrupted data to the hard disk?
Such questions can be answered by various monitoring tools. The popular distributions typically preinstall Top. The program provides an overview of the active processes and measures both the CPU load and the RAM usage. Htop offers similar functions in a visually appealing format. Other programs display the network load (iftop) or determine which applications or processes cause massive writes to the hard disk (iotop).
Bashtop [1] combines many of these functions in a text-based interface. The program displays the CPU load both numerically and as a pseudographic. It lists the active processes along with their memory and CPU consumption, visualizes the throughput rates of the individual network interfaces, and much more. The program has a downside, however. As the name already suggests, it was programmed completely as a Bash script. This makes further maintenance and development complicated; it also slows down the program. But now there's another option that addresses these issues, because bashtop's developer has released an official Python port of the utility called bpytop [2].
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
News
-
Another New Linux Laptop has Arrived
Slimbook has released a monster of a Linux gaming laptop.
-
Mozilla VPN Now Available for Linux
The promised subscription-based VPN service from Mozilla is now available for the Linux platform.
-
Wayland and New App Menu Coming to KDE
The 2021 roadmap for the KDE desktop environment includes some exciting features and improvements.
-
Deepin 20.1 has Arrived
Debian-based Deepin 20.1 has been released with some interesting new features.
-
CloudLinux Commits Over 1 Million Dollars to CentOS Replacement
An open source, drop-in replacement for CentOS is on its way.
-
Linux Mint 20.1 Beta has Been Released
The first beta of Linux Mint, Ulyssa, is now available for downloading.
-
Manjaro Linux 20.2 has Been Unleashed
The latest iteration of Manjaro Linux has been released with a few interesting new features.
-
Patreon Project Looks to Bring Linux to Apple Silicon
Developer Hector Martin has created a patreon page to fund his work on developing a port of Linux for Apple Silicon Macs.
-
A New Chrome OS-Like Ubuntu Remix is Now Available
Ubuntu Web looks to be your Chrome OS alternative.
-
System76 Refreshes the Galago Pro Laptop
Linux hardware maker has revamped one of their most popular laptops.