Glances is a CLI curses based monitoring tool for GNU/Linux and BSD OS.

Glances uses the PsUtil library to get information from your system.

It is developed in Python.

Packages exist for Arch, Fedora, Redhat, FreeBSD...

Arnaud Hartmann (thanks to him !) maintains a PPA with the latest Glances version:

To install the PPA just enter:

    $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:arnaud-hartmann/glances-dev
    $ sudo apt-get update

Then install Glances:

    $ sudo apt-get install glances

PyPi is an official Python package manager.

You first need to install pypi on your system. For exemple on Debian/Ubuntu:

    $ sudo apt-get install python-pip

Then install the latest Glances version:

    $ sudo pip install glances

Get the latest version:

$ wget https://github.com/downloads/nicolargo/glances/glances-1.4.tar.gz

Glances use a standard GNU style installer:

$ tar zxvf glances-1.4.tar.gz
$ cd glances-1.4
$ sudo python setup.py install

Pre-requisites:

• Python 2.6+ (not tested with Python 3+)

Easy way (that's all folks !):

$ glances.py

By default, stats are refreshed every second, to change this setting, you can use the -t option. For exemple to set the refrech rate to 5 seconds:

$ glances.py -t 5

Importants stats are colored:

• GREEN: stat counter is "OK"
• BLUE: stat counter is "CAREFUL"
• MAGENTA: stat counter is "WARNING"
• RED: stat counter is "CRITICAL"

When Glances is running, you can press:

• 'h' to display an help message whith the keys you can press

• 'a' to set the automatic mode. The processes are sorted automatically

  If CPU > 70%, sort by process "CPU consumption"

  If MEM > 70%, sort by process "memory size"

• 'c' to sort the processes list by CPU consumption

• 'd' Disable or enable the disk IO stats

• 'f' Disable or enable the file system stats

• 'l' Disable or enable the logs

• 'm' to sort the processes list by process size

• 'n' Disable or enable the network interfaces stats

• 'q' Exit

The header shows the Glances version, the host name and the operating system name, version and architecture.

The CPU states are shown as a percentage and for the configured refresh time.

If user|kernel|nice CPU is < 50%, then status is set to "OK".

If user|kernel|nice CPU is > 50%, then status is set to "CAREFUL".

If user|kernel|nice CPU is > 70%, then status is set to "WARNING".

If user|kernel|nice CPU is > 90%, then status is set to "CRITICAL".

On the Nosheep blog, Zach defines the average load: "In short it is the average sum of the number of processes waiting in the run-queue plus the number currently executing over 1, 5, and 15 minute time periods."

Glances gets the number of CPU cores to adapt the alerts. With Glances, alerts on average load are only set on 5 and 15 mins.

If average load is < O.7*Core, then status is set to "OK".

If average load is > O.7*Core, then status is set to "CAREFUL".

If average load is > 1*Core, then status is set to "WARNING".

If average load is > 5*Core, then status is set to "CRITICAL".

Glances uses tree columns: memory (RAM), swap and "real".

Real used memory is: used - cache.

Real free memory is: free + cache.

With Glances, alerts are only set for on used swap and real memory.

If memory is < 50%, then status is set to "OK".

If memory is > 50%, then status is set to "CAREFUL".

If memory is > 70%, then status is set to "WARNING".

If memory is > 90%, then status is set to "CRITICAL".

Glances display the network interface bit rate. The unit is adapted dynamicaly (bits per second, Kbits per second, Mbits per second...).

Alerts are set only if the network interface maximum speed is available.

If bitrate is < 50%, then status is set to "OK".

If bitrate is > 50%, then status is set to "CAREFUL".

If bitrate is > 70%, then status is set to "WARNING".

If bitrate is > 90%, then status is set to "CRITICAL".

For exemple, on a 100 Mbps Ethernet interface, the warning status is set if the bit rate is higher than 70 Mbps.

Glances display the disk I/O throughput. The unit is adapted dynamicaly (bytes per second, Kbytes per second, Mbytes per second...).

There is no alert on this information.

Glances display the total and used filesytem disk space. The unit is adapted dynamicaly (bytes per second, Kbytes per second, Mbytes per second...).

Alerts are set for used disk space:

If disk used is < 50%, then status is set to "OK".

If disk used is > 50%, then status is set to "CAREFUL".

If disk used is > 70%, then status is set to "WARNING".

If disk used is > 90%, then status is set to "CRITICAL".

Glances displays a summary and a list of processes.

By default (or if you hit the 'a' key) the process list is automaticaly sorted by CPU of memory consumption.

The number of processes in the list is adapted to the screen size.

A logs list is displayed in the bottom of the screen if (an only if):

• at least one WARNING or CRITICAL alert was occured.
• space is available in the bottom of the console/terminal

There is one line per alert with the following information:

• start date
• end date
• alert name
• (min/avg/max) values

Glances displays a caption and the current time/date.

To generate french locale execute as root or sudo : i18n_francais_generate.sh

To generate spanish locale execute as root or sudo : i18n_espanol_generate.sh

You are welcome to contribute to this software.

• Packaging for Debian, Ubuntu, BSD...
• Check the needed Python library in the configure.ac
• Add file system stats when the python-statgrab is corrected