tdebase/doc/ksysguard/index.docbook

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<book lang="&language;">
<bookinfo>
<title>The &ksysguard; Handbook</title>

<authorgroup>
<author>
&Chris.Schlaeger;&Chris.Schlaeger.mail;
</author>

<othercredit role="developer">
&Chris.Schlaeger;&Chris.Schlaeger.mail;
<!-- <contrib>Developer</contrib> -->
</othercredit>

<othercredit role="developer">
&Tobias.Koenig;&Tobias.Koenig.mail;
<!-- <contrib>Developer</contrib> -->
</othercredit>

<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->

</authorgroup>

<copyright>
<year>2000</year>
<holder>&Chris.Schlaeger;</holder>
</copyright>

<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>

<date>2000-12-14</date>
<releaseinfo>1.00.00</releaseinfo>

<abstract><para>&ksysguard; is a network enabled task manager and system monitor
application, with the additional functionality of
<application>top</application>.</para></abstract> 

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KSysGuard</keyword>
<keyword>process monitor</keyword>
<keyword>top</keyword>
<keyword>ps</keyword>
</keywordset>
</bookinfo>

<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>&ksysguard; is the &kde; Task Manager and Performance Monitor. It features 

a
client/server architecture that allows monitoring of local as well as remote
hosts. The graphical front end uses so-called sensors to retrieve the
information it displays. A sensor can return simple values or more complex
information like tables. For each type of information, one or more displays are
provided. Displays are organized in work sheets that can be saved and loaded
independently from each other. So, &ksysguard; is not only a simple task manager
but also a very powerful tool to control large server farms.</para>

</chapter>


<chapter id="usingtheksysguard">
<title>Using &ksysguard;</title>

<sect1 id="getting-started">
<title>Getting started</title>

<para>&ksysguard; can be started from the start menu, using the entry 
<guimenuitem>KDE System
Guard</guimenuitem> in the <guimenu>Systems</guimenu> menu. Alternatively, you
can start it by typing <command>ksysguard</command> in a terminal.</para>

<para>The &ksysguard; main window consists of a menu bar, an optional tool bar 
and
status bar, the sensor browser and the work space. When first started you see
your local machine listed as <guilabel>localhost</guilabel> in the sensor
browser and 2 pages in the work space area. This is the default setup.</para>

<para>This default setup is sufficient enough for an inexperienced user to do
some system management. An experienced user or even a system administrator of a
large computer lab has different needs. To address a wide range of users, 
&ksysguard;
is highly flexible.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-sensor-browser">
<title>The Sensor Browser</title>

<para>The sensor browser displays the registered hosts and their sensors in a
tree form. Click on the tree handles to open or close a branch. Each sensor
monitors a certain system value.</para>

<sect2 id="connectingtootherhosts">
<title>Connecting to other hosts</title>

<para>To connect to a new host use <guimenuitem>Connect Hosts</guimenuitem>
from the <guimenu>File</guimenu> menu. A dialog box will appear and allows you 
to
enter the name of the host you want to connect to. Below the name you can choose
the connection method. The default is <application>ssh</application>, the secure
shell. Alternatively the <application>rsh</application>, the remote shell, or
the daemon mode can be used. Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to
establish the connection. Shortly afterwards the new host will appear in the
sensor browser and you can browse the list of sensors.</para>

<para>To establish a connection, a program called
<application>ksysguardd</application>, that can be started in the following
two modes, must be installed on the new host.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>daemon mode</term>
<listitem>
<para>You can start <application>ksysguardd</application> at boot time in
<guilabel>Daemon</guilabel> mode by adding <parameter>-d</parameter> as the
argument. In this case, you have to select daemon mode at the connection
dialog of <application>ksysguard</application>.
A disadvantage of this connection type is that you won't be able to kill or
renice a process with the <guilabel>Process Controller</guilabel> and
the data exchange over network won't be encrypted.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>shell mode</term>
<listitem>
<para>In this mode <application>ksysguardd</application> is started at
connecting time by <application>ksysguard</application>. To make that possible,
its location needs to be included in your <envar>PATH</envar>.
Unfortunately the ssh does not source your <filename>.profile</filename> file,
so your regular <envar>PATH</envar> setting will not be available.
Instead it uses a default <envar>PATH</envar> like
<parameter>/bin:/usr/bin</parameter>.
Since it is very likely that &kde; is not installed in these folders you need
to create or update a file in your home folder. The file is called
<filename>environment</filename> and needs to be in a hidden folder called
<filename>.ssh</filename>. See the manual page for
<application>ssh</application> for more details. The file needs to contain a
line similar to:</para>

<screen>
<userinput>PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/opt/kde/bin</userinput>
</screen>

<para>assuming that <application>ksysguardd</application> can be found under
<filename>/opt/kde/bin/ksysguardd</filename>.</para>

<tip><para>When using <application>ssh</application> you should make sure that
you have your <filename>identity.pub</filename> installed on the remote machine
and the host key of the remote machine is already registered on your machine.
The easiest way to check this is to type <command>ssh <option>remotehost
ksysguardd</option></command> in a shell. If you are greeted by
<application>ksysguardd</application> you can type <userinput>quit</userinput>
and everything is in order.</para></tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<note><para>For experts: <application>ksysguardd</application> is a
very small program that is only linked against the libc. So it can
also be used on machines that do not have a full blown &kde;
installed, such as servers. If you choose the custom command option in
the host connector you need to specify the complete command to start
<application>ksysguardd</application>.</para></note>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="disconnecting-hosts">
<title>Disconnecting hosts</title>

<para>To disconnect from a host, select the host in the sensor browser and
choose <guimenuitem>Disconnect Host</guimenuitem> from the
<guimenu>File</guimenu> menu. If you still have sensors in use, the display
frames will be grayed and the displays won't update any longer.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="the-workspace">
<title>The Work Space</title>

<para>The work space is organized as work sheets. Select
<guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>File</guimenu> menu to create a
new work sheet. A dialog will appear where you can set the name, the
dimension and the update interval of the work sheet. To remove a work sheet 
again, select
<guimenuitem>Close</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>File</guimenu> menu. Any
modifications will be saved to the work sheet file. If a work sheet has
never been saved, you will be asked for a file name. Work sheets consist of 
cells
organized as a grid.</para>

<para>Each cell can be filled with a display for one or more sensors. You can
fill a cell by dragging a sensor from the sensor browser and dropping it over
the cell. If there is more than one type of display available for that type
of sensor, a popup menu will appear. You can then select which display you 
prefer
to use. Certain types of displays can display more than one sensor. Add more
sensors to a display by dragging them over from the sensor browser and dropping
them over the already existing display.</para>

<para>Work sheets can be configured by clicking <guimenuitem>Configure Worksheet
</guimenuitem> at the <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> menu. In the appearing dialog
you can set the dimension and the update interval. This update interval is
used by all displays of the worksheet, which has the <guilabel>use update
interval of worksheet</guilabel> set in its timer configuration dialog.</para>

<para>The entry <guimenuitem>Configure Style</guimenuitem> of the
<guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu gives you the possibility to configure the
global style attributes and apply them to the current active worksheet.</para>

<para>Displays can be configured by clicking with the right mouse button on
them. A popup menu appear where you can select whether you want to change the
properties of that display, remove it from the work sheet, change its update
interval type and value or pause and restart its updating.</para>

<sect2 id="signal-plotter">
<title>Signal Plotter</title>

<para>The signal plotter prints samples of one or more sensors over time. If, 
several sensors are displayed, the values are piled in different colors. If
the display is large enough a grid will be displayed to show the range of the
plotted samples. By default, the automatic range mode is active so the minimum
and maximum values will be set automatically. Sometimes you want fixed
minimum and maximum values. In that case, you can deactivate automatic range
mode and set the values in the properties dialog.</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="multimeter">
<title>Multimeter</title>

<para>The multimeter displays the sensor values as a digital meter. In the
properties dialog you can specify a lower and upper limit. If the range
is exceeded, the display is colored in the alarm color.</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="process-controller">
<title>Process Controller</title>

<para>The Process Controller gives you a list of processes on your
system. The list can be sorted by each column. Just press the left
mouse button at the head of the column. </para>

<para>The list shows the following information about each process. Please note
that not all properties are available on every operating system.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Name</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The name of the executable that started the process.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>PID</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The Process <abbrev>ID</abbrev>.  A unique number for each
process.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>PPID</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The Process <abbrev>ID</abbrev> of the process parent.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>UID</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The <abbrev>ID</abbrev> of the user that started the
process.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>GID</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The <abbrev>ID</abbrev> of the group the process
belongs to.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Status</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The process status.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>User%</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The processor load of the process in user space (in percent).</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>System%</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The processor load of the process in system space (in percent).</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Nice</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The scheduling priority.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>VmSize</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The total amount of virtual memory used by the process
(in kBytes).</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>VmRss</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The total amount of physical memory used by the process
(in kBytes).</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Login</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The login name of the user that started the process.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Command</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>The complete start command of the process.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>Underneath the table you find four buttons which will be described now
from left to right.</para>

<sect3 id="the-tree-view">
<title>The <guibutton>Tree</guibutton> View</title>

<para>The tree view has been designed to show the relationships between the
running processes. A process that is started by another process is called the
child of that process. A tree is an elegant way to show this parent-child
relationship. The <emphasis>init</emphasis> process is the ancestor of all
processes.</para>

<para>If you are not interested in the children of a particular process you can
click on the little box to the left of the parent and the subtree will
collapse. Another click on that box will unfold the subtree again.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="the-process-filter">
<title>The Process Filter </title>

<para>The Process Filter can be used to reduce the number of processes displayed
in the table. You can filter out processes you are not interested in. Currently
you can display all processes, system processes only, user processes only or
your processes only.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="therefreshbutton">
<title>The <guibutton>Refresh</guibutton> Button </title>

<para>This button can be used to force an immediate update of the process
list.</para>

</sect3>

<sect3 id="thekillbutton">
<title>The <guibutton>Kill</guibutton> Button </title>

<para>If you have selected one or more processes you can press the kill button
to kill them. A so called <errorcode>SIGKIL</errorcode> is sent to the processes 

which causes them to
terminate immediately. If these applications still have unsaved data this data
will be lost. So use this button with care.</para>

</sect3>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="bargraph">
<title>BarGraph</title>

<para>The bargraph displays the sensor values as dancing bars. In the
properties dialog you can specify minimum and maximum values of range and
a lower and upper limit. If the range is exceeded, the display is
colored in the alarm color.</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="sensorlogger">
<title>Sensor Logger</title>

<para>The sensor logger does not display any values, but logs them in
a file with additional date and time information. For each sensor
you can specify a lower and upper limit in the properties dialog.
If the range is exceeded, the entry of the sensor table is colored in
the alarm color and a <application>knotify</application> event is sent.</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="logfile">
<title>Log File</title>

<para>The log file monitor displays the content of a file &eg; 
<filename>/var/log/messages</filename>.
In the properties dialog, you can compose a list of regular expressions that
will be compared with the content of the file. If one of the expressions match, 
a <application>knotify</application>
event will be sent.
</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="listview">
<title>List View</title>

<para>The listview displays the data of some sensors in the form of a 
table.</para>
</sect2>

</sect1>
</chapter>

<chapter id="multiple-platforms">
<title>Configuring <application>ksysguardd</application></title>

<para>The graphical front-end is available on any platform that &kde; runs
on. The back-end is at the moment available on the following flavors of
&UNIX;:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>&Linux; 2.x</term>
<listitem><para> For <application>ksysguardd</application> to work it
is necessary to compile the &Linux; Kernel
with the <filename>/proc</filename> Filesystem enabled. This is the default
setting and most &Linux; Distributions have it already.</para> </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>FreeBSD</term>
<listitem><para>The <application>ksysguardd</application> program
needs to be owned by the <systemitem
class="groupname">kmem</systemitem> group and needs to have the setgid
bit set.</para></listitem> 
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>&Solaris;</term>
<listitem><para>To be written</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>Support for other platforms is in progress. Your help is greatly
appreciated.</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id="credits-and-licenses">
<title>Credits and Licenses</title>

<para>&ksysguard; is currently developed and maintained by Chris Schl&auml;ger
<email>cs@kde.org</email>. &ksysguard; is a rewrite of
<application>KTop</application>, the KDE 1.x task manager. Several other people
have worked on <application>KTop</application>:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para> A. Sanda <email>alex@darkstar.ping.at</email></para></listitem>
<listitem><para> Ralf Mueller <email>ralf@bj-ig.de</email></para></listitem>
<listitem><para> Bernd Johannes Wuebben
<email>wuebben@math.cornell.edu</email></para></listitem>
<listitem><para> Nicolas Leclercq
<email>nicknet@planete.net</email></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>The porting to other platforms than &Linux; was done by:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para> FreeBSD: Hans Petter Bieker
<email>zerium@traad.lavvu.no</email></para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

&underFDL;
&underGPL;

</chapter>

</book>
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