Glances : Top/htop Alternative For GNU/Linux, BSD, Mac OS & Windows OS

Glances is a cross-platform monitoring tool which aims to present a large amount of monitoring information through a curses or Web based interface. The information dynamically adapts depending on the size of the user interface.

It can also work in client/server mode. Remote monitoring could be done via terminal, Web interface or API (XML-RPC and RESTful). Stats can also be exported to files or external time/value databases.

It is written in Python and uses libraries to grab information from your system. It is based on an open architecture where developers can add new plugins or exports modules.

Requirements

  • python 2.7,>=3.4
  • psutil>=5.3.0 (better with latest version)

Optional dependencies:

  • bernhard (for the Riemann export module)
  • bottle (for Web server mode)
  • cassandra-driver (for the Cassandra export module)
  • couchdb (for the CouchDB export module)
  • docker (for the Docker monitoring support) [Linux/macOS-only]
  • elasticsearch (for the Elastic Search export module)
  • hddtemp (for HDD temperature monitoring support) [Linux-only]
  • influxdb (for the InfluxDB export module)
  • kafka-python (for the Kafka export module)
  • netifaces (for the IP plugin)
  • nvidia-ml-py3 (for the GPU plugin)
  • pika (for the RabbitMQ/ActiveMQ export module)
  • potsdb (for the OpenTSDB export module)
  • prometheus_client (for the Prometheus export module)
  • py-cpuinfo (for the Quicklook CPU info module)
  • pygal (for the graph export module)
  • pymdstat (for RAID support) [Linux-only]
  • pySMART.smartx (for HDD Smart support) [Linux-only]
  • pysnmp (for SNMP support)
  • pystache (for the action script feature)
  • pyzmq (for the ZeroMQ export module)
  • requests (for the Ports, Cloud plugins and RESTful export module)
  • scandir (for the Folders plugin) [Only for Python < 3.5]
  • statsd (for the StatsD export module)
  • wifi (for the wifi plugin) [Linux-only]
  • zeroconf (for the autodiscover mode)

Note for Python 2.6 users

It no longer supports Python 2.6. Please upgrade to a minimum Python version of 2.7/3.4+ or downgrade to it 2.6.2 (last version with Python 2.6 support).

Note for CentOS Linux 6 and 7 users

Python 2.7 and 3.4 are now available via SCL repositories. See: https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2015-December/021555.html.

Also Read – Custom Header : Automatic Add New Header To Entire BurpSuite HTTP Requests

Installation

There are several methods to test/install it on your system. Choose your weapon!

Auto Install script: the total way

To install both dependencies and the latest to the production ready version (aka master branch), just enter the following command line:

curl -L https://bit.ly/glances | /bin/bash
or
wget -O- https://bit.ly/glances | /bin/bash

Note: This is only supported on some GNU/Linux distributions and Mac OS X. If you want to support other distributions, please contribute to glancesautoinstall.

PyPI: The simple way

It is on PyPI. By using PyPI, you will be using the latest stable version.

To install, simply use pip:

pip install glances

Note: Python headers are required to install psutil. For example, on Debian/Ubuntu you need to install first the python-dev package. For Fedora/CentOS/RHEL install first python-devel package. For Windows, just install psutil from the binary installation file.

Note 2 (for the Wifi plugin): If you want to use the Wifi plugin, you need to install the wireless-tools package on your system.

You can also install the following libraries in order to use optional features (like the Web interface, exports modules…):

pip install ‘glances[action,browser,cloud,cpuinfo,docker,export,folders,gpu,graph,ip,raid,snmp,web,wifi]’

To upgrade it to the latest version:

pip install –upgrade glances
pip install –upgrade glances[…]

If you need to install it in a specific user location, use:

export PYTHONUSERBASE=~/mylocalpath
pip install –user glances

Docker: the funny way

The container is available. It includes the latest development HEAD version. You can use it to monitor your server and all your other containers!

Get the Glances-container:

docker pull nicolargo/glances

Run the container in console mode:

docker run –rm -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro –pid host –network host -it docker.io/nicolargo/glances

Additionally, if you want to use your own glances.conf file, you can create your own Dockerfile:

FROM nicolargo/glances
COPY glances.conf /glances/conf/glances.conf
CMD python -m glances -C /glances/conf/glances.conf $GLANCES_OPT

Alternatively, you can specify something along the same lines with docker run options:

docker run -v `pwd`/glances.conf:/glances/conf/glances.conf -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro –pid host -it docker.io/nicolargo/glances

Where `pwd`/glances.conf is a local directory containing your glances.conf file.

Run the container in Web server mode (notice the GLANCES_OPT environment variable setting parameters for the it to startup command):

docker run -d –restart=”always” -p 61208-61209:61208-61209 -e GLANCES_OPT=”-w” -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro –pid host docker.io/nicolargo/glances

GNU/Linux

It is available on many Linux distributions, so you should be able to install it using your favorite package manager. Be aware that when you use this method the operating system package for it may not be the latest version.

FreeBSD

To install the binary package:

# pkg install py27-glances

To install it from ports:

# cd /usr/ports/sysutils/py-glances/
# make install clean

macOS

If you do not want to use the glancesautoinstall script, follow this procedure.

macOS users can install it using Homebrew or MacPorts.

Homebrew

$ brew install glances

MacPorts

$ sudo port install glances

Windows

Install Python for Windows (Python 2.7.9+ and 3.4+ ship with pip) and then run the following command:

$ pip install glances

Alternatively, you could clone the repository and install with the following command.

$ git clone https://github.com/nicolargo/glances.git
$ cd glances
$ python setup.py install

Android

You need a rooted device and the Termux application (available on the Google Play Store).

Start Termux on your device and enter:

$ apt update
$ apt upgrade
$ apt install clang python python-dev
$ pip install bottle
$ pip install glances

And start it:

$ glances

You can also run it in server mode (-s or -w) in order to remotely monitor your Android device.

Source

To install it from source:

$ wget https://github.com/nicolargo/glances/archive/vX.Y.tar.gz -O – | tar xz
$ cd glances-*
# python setup.py install

Note: Python headers are required to install psutil.

Usage

For the standalone mode, just run:

$ glances

For the Web server mode, run:

$ glances -w

and enter the URL http://<ip>:61208 in your favorite web browser.

For the client/server mode, run:

$ glances -s

on the server side and run:

$ glances -c <ip>

on the client one.

You can also detect and display all it servers available on your network or defined in the configuration file:

$ glances –browser

You can also display raw stats on stdout:

$ glances –stdout cpu.user,mem.used,load
cpu.user: 30.7
mem.used: 3278204928
load: {‘cpucore’: 4, ‘min1’: 0.21, ‘min5’: 0.4, ‘min15’: 0.27}
cpu.user: 3.4 mem.used: 3275251712
load: {‘cpucore’: 4, ‘min1’: 0.19, ‘min5’: 0.39, ‘min15’: 0.27}
…

or in a CSV format thanks to the stdout-csv option:

$ glances –stdout-csv
now,cpu.user,mem.used,load now,cpu.user,mem.used,load.cpucore,load.min1,load.min5,load.min15 2018-12-08 22:04:20 CEST,7.3,5948149760,4,1.04,0.99,1.04
2018-12-08 22:04:23 CEST,5.4,5949136896,4,1.04,0.99,1.04 …

and RTFM, always.

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