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GLANCES(1) Glances GLANCES(1)

NAME

glances - An eye on your system

SYNOPSIS

glances [OPTIONS]

DESCRIPTION

glances is a cross-platform curses-based monitoring tool which aims to present a maximum of information in a minimum of space, ideally to fit in a classical 80x24 terminal or higher to have additional information. It can adapt dynamically the displayed information depending on the terminal size. It can also work in client/server mode. Remote monitoring could be done via terminal or web interface.

glances is written in Python and uses the psutil library to get information from your system.

OPTIONS

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

show this help message and exit

show program’s version number and exit

enable debug mode

path to the configuration file

display modules (plugins & exports) list and exit

disable PLUGIN (comma separated list)

enable PLUGIN (comma separated list)

display stats to stdout (comma separated list of plugins/plugins.attribute)

enable EXPORT module (comma separated list)

file path for CSV exporter

file path for JSON exporter

disable process module (reduce Glances CPU consumption)

disable the Web UI (only the RESTful API will respond)

light mode for Curses UI (disable all but top menu)

-0, --disable-irix
task’s CPU usage will be divided by the total number of CPUs

-1, --percpu
start Glances in per CPU mode

-2, --disable-left-sidebar
disable network, disk I/O, FS and sensors modules

-3, --disable-quicklook
disable quick look module

-4, --full-quicklook
disable all but quick look and load

-5, --disable-top
disable top menu (QuickLook, CPU, MEM, SWAP and LOAD)

-6, --meangpu
start Glances in mean GPU mode

enable the history mode

disable bold mode in the terminal

disable background colors in the terminal

enable extended stats on top process

connect to a Glances server by IPv4/IPv6 address, hostname or hostname:port

run Glances in server mode

start the client browser (list of servers)

disable autodiscover feature

define the client/server TCP port [default: 61209]

bind server to the given IPv4/IPv6 address or hostname

define a client/server username

define a client/server password

SNMP community

SNMP port

SNMP version (1, 2c or 3)

SNMP username (only for SNMPv3)

SNMP authentication key (only for SNMPv3)

force SNMP mode

set refresh time in seconds [default: 3 sec]

run Glances in web server mode (bottle lib needed)

set the server cache time [default: 1 sec]

try to open the Web UI in the default Web browser

do not display the curses interface

set the process filter pattern (regular expression)

force short name for processes name

hide kernel threads in process list (not available on Windows)

display network rate in byte per second

show RAM FS in the DiskIO plugin

show I/O per second in the DiskIO plugin

display temperature in Fahrenheit (default is Celsius)

display FS free space instead of used

optimize display colors for white background

disable online Glances version ckeck

INTERACTIVE COMMANDS

The following commands (key pressed) are supported while in Glances:

Set the process filter

NOTE:

On macOS please use CTRL-H to delete filter.


Filter is a regular expression pattern:

  • gnome: matches all processes starting with the gnome string
  • .*gnome.*: matches all processes containing the gnome string

Sort process list automatically
  • If CPU >70%, sort processes by CPU usage
  • If MEM >70%, sort processes by MEM usage
  • If CPU iowait >60%, sort processes by I/O read and write

Enable/disable Application Monitoring Process
Switch between bit/s or Byte/s for network I/O
View disk I/O counters per second
Sort processes by CPU usage
Enable/disable cloud stats
Show/hide disk I/O stats
Enable/disable Docker stats
Enable/disable top extended stats
Erase current process filter
Show/hide file system and folder monitoring stats
Switch between file system used and free space
Generate graphs for current history
Enable/disable GPU stats
Show/hide the help screen
Sort processes by I/O rate
Show/hide IP module
Kill selected process
Show/hide TCP connections
Show/hide log messages
Sort processes by MEM usage
Reset processes summary min/max
Show/hide network stats
Show/hide current time
Sort processes by name
Enable/Disable ports stats
Quit the current Glances session
Show/hide IRQ module
Reset history
Show/hide RAID plugin
Show/hide sensors stats
Enable/disable spark lines
Sort process by CPU times (TIME+)
View network I/O as combination
Sort processes by USER
View cumulative network I/O
Delete finished warning log messages
Show/hide Wifi module
Delete finished warning and critical log messages
Show/hide processes stats
0
Enable/disable Irix/Solaris mode

Task’s CPU usage will be divided by the total number of CPUs

1
Switch between global CPU and per-CPU stats
2
Enable/disable left sidebar
3
Enable/disable the quick look module
4
Enable/disable all but quick look and load module
5
Enable/disable top menu (QuickLook, CPU, MEM, SWAP and LOAD)
6
Enable/disable mean GPU mode
9
Switch UI theme between black and white
/
Switch between process command line or command name
Refresh stats in curses user interface
Navigation leff through process sort
Navigation right through process sort
Up in the processes list
Down in the processes list

In the Glances client browser (accessible through the --browser command line argument):

Run the selected server
Up in the servers list
Down in the servers list
Quit Glances

CONFIGURATION

No configuration file is mandatory to use Glances.

Furthermore a configuration file is needed to access more settings.

LOCATION

NOTE:

A template is available in the /usr{,/local}/share/doc/glances (Unix-like) directory or directly on GitHub.


You can put your own glances.conf file in the following locations:

Linux, SunOS ~/.config/glances/, /etc/glances/, /usr/share/docs/glances/
*BSD ~/.config/glances/, /usr/local/etc/glances/, /usr/share/docs/glances/
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/glances/, /usr/local/etc/glances/, /usr/share/docs/glances/
Windows %APPDATA%\glancesglances.conf
  • On Windows XP, %APPDATA% is: C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data.
  • On Windows Vista and later: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming.

User-specific options override system-wide options and options given on the command line override either.

SYNTAX

Glances reads configuration files in the ini syntax.

A first section (called global) is available:

[global]
# Refresh rate (default is a minimum of 2 seconds)
# Can be overwrite by the -t <sec> option
# It is also possible to overwrite it in each plugin sections
refresh=2
# Does Glances should check if a newer version is available on PyPI ?
check_update=false
# History size (maximum number of values)
# Default is 28800: 1 day with 1 point every 3 seconds
history_size=28800


Each plugin, export module and application monitoring process (AMP) can have a section. Below an example for the CPU plugin:

[cpu]
disable=False
refresh=3
user_careful=50
user_warning=70
user_critical=90
iowait_careful=50
iowait_warning=70
iowait_critical=90
system_careful=50
system_warning=70
system_critical=90
steal_careful=50
steal_warning=70
steal_critical=90


an InfluxDB export module:

[influxdb]
# Configuration for the --export influxdb option
# https://influxdb.com/
host=localhost
port=8086
user=root
password=root
db=glances
prefix=localhost
#tags=foo:bar,spam:eggs


or a Nginx AMP:

[amp_nginx]
# Nginx status page should be enable (https://easyengine.io/tutorials/nginx/status-page/)
enable=true
regex=\/usr\/sbin\/nginx
refresh=60
one_line=false
status_url=http://localhost/nginx_status


With Glances 3.0 or higher it is also possible to use dynamic configuration value using system command. For example, if you to set the prefix of an InfluxDB export to the current hostname, use:

[influxdb]
...
prefix=`hostname`


Or if you want to add the Operating System name as a tag:

[influxdb]
...
tags=system:`uname -a`


LOGGING

Glances logs all of its internal messages to a log file.

DEBUG messages can been logged using the -d option on the command line.

The location of the Glances depends of your operating system. You could displayed the Glances log file full path using the``glances -V`` command line.

The file is automatically rotate when the size is higher than 1 MB.

If you want to use another system path or change the log message, you can use your own logger configuration. First of all, you have to create a glances.json file with, for example, the following content (JSON format):

{


    "version": 1,


    "disable_existing_loggers": "False",


    "root": {


        "level": "INFO",


        "handlers": ["file", "console"]


    },


    "formatters": {


        "standard": {


            "format": "%(asctime)s -- %(levelname)s -- %(message)s"


        },


        "short": {


            "format": "%(levelname)s: %(message)s"


        },


        "free": {


            "format": "%(message)s"


        }


    },


    "handlers": {


        "file": {


            "level": "DEBUG",


            "class": "logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler",


            "formatter": "standard",


            "filename": "/var/tmp/glances.log"


        },


        "console": {


            "level": "CRITICAL",


            "class": "logging.StreamHandler",


            "formatter": "free"


        }


    },


    "loggers": {


        "debug": {


            "handlers": ["file", "console"],


            "level": "DEBUG"


        },


        "verbose": {


            "handlers": ["file", "console"],


            "level": "INFO"


        },


        "standard": {


            "handlers": ["file"],


            "level": "INFO"


        },


        "requests": {


            "handlers": ["file", "console"],


            "level": "ERROR"


        },


        "elasticsearch": {


            "handlers": ["file", "console"],


            "level": "ERROR"


        },


        "elasticsearch.trace": {


            "handlers": ["file", "console"],


            "level": "ERROR"


        }


    }
}


and start Glances using the following command line:

LOG_CFG=<path>/glances.json glances


NOTE:

Replace <path> by the folder where your glances.json file is hosted.


EXAMPLES

Monitor local machine (standalone mode):

$ glances


Monitor local machine with the web interface (Web UI), run the following command line:

$ glances -w


and open a Web browser with the returned URL

Monitor local machine and export stats to a CSV file:

$ glances –export csv –export-csv-file /tmp/glances.csv


Monitor local machine and export stats to a InfluxDB server with 5s refresh time (also possible to export to OpenTSDB, Cassandra, Statsd, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ and Riemann):

$ glances -t 5 –export influxdb


It is also possible to export stats to multiple endpoints:

$ glances -t 5 –export influxdb,statsd,csv


Start a Glances server (server mode):

$ glances -s


Connect Glances to a Glances server (client mode):

$ glances -c <ip_server>


Connect to a Glances server and export stats to a StatsD server:

$ glances -c <ip_server> –export statsd


Start the client browser (browser mode):

$ glances –browser


AUTHOR

Nicolas Hennion aka Nicolargo <contact@nicolargo.com>

COPYRIGHT

2021, Nicolas Hennion

November 22, 2021 3.2.4.2