| rev |
line source |
|
pascal@25446
|
1 Ftop is to files what top is to processes. The progress of all open files and
|
|
pascal@25446
|
2 file systems can be monitored. If run as a regular user, the set of open files
|
|
pascal@25446
|
3 will be limited to those in that user's processes (which is generally all that
|
|
pascal@25446
|
4 is of interest to the user). In any case, the selection of which files to
|
|
pascal@25446
|
5 display is possible through a wide assortment of options. As with top, the
|
|
pascal@25446
|
6 items are displayed in order from most to least active.
|
|
pascal@25446
|
7
|
|
pascal@25446
|
8 The interface extends beyond the traditional capabilities and expectations of
|
|
pascal@25446
|
9 console applications. For instance, ftop supports two output modes, full (using
|
|
pascal@25446
|
10 ncurses) and limited (simple plain text). The output mode can be specified at
|
|
pascal@25446
|
11 invocation, or changed dynamically as the program runs. Limited output mode is
|
|
pascal@25446
|
12 well suited for piping into other utilities (such as grep or sed) or simply for
|
|
pascal@25446
|
13 redirecting into a file. Full output mode is much more visually appealing and
|
|
pascal@25446
|
14 contains a few more features. Keyboard control and interaction is not limited
|
|
pascal@25446
|
15 to full output mode; it is also available in limited output mode.
|
|
pascal@25446
|
16
|
|
pascal@25446
|
17 As another unique usability feature, the command line options for ftop exactly
|
|
pascal@25446
|
18 match the run-time keyboard commands. In other words, the '-p' command line
|
|
pascal@25446
|
19 option can be used to specify a list of processes at invocation, and while ftop
|
|
pascal@25446
|
20 is running, 'p' can be pressed to modify the list. As another example, '-h'
|
|
pascal@25446
|
21 will show the help screen when ftop starts, or 'h' can be pressed at any time
|
|
pascal@25446
|
22 afterward to show the help screen. This commonality exists for every
|
|
pascal@25446
|
23 configuration option. And the current value for all options can be viewed at a
|
|
pascal@25446
|
24 glance in the options screen.
|
|
pascal@25446
|
25
|
|
pascal@25446
|
26 Finally, ftop can also be easily configured to display additional files that
|
|
pascal@25446
|
27 are not currently open by any local processes, and file system usage. If an NFS
|
|
pascal@25446
|
28 client is writing a file on a local export, that file may not be open by any
|
|
pascal@25446
|
29 local process, so the additional files feature is used to display those files.
|
|
pascal@25446
|
30 One or more file systems can be monitored if many files are being created, for
|
|
pascal@25446
|
31 instance while restoring from a backup or extracting a large archive.
|
|
pascal@25446
|
32
|
|
pascal@25446
|
33 Ftop has many more features than those described here. Detailed online help
|
|
pascal@25446
|
34 describes all available functionality, and provides examples of some of the
|
|
pascal@25446
|
35 interesting ways in which ftop can be used.
|
|
pascal@25446
|
36
|
|
pascal@25446
|
37 Ftop currently makes use of the entries for each process in /proc/PID/fdinfo/
|
|
pascal@25446
|
38 to determine the file position and other details.
|