The ProcMeter3 Homepage

ProcMeter3

The ProcMeter program itself is a framework on which a number of modules (plugins) are loaded. More modules can be written as required to perform more monitoring and informational functions.

The statistics that are displayed are grouped by module, with a menu allowing selection of module and a sub-menu for each output available for that module.

ACPI
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface information. These outputs are only available if you have enabled ACPI in the Linux kernel and you have the appropriate hardware. ACPI can report various information about a system's battery, and may also have thermal outputs available.
APM
Advanced Power Management information. These outputs are only available if you have configured the kernel to have the APM feature.
Battery
Battery information from /sys/class/power_supply/ which is the new replacement for battery information from ACPI or APM and contains more information about the battery.
Biff
Monitors the e-mail inbox (in /var/spool/mail/username or /var/mail/username) and indicates the number of e-mails that are waiting and the size.
CPUInfo
Information about the CPUs in the system, currently only the CPU speed in MHz.
Date_Time
The current date and time and the amount of time since the system was last booted.
DiskUsage
Shows the percentage of the disk that is used and the amount of free space for each of the local disks that it finds are mounted or can be mounted when the program starts.
FanSpeed
Information from hardware sensors for fan speed (requires libsensors library installed but does read sensors.conf file for system customisation).
LogFile
Monitors the size and number of lines and the rate of increase of these in a set of log files.
Longrun
For systems with the Transmeta Crueso processor, information about longrun. Will not work unless the kernel is compiled with CPUID support, and /dev/cpu/0/cpuid must be readable by procmeter.
Memory
The amount of memory that is used for programs, buffers, cache and the amount that is free.
Network
The network devices and the amount of traffic on each of them. It will automatically pick up available devices when it starts.
ProcMeter
Information about the ProcMeter program itself.
Processes
The load average and the number of processes running and starting.
Sensors
Hardware sensors for temperature and fan speed.
Stat-CPU
Statistics about individual CPU usage including support for SMP machines.
Stat-Disk
Statistics about individual disk usage including support for up to 4 disks.
Stat-Intr
Statistics about individual interrupts including support for up to 32 interrupts.
Statistics
Low level system statistics. For example CPU usage, disk usage, swapping and paging.
Temperature
Information from hardware sensors for temperature (requires libsensors library installed but does read sensors.conf file for system customisation).
Uname
The system information from the uname program, hostname and Linux kernel version.
VM_Statistics
Low level system statistics about virtual memory (swaping and paging) for kernel version 2.5 where the information has moved from the Statistics section.
Voltage
Information from hardware sensors for voltages (requires libsensors library installed but does read sensors.conf file for system customisation).
Wireless
Information about wireless network devices. It will automatically pick up available devices when it starts.
For each of the outputs there is a properties information window that can be used to check the meaning of an output and other properties about it.

Output Formats

New in version 3.6 is the ability to compile with GTK3 instead of GTK2 or GTK1. This brings the total number of available output formats available to six:
  1. Traditional Athena (Xaw) Widgets version.
  2. GTK1 version.
  3. GTK2 version.
  4. GTK3 version.
  5. Non-GUI data-logging version.
  6. Not an X Window system GUI version but using small LCD device with LCDproc server (http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net).

In the graphical versions the main ProcMeter window displays graphs and graphical outputs and can be shown in a horizontal or vertical format.

 The main ProcMeter Window (Athena)   The main ProcMeter Window (GTK1)   The main ProcMeter Window (GTK2)   The main ProcMeter Window (GTK3) 
Athena GTK1 GTK2 GTK3

Version Status

The latest released version is version 3.6.

Recent Changes

The most recent changes in version 3.6 are listed below.
Bug Fixes
Don't package up unused LSM and ANNOUNCE files.
Add "-lX11" to LDFLAGS (fixes Debian bug #556073).
Move installed modules into /usr/lib/ProcMeter3 (fixes Debian bug #651145).
Don't always install the procmeterrc.install file (fixes Debian bug #651149).
Install procmeter.h to /usr/include/ProcMeter3 (fixes Debian bug #651150).
Fix Makefiles to stop linking executables each time make is run.
Don't crash procmeter3-xaw if specified font doesn't exist.
Module bug fixes
Changed wireless module to remove kernel 2.4.x code.
Fixed stat-intr module to not use data from freed memory.
New features
Added GTK3 version.
Draw line in foreground colour between outputs in procmeter3-gtk2.
New modules
Battery - new /sys/class/power_supply/ battery information.

The full version history is in the NEWS file.

Full History

Version 3.6 of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Jan 22 2012

Version 3.5d of ProcMeter3 released on Mon Oct 3 2011
Version 3.5c of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Feb 20 2010
Version 3.5b of ProcMeter3 released on Thu Oct 23 2008
Version 3.5a of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Dec 16 2007
Version 3.5 of ProcMeter3 released on Tue Nov 20 2007

Version 3.4g of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Sep 9 2007
Version 3.4f of ProcMeter3 released on Fri Feb 16 2007
Version 3.4e of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Apr 29 2006
Version 3.4d of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Apr 30 2005
Version 3.4c of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Sep 5 2004
Version 3.4b of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Apr 25 2004
Version 3.4a of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Jun 28 2003
Version 3.4 of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Jan 12 2003

Version 3.3b of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Aug 10 2002
Version 3.3a of ProcMeter3 released on Sun May 27 2001
Version 3.3 of ProcMeter3 released on Fri Jan 5 2001

Version 3.2b of ProcMeter3 released on Wed Dec 13 2000
Version 3.2a of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Oct 22 2000
Version 3.2 of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Dec 12 1999

Version 3.1c of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Aug 22 1999
Version 3.1b of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Jun 19 1999
Version 3.1a of ProcMeter3 released on Sun Apr 18 1999
Version 3.1 of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Mar 6 1999

Version 3.0a of ProcMeter3 released on Sat Oct 24 1998
Version 3.0 of ProcMeter3 released on Fri Oct 09 15:10:00 1998

Download

The source code for the versions listed above are in the download directory.

Subversion

The complete source code history can be browsed in the Subversion viewer which also has a list of the latest changes.

The source code can be downloaded from the Subversion repository with a command like the following:

svn co http://gedanken.org.uk/svn/procmeter3/trunk procmeter3

Release Policy

Before the end of 2012 there was a ProcMeter announcement mailing list which was used to announce new versions. The rate of new releases for this software is very low and the complexity of maintaining the mailing list outweighs the benefit. Starting in 2013 the mailing list has been disabled; no new subscriptions are accepted and no further e-mails will be sent to ex-subscribers.

Starting in 2013 there will be two types of software releases (if needed):

Formal releases which are the traditional method used for this software with version numbers like 3.5d. These will continue to be released when there are major changes or important bug fixes and each release includes full updates for release documentation. For these releases announcements will be made on this web page and with a new file in the download directory which includes an RSS feed for notification of new files.

Informal, intermediate, releases which have not previously been used for this software and will have version numbers like 3.6-svnxyz. These will be used for small bug fixes or minor improvements to functionality. For these releases there will only be the software and directly related documentation changes, not a complete release documentation update. These informal versions will only be available from the download directory and included in the RSS feed found there.

Starting in 2014 there is direct access to the Subversion repository which should remove the need for any intermediate release versions.

Feedback

I am happy to answer questions that you have about the program. Please just drop me an email to the address at the bottom of the page; don't forget to put ProcMeter in the subject so that it ends up in the right mailbox.