4.3BSD-UWisc/man/cat1/sysline.1
SYSLINE(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual SYSLINE(1)
NAME
sysline - display system status on status line of a terminal
SYNOPSIS
sysline [ -bcdewhDilmpqrsj ] [ -H remote ] [ +N ]
DESCRIPTION
_S_y_s_l_i_n_e runs in the background and periodically displays
system status information on the status line of the termi-
nal. Not all terminals contain a status line. Those that
do include the h19, concept 108, Ann Arbor Ambassador,
vt100, Televideo 925/950 and Freedom 100. If no flags are
given, _s_y_s_l_i_n_e displays the time of day, the current load
average, the change in load average in the last 5 minutes,
the number of users (followed by a `u'), the number of runn-
able process (followed by a `r')[VAX only], the number of
suspended processes (followed by a `s')[VAX only], and the
users who have logged on and off since the last status
report. Finally, if new mail has arrived, a summary of it
is printed. If there is unread mail in your mailbox, an
asterisk will appear after the display of the number of
users. The display is normally in reverse video (if your
terminal supports this in the status line) and is right jus-
tified to reduce distraction. Every fifth display is done
in normal video to give the screen a chance to rest.
If you have a file named .who in your home directory, then
the contents of that file is printed first. One common use
of this feature is to alias chdir, pushd, and popd to place
the current directory stack in ~/.who after it changes the
new directory.
The following flags may be given on the command line.
-b Beep once every half hour and twice every hour,
just like those obnoxious watches you keep hear-
ing.
-c Clear the status line for 5 seconds before each
redisplay.
-d Debug mode -- print status line data in human
readable format.
-D Print out the current day/date before the time.
-e Print out only the information. Do not print
out the control commands necessary to put the
information on the bottom line. This option is
useful for putting the output of _s_y_s_l_i_n_e onto
the mode line of an emacs window.
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SYSLINE(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual SYSLINE(1)
-w Window mode -- print the status on the current
line of the terminal, suitable for use inside a
one line window.
-H remote Print the load average on the remote host _r_e_m_o_t_e
[VAX only]. If the host is down, or is not
sending out _r_w_h_o_d packets, then the down time is
printed instead. If the prefix "ucb" is
present, then it is removed.
-h Print out the host machine's name after the time
[VAX only].
-l Don't print the names of people who log in and
out.
-m Don't check for mail.
-p Don't report the number of process which are
runnable and suspended.
-r Don't display in reverse video.
+N Update the status line every N seconds. The
default is 60 seconds.
-q Don't print out diagnostic messages if something
goes wrong when starting up.
-i Print out the process id of the _s_y_s_l_i_n_e process
onto standard output upon startup. With this
information you can send the alarm signal to the
_s_y_s_l_i_n_e process to cause it to update immedi-
ately. _s_y_s_l_i_n_e writes to the standard error, so
you can redirect the standard output into a file
to catch the process id.
-s Print "short" form of line by left-justifying
_i_f_f escapes are not allowed in the status line.
Some terminals (the Televideos and Freedom 100
for example) do not allow cursor movement (or
other "intelligent" operations) in the status
line. For these terminals, _s_y_s_l_i_n_e normally
uses blanks to cause right-justification. This
flag will disable the adding of the blanks.
-j Force the sysline output to be left justified
even on terminals capable of cursor movement on
the status line.
If you have a file .syslinelock in your home directory, then
_s_y_s_l_i_n_e will not update its statistics and write on your
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SYSLINE(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual SYSLINE(1)
screen, it will just go to sleep for a minute. This is use-
ful if you want to momentarily disable _s_y_s_l_i_n_e. Note that it
may take a few seconds from the time the lock file is
created until you are guaranteed that _s_y_s_l_i_n_e will not write
on the screen.
FILES
/etc/utmp names of people who are logged in
/dev/kmem contains process table [VAX only]
/usr/spool/rwho/whod.* who/uptime information for remote hosts [VAX only]
${HOME}/.who information to print on bottom line
${HOME}/.syslinelock when it exists, sysline will not print
AUTHORS
John Foderaro
Tom Ferrin converted it to use termcap.
Mark Horton added terminfo capability.
BUGS
If you interrupt the display then you may find your cursor
missing or stuck on the status line. The best thing to do
is reset the terminal.
If there is too much for one line, the excess is thrown
away.
Printed 12/27/86 June 5, 1986 3