Introduction to btop++
Overview
btop++ is a cross-platform system resource monitor that provides real-time statistics on processor, memory, disk, network, and process usage. Serving as a C++ continuation of previous projects, bashtop and bpytop, btop++ aims to deliver an efficient and user-friendly experience for system monitoring on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and other BSD variants.
Latest Updates
The development of btop++ has been active, with several significant updates:
- September 2024: Version 1.4.0 was released, adding support for Intel GPUs and NetBSD.
- January 2024: Version 1.3.0 brought GPU support for Linux and extended compatibility to OpenBSD.
These updates are a testament to the ongoing efforts to enhance the tool's functionality and platform compatibility.
Key Features
btop++ boasts a plethora of features designed to enhance the system monitoring experience:
- User-friendly Interface: Offers a game-inspired menu system, complete with full mouse support and intuitive process selection using keyboard keys.
- Detailed Process Insights: Allows users to view detailed statistics for selected processes, filter and sort processes easily, and explore processes in a tree view.
- Comprehensive Stats: Displays graphs for network usage, IO activity for disks, and a battery meter. Users can also customize graph symbols.
- Configurable: Provides a user-interface menu to change configuration options and the ability to create custom presets.
Visual Appeal with Themes
btop++ supports the theme files from its predecessors, bpytop and bashtop. Users can expand the visual appeal by selecting from a variety of available themes or creating new ones. Theme files are conveniently stored in configurable directories, allowing users to personalize the appearance to their liking.
Platform Support & Prerequisites
btop++ is crafted to run on a variety of platforms, including Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. For seamless operation, the software requires a terminal with truecolor support, a UTF8 locale, and appropriate fonts. Optional dependencies are needed for GPU monitoring, particularly for NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel GPUs on Linux.
Installation and Compilation
The installation process for btop++ is straightforward, with options available for binary and manual compilation across different operating systems. Here's a brief outlook on how to get started:
Binary Installation
- Pre-compiled binaries are available for various architectures and platforms. Installation is as straightforward as downloading and unpacking the tarball from the latest release.
From Source
- Compilation from source requires CMake and a modern compiler like GCC 10+ or Clang 16+. Detailed instructions are available for setting up the environment and building the project using make or CMake.
GPU Compatibility
NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel GPU users can take full advantage of btop++'s monitoring capabilities, provided the correct drivers and libraries are installed. GPU support details are laid out for compiling the project with necessary flags to enable hardware-specific features.
Contribution and Support
The btop++ project welcomes contributions from developers in various forms, including code contributions, theme creation, and financial support. Users can sponsor the project through GitHub or donate via PayPal and Ko-fi. All forms of support are appreciated to drive further development and expansion.
btop++ stands as a powerful and evolving tool for system monitoring, integrating community feedback and contributions to advance its capabilities across operating systems.