btm is a command-line utility that serves as an alternative to the popular “top” command. It aims to provide a lightweight, cross-platform, and more graphical interface for monitoring system resources. With its user-friendly interface, btm offers an improved visual representation of system metrics, making it easier to understand and interpret the data.
One of the primary objectives of btm is to present system information in a more graphical manner compared to the traditional text-based output of the “top” command. It provides various visualizations, such as graphs and charts, to display resource usage and performance statistics. This graphical representation makes it easier to spot trends, identify bottlenecks, and gain insights into system behavior.
btm is designed to be lightweight and efficient, ensuring minimal resource usage while providing real-time system monitoring. It utilizes system APIs and libraries to collect and present data on CPU usage, memory consumption, disk activity, network traffic, and other relevant metrics. By presenting this information in a graphical format, btm offers an intuitive and user-friendly experience for monitoring system performance.
Furthermore, btm is cross-platform, meaning it can be used on different operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. This cross-platform compatibility allows users to monitor system resources consistently across various environments.
To use btm, you typically run it from the command line, and it launches an interactive interface that continuously updates and displays system metrics. The interface is divided into sections, each focusing on a specific aspect of system resource monitoring. For instance, there may be sections dedicated to CPU usage, memory utilization, and disk activity.
You can navigate through the btm interface using keyboard controls, accessing different sections, sorting columns, and adjusting settings as needed. These controls make it easy to interact with the tool and explore the system metrics in real-time.
btm Command Examples
1. Show the default layout (CPU, memory, temperatures, disk, network, and processes):
# btm
2. Enable basic mode, removing charts and condensing data (similar to top):
# btm --basic
3. Use big dots instead of small ones in charts:
# btm --dot_marker
4. Show also battery charge and health status:
# btm --battery
5. Refresh every 250 milliseconds and show the last 30 seconds in the charts:
# btm --rate 250 --default_time_value 30000
Summary
Overall, btm provides a more graphical and user-friendly approach to monitoring system resources compared to the traditional “top” command. It aims to be lightweight, cross-platform, and efficient while offering a range of visualizations to help users understand and analyze system performance.