ttyplot

a realtime plotting utility for text mode consoles and terminals with data input from stdin / pipe

takes data from standard input / unix pipeline, most commonly some tool like ping, snmpget, netstat, ip link, ifconfig, sar, vmstat, etc. and plots in text mode on a terminal in real time, for example a simple ping:

   

supports rate calculation for counters and up to two graphs on a single display using reverse video for second line, for example snmpget, ip link, rrdtool, etc:

   

get

<a href="https://repology.org/project/ttyplot/versions"> <img src="https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/ttyplot.svg" alt="Packaging status" align="right"> </a>

ubuntu

snap install ttyplot

debian

apt install ttyplot

alternatively download | tracker

gentoo

emerge -av app-admin/ttyplot

macOS

brew install ttyplot

termux

pkg install ttyplot

FreeBSD

pkg install ttyplot

misc

for other platforms see releases tab, also older versions

examples

note: the examples provided are not meant to be exhaustive or even fully working in every case, just some ideas to expand on

cpu usage from vmstat using awk to pick the right column

fflush() is needed to disable stdio buffering

vmstat -n 1 | gawk '{ print 100-int($(NF-2)); fflush(); }' | ttyplot -s 100 -t "CPU Usage" -u "%"

memory usage on Linux using free, grep, tr and cut

stdbuf is used to disable stdio buffering throughout the pipeline

free -m -s 1 | stdbuf -o0 grep "^Mem:" | stdbuf -o0 tr -s " " | stdbuf -o0 cut -d" " -f3 | ttyplot -t "MEM Usage" -u "MB"

memory usage on macOS

vm_stat 1 | awk '{ print int($2)*4096/1024^3; fflush(); }' | ttyplot -t "MacOS Memory Usage" -u GB

number of processes in running and io blocked state

vmstat -n 1 | perl -lane 'BEGIN{$|=1} print "@F[0,1]"' | ttyplot -2 -t "procs in R and D state"

load average via uptime and awk

{ while true; do uptime | gawk '{ gsub(/,/, ""); print $(NF-2) }'; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -t "load average" -s load

ping plot with sed

on macOS change -u to -l

ping 8.8.8.8 | sed -u 's/^.*time=//g; s/ ms//g' | ttyplot -t "ping to 8.8.8.8" -u ms

wifi signal level in -dBM (higher is worse) using iwconfig

{ while true; do iwconfig 2>/dev/null | grep "Signal level" | sed -u 's/^.*Signal level=-//g; s/dBm//g'; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -t "wifi signal" -u "-dBm" -s 90

wifi signal on macOS

{ while true; do /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport --getinfo | awk '/agrCtlRSSI/ {print -$2; fflush();}'; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -t "wifi signal" -u "-dBm" -s 90

cpu temperature from proc

{ while true; do awk '{ printf("%.1f\n", $1/1000) }' /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -t "cpu temp" -u C

fan speed from lm-sensors using grep, tr and cut

{ while true; do sensors | grep fan1: | tr -s " " | cut -d" " -f2; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -t "fan speed" -u RPM

memory usage from rrdtool and collectd using awk

{ while true; do rrdtool lastupdate /var/lib/collectd/rrd/$(hostname)/memory/memory-used.rrd | awk 'END { print ($NF)/1024/1024 }'; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -m $(awk '/MemTotal/ { print ($2)/1024 }' /proc/meminfo) -t "Memoru Used" -u MB

bitcoin price chart using curl and jq

{ while true; do curl -sL https://api.coindesk.com/v1/bpi/currentprice.json  | jq .bpi.USD.rate_float; sleep 600; done } | ttyplot -t "bitcoin price" -u usd

stock quote chart

{ while true; do curl -sL https://api.iextrading.com/1.0/stock/googl/price; echo; sleep 600; done } | ttyplot -t "google stock price" -u usd

prometheus load average via node_exporter

{ while true; do curl -s  http://10.4.7.180:9100/metrics | grep "^node_load1 " | cut -d" " -f2; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot

   

network/disk throughput examples

ttyplot supports "two line" plot for in/out or read/write

snmp network throughput for an interface using snmpdelta

snmpdelta -v 2c -c public -Cp 10 10.23.73.254 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.{10,16}.9 | gawk '{ print $NF/1000/1000/10; fflush(); }' | ttyplot -2 -t "interface 9 throughput" -u Mb/s

network throughput for an interface using netstat (OpenBSD, FreeBSD)

netstat -b -w ${1} -I em0 | awk 'NR>3 { print $1/1024; print $2/1024; fflush }' | ttyplot -2 -t "IN/OUT Bandwidth in KB/s (${1}s resolution)" -u "KB/s" -c "#"

local network throughput for all interfaces combined from sar

sar  -n DEV 1 | gawk '{ if($6 ~ /rxkB/) { print iin/1000; print out/1000; iin=0; out=0; fflush(); } iin=iin+$6; out=out+$7; }' | ttyplot -2 -u "MB/s"

disk throughput from iostat

iostat -xmy 1 nvme0n1 | stdbuf -o0 tr -s " " | stdbuf -o0 cut -d " " -f 4,5 | ttyplot -2 -t "nvme0n1 throughput" -u MB/s

   

rate calculator for counters

ttyplot also supports counter style metrics, calculating rate by measured time difference between samples

snmp network throughput for an interface using snmpget

{ while true; do snmpget -v 2c -c public 10.23.73.254 1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.{10,16}.9 | awk '{ print $NF/1000/1000; }'; sleep 10; done } | ttyplot -2 -r -u "MB/s"

local interface throughput using ip link and jq

{ while true; do ip -s -j link show enp0s31f6 | jq .[].stats64.rx.bytes/1024/1024,.[].stats64.tx.bytes/1024/1024; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -r -2 -u "MB/s"

prometheus node exporter disk throughput for /dev/sda

{ while true; do curl -s http://10.11.0.173:9100/metrics | awk '/^node_disk_.+_bytes_total{device="sda"}/ { printf("%f\n", $2/1024/1024); }'; sleep 1; done } | ttyplot -r -2 -u MB/s -t "10.11.0.173 sda writes"

using colors for different elements

ping 8.8.8.8 | sed -u 's/^.*time=//g; s/ ms//g' | ttyplot -t "ping to 8.8.8.8" -u ms -C 2,3,4,5

This example sets color 2 (green) for the plot line, color 3 (yellow) for the axes, color 4 (blue) for the text, and color 5 (magenta) for the title and messages.

network throughput from collectd with rrdtool and awk

{ while true; do rrdtool lastupdate /var/lib/collectd/rrd/$(hostname)/interface-enp1s0/if_octets.rrd | awk 'END { print ($2)/1000/1000, ($3)/1000/1000 }'; sleep 10; done } | ttyplot -2 -r -t "enp1s0 throughput" -u MB/s

   

flags

  ttyplot [-2] [-r] [-c plotchar] [-s scale] [-m max] [-M min] [-t title] [-u unit]
  ttyplot -h
  ttyplot -v

  -2 read two values and draw two plots, the second one is in reverse video
  -r rate of a counter (divide value by measured sample interval)
  -c character to use for plot line, eg @ # % . etc
  -e character to use for error line when value exceeds hardmax (default: e)
  -E character to use for error symbol displayed when value is less than hardmin (default: v)
  -s initial scale of the plot (can go above if data input has larger value)
  -m maximum value, if exceeded draws error line (see -e), upper-limit of plot scale is fixed
  -M minimum value, if entered less than this, draws error symbol (see -E), lower-limit of the plot scale is fixed
  -t title of the plot
  -u unit displayed beside vertical bar
  -C color[,axes,text,title,max_err,min_err]  set colors (0-7) for elements:
     First value: plot line color
     Second value: axes color (optional)
     Third value: text color (optional)
     Fourth value: title color (optional)
     Fifth value: max error indicator color (optional)
     Sixth value: min error indicator color (optional)
     Example: -C 1,2,3,4,5,6 or -C 1,2 or -C 1
     Predefined color schemes:
       -C dark1    Blue-cyan-yellow scheme for dark terminals
       -C dark2    Purple-yellow-green scheme for dark terminals
       -C light1   Green-blue-red scheme for light terminals
       -C light2   Blue-green-yellow scheme for light terminals
     Colors: 0=black, 1=red, 2=green, 3=yellow, 4=blue, 5=magenta, 6=cyan, 7=white
  -v print the current version and exit
  -h print this help message and exit

   

key bindings

when reading data from a pipe, ttyplot accepts the following commands typed at the terminal:

  q  quit
  r  toggle rate mode
 ^L  full screen redraw

these commands do not work if the standard input is a terminal: in this case quit with <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>-<kbd>C</kbd>.

   

frequently questioned answers

ttyplot quits when there is no more data

UPDATE as of version 1.5 ttyplot will print "input stream closed" and wait forever, instead of quititing.

this is by design; your problem is likely that the output is lost (terminal erased) when ttyplot exits; this is explained in the next question below

you can also simply work around it, by adding sleep, read, cat at the end of the stream:

{ echo 1 2 3; cat; } | ttyplot

ttyplot erases screen when exiting

this is because of alternate screen in terminals based on xterm; if you use one of these this will likely work around it:

echo 1 2 3 | TERM=vt100 ttyplot

you can also permanently fix terminfo entry (this will make a copy in $HOME/.terminfo/):

infocmp -I $TERM | sed -e 's/smcup=[^,]*,//g' -e 's/rmcup=[^,]*,//g' | tic -

when running interactively and non-numeric data is entered (eg. some key) ttyplot hangs

press ctrl^j to re-set

stdio buffering

by default in unix stdio is buffered, you can work around it in various ways also [this](https://g