4 ms·

mactop

106 points by CharlesW 2y ago

KRAKRISMOTT 2y ago
The sudo permission should be added by brew at install time (see how the dotnet SDK handles installation on macs), it's poor ergonomics to have to invoke it manually.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  The sudo is for the runtime permissions, not the installation, of the program. dotnet requires (does it? it's been a while since I touched it but I vaguely recall this) sudo for installation, but not for execution.
  - jasomill 2y ago
    Regarding .NET: • .NET installers install to systemwide locations and therefore typically require elevated privileges. • Microsoft supplies both install scripts (dotnet-install) and .tar.gz/.zip archives to support unprivileged installation to arbitrary locations on all supported platforms. • The SDK and self-contained .NET executables run from anywhere, but certain SDK functionality may require elevated privileges on some platforms (e.g., installing a trusted self-signed developer certificate). • Framework-dependent executables use the DOTNET_ROOT environment variable to locate runtime components installed in a non-default location.
- jfjaksk 2y ago
  poor ergnomics? yes? but u know what's worse? setuid root executables.
- valbaca 2y ago
  it's the same for htop
nunez 2y ago
This is awesome!
ncr100 2y ago
Pretty. Top is such a useful sysadmin command for high level sys info, and the new Macs are so quiet I rarely know if a processes has gone out of control, this will be a fun way to investigate that.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Purely subjective of course, but is this prettier than htop in your opinion? I actually felt like it was pretty typical if not a tad ugly, mainly because the color bars seem way to vertically long (i.e. tall/high) to me. It does convey information at a glance, but less vertical space would be an improvement IMHO. I do like the colors chosen though.
  - Levitating 2y ago
    My honest first impression was that it's kind of ugly... It also doesn't seem to have a process list?? For a traditional process viewer I'd use htop and for a more complicated TUI ill use btop.
viraptor 2y ago
You can get most of the info also on btop (https://github.com/aristocratos/btop https://github.com/aristocratos/btop), just without the ANE and annotating the cores. It's cross platform though.
GregorBrandt 2y ago
CPU usages seems very very high for this.
- carsenk 2y ago
  Resolved in latest update
jonhohle 2y ago
Shameless self promotion: If you’re interested in high level disk activity with the feel of old school blinking lights, check out DriveLight[0]. 0 - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drivelight/id6446650999 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drivelight/id6446650999
- carsenk 2y ago
  Hahaha, I actually didn't post this, but thank you to whoever did! mactop ftw!
electroly 2y ago
Very nice, an instant addition to my $PATH. In particular I like having the ANE usage displayed, as this is typically invisible in other top-like tools.
- electroly 2y ago
  I gave it a try for the past few hours on a worker Mac and it's nice, but its own CPU usage is very high and proportional to the size of the terminal. With a fullscreen terminal (271x63 for me) it pegs an entire CPU continuously.
a_subsystem 2y ago
Nice. Similar to asitop, but looks a little more feature full.
arprocter 2y ago
Tried to install via brew on an M2 and got: mactop: The arm64 architecture is required for this software. Error: mactop: An unsatisfied requirement failed this build.
- stereo 2y ago
  Is your homebrew still running as intel under Rosetta?
  - arprocter 2y ago
    Ah - that could be it. I did use Time Machine from an Intel iMac to set up this up
  - arprocter 2y ago
    Thanks - that got it. I followed the steps to uninstall and reinstall, but it didn't work until I manually added this to ~/.bash_profile: export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH
rjeli 2y ago
Does anyone have recs for doing really low level performance tuning on Apple Silicon? Xcode Instruments isn’t very easy to use or interpret. Things like what % of time is spent on memory stalls, simd units, etc
- watersb 2y ago
  I believe that macOS still ships with DTrace; Xcode Instruments was originally built on top of it. https://dtrace.org https://dtrace.org (Some people find it easier to write a one-line script that reports the timings that they need; I don't know if it helps you.)
pxc 2y ago
Why does this require elevated privileges to run? Seems ridiculous for a top-like tool.
- valbaca 2y ago
  even htop needs sudo to run properly
  - pxc 2y ago
    What htop features are unavailable if you don't run it with elevated privileges?
    - lttlrck 2y ago
      The only thing I have noticed is the ability to kill/strace processes belong to other users. But that's a given.
- Kon-Peki 2y ago
  Tools like these need to be able to read various counters and other registers in the hardware. Note that powermetrics existed in MacOs since the Intel days and mirrors a lot of the x86 information provided by the Intel tool on Linux (the name of which escapes me at the moment). You really don't want to give unprivileged code access to this data (check out the man page to see all of the information it can give you). If you want to understand a lot of what this stuff means on Apple Silicon, you should (oddly) check out the Intel x86 documentation: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/tool/performance-counter-monitor.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/t...
  - pxc 2y ago
    The Linux tool is called Intel powertop. How do Activity Monitor and AlDente get detailed power data? They don't prompt me to elevate privileges. tyvm for the docs links! I still don't have any specifics in mind for useful attacks one could carry out using the data mentioned in `man powermetrics`. I assume the worry is that this stuff could play a role in some kinds of side-channel attacks but idrk much about low-level OS stuff. :-\

106 points by CharlesW 2y ago

The sudo permission should be added by brew at install time (see how the dotnet SDK handles installation on macs), it's poor ergonomics to have to invoke it manually.

Jtsummers 2y ago
The sudo is for the runtime permissions, not the installation, of the program. dotnet requires (does it? it's been a while since I touched it but I vaguely recall this) sudo for installation, but not for execution.
- jasomill 2y ago
  Regarding .NET: • .NET installers install to systemwide locations and therefore typically require elevated privileges. • Microsoft supplies both install scripts (dotnet-install) and .tar.gz/.zip archives to support unprivileged installation to arbitrary locations on all supported platforms. • The SDK and self-contained .NET executables run from anywhere, but certain SDK functionality may require elevated privileges on some platforms (e.g., installing a trusted self-signed developer certificate). • Framework-dependent executables use the DOTNET_ROOT environment variable to locate runtime components installed in a non-default location.
jfjaksk 2y ago
poor ergnomics? yes? but u know what's worse? setuid root executables.
valbaca 2y ago
it's the same for htop

nunez 2y ago

This is awesome!

ncr100 2y ago

Pretty. Top is such a useful sysadmin command for high level sys info, and the new Macs are so quiet I rarely know if a processes has gone out of control, this will be a fun way to investigate that.

freedomben 2y ago
Purely subjective of course, but is this prettier than htop in your opinion? I actually felt like it was pretty typical if not a tad ugly, mainly because the color bars seem way to vertically long (i.e. tall/high) to me. It does convey information at a glance, but less vertical space would be an improvement IMHO. I do like the colors chosen though.
- Levitating 2y ago
  My honest first impression was that it's kind of ugly... It also doesn't seem to have a process list?? For a traditional process viewer I'd use htop and for a more complicated TUI ill use btop.

viraptor 2y ago

You can get most of the info also on btop (https://github.com/aristocratos/btop https://github.com/aristocratos/btop), just without the ANE and annotating the cores. It's cross platform though.

GregorBrandt 2y ago

CPU usages seems very very high for this.

carsenk 2y ago
Resolved in latest update

jonhohle 2y ago

Shameless self promotion: If you’re interested in high level disk activity with the feel of old school blinking lights, check out DriveLight[0]. 0 - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drivelight/id6446650999 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drivelight/id6446650999

carsenk 2y ago
Hahaha, I actually didn't post this, but thank you to whoever did! mactop ftw!

electroly 2y ago

Very nice, an instant addition to my $PATH. In particular I like having the ANE usage displayed, as this is typically invisible in other top-like tools.

electroly 2y ago
I gave it a try for the past few hours on a worker Mac and it's nice, but its own CPU usage is very high and proportional to the size of the terminal. With a fullscreen terminal (271x63 for me) it pegs an entire CPU continuously.

a_subsystem 2y ago

Nice. Similar to asitop, but looks a little more feature full.

arprocter 2y ago

Tried to install via brew on an M2 and got: mactop: The arm64 architecture is required for this software. Error: mactop: An unsatisfied requirement failed this build.

stereo 2y ago
Is your homebrew still running as intel under Rosetta?
- arprocter 2y ago
  Ah - that could be it. I did use Time Machine from an Intel iMac to set up this up
- arprocter 2y ago
  Thanks - that got it. I followed the steps to uninstall and reinstall, but it didn't work until I manually added this to ~/.bash_profile: export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH

rjeli 2y ago

Does anyone have recs for doing really low level performance tuning on Apple Silicon? Xcode Instruments isn’t very easy to use or interpret. Things like what % of time is spent on memory stalls, simd units, etc

watersb 2y ago
I believe that macOS still ships with DTrace; Xcode Instruments was originally built on top of it. https://dtrace.org https://dtrace.org (Some people find it easier to write a one-line script that reports the timings that they need; I don't know if it helps you.)

pxc 2y ago

Why does this require elevated privileges to run? Seems ridiculous for a top-like tool.

valbaca 2y ago
even htop needs sudo to run properly
- pxc 2y ago
  What htop features are unavailable if you don't run it with elevated privileges?
  - lttlrck 2y ago
    The only thing I have noticed is the ability to kill/strace processes belong to other users. But that's a given.
Kon-Peki 2y ago
Tools like these need to be able to read various counters and other registers in the hardware. Note that powermetrics existed in MacOs since the Intel days and mirrors a lot of the x86 information provided by the Intel tool on Linux (the name of which escapes me at the moment). You really don't want to give unprivileged code access to this data (check out the man page to see all of the information it can give you). If you want to understand a lot of what this stuff means on Apple Silicon, you should (oddly) check out the Intel x86 documentation: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/tool/performance-counter-monitor.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/t...
- pxc 2y ago
  The Linux tool is called Intel powertop. How do Activity Monitor and AlDente get detailed power data? They don't prompt me to elevate privileges. tyvm for the docs links! I still don't have any specifics in mind for useful attacks one could carry out using the data mentioned in `man powermetrics`. I assume the worry is that this stuff could play a role in some kinds of side-channel attacks but idrk much about low-level OS stuff. :-\