README.md

   1 khatus
   2 ======
   3 ![mascot](mascot.jpg)
   4
   5 Experimental system-monitor and status (bar) reporter I use with
   6 [dwm](https://dwm.suckless.org/) on GNU/Linux.
   7
   8 ![screenshot](screenshot.jpg)
   9
  10 Usage
  11 -----
  12
  13 `make build && make install`
  14
  15 `make install` copies everything from `./bin` to `$HOME/bin`
  16
  17 In my `~/.xinitrc` I have something like the following:
  18
  19 ```sh
  20 ( $BIN/khatus \
  21     --wifi_interface 'wlp3s0' \
  22 | stdbuf -o L tee \
  23     >(stdbuf -o L "$BIN"/khatus_bar \
  24         -v Opt_Mpd_Song_Max_Chars=10 \
  25         -v Opt_Net_Interfaces_To_Show=wlp3s0 \
  26         -v Opt_Pulseaudio_Sink=0 \
  27         -f <(./bin/khatus_gen_make_status_bar \
  28                 -v Status_Bar='@energy,@memory,@processes,@cpu,@disk,@net,@bluetooth,@backlight,@volume,@mpd,@weather,@datetime' \
  29             ) \
  30     | "$BIN"/khatus_actuate_status_bar_to_xsetroot_name \
  31     ) \
  32     >(stdbuf -o L "$BIN"/khatus_monitor_energy \
  33     | "$BIN"/khatus_actuate_alert_to_notify_send \
  34     ) \
  35     >(stdbuf -o L "$BIN"/khatus_monitor_errors \
  36     | "$BIN"/khatus_actuate_alert_to_notify_send \
  37     ) \
  38 ) \
  39 2> >($BIN/twrap.sh >> $HOME/var/log/khatus/main.log) \
  40 1> /dev/null \
  41 &
  42 ```
  43 (where `twrap` is a simple script which prefixes a timestamp to each line)
  44
  45 The idea is to support appending any number of ad-hoc, experimental monitors by
  46 giving maximum flexibility for what to do with the sensor outputs, while
  47 maintaining some uniformity of msg formats (again, to ease ad-hoc combinations
  48 (e.g. Does the CPU get hotter when MPD is playing Wu-Tang?)).  `khatus_bar`,
  49 `khatus_monitor_energy` and `khatus_monitor_errors` are just some initial
  50 examples.
  51
  52 Design
  53 ------
  54
  55 ### 2.0
  56
  57 In an effort to simplify the components and their interfaces, I removed the
  58 concept of a global controller from the previous design (which, at least for
  59 now, is superfluous), so now it is essentially a pub-sub - parallel publishers
  60 (sensors) write to a pipe, which is then copied to any number of interested
  61 subscribers that can filter-out what they need and then do whatever they want
  62 with the data. Status bar is one such subscriber:
  63
  64 `P1 > pipe&; P2 > pipe&; ... PN > pipe&; tail -f pipe | tee >(S1) >(S2) ... >(SN) > /dev/null`
  65
  66 The cool thing is that, because the pipe is always read (`tail -f ... > /dev/null`),
  67 the publishers are never blocked, so we get a live stream of events to which we
  68 can attach any number of interested subscribers (` ... tee ... `) and, because
  69 the pipe is named, if a subscriber needs to - it too can publish something to
  70 the pipe without being blocked.
  71
  72 ```
  73 parallel    +----------+  +----------+          +----------+
  74 stateless   | sensor_1 |  | sensor_2 |    ...   | sensor_n |
  75 collectors  +----------+  +----------+          +----------+
  76                  |             |           |         |
  77                data          data        data      data
  78                  |             |           |         |
  79                  V             V           V         V
  80 multiplexing     +-------------+-----------+---------+
  81 to a pipe                      |
  82                                |
  83                                V
  84 copying to       +-------------+-+---------+---------+
  85 subscribers      |               |         |         |
  86                  V               V         V         V
  87               +------------+         ...      +----------------+
  88 any number of | status bar |                  | energy monitor |
  89 parallel      +------------+                  +----------------+
  90 subscribers      |                                    |
  91                  V                                    V
  92               +----------------+              +-------------+
  93               | xsetroot -name |              | notify-send |
  94               +----------------+              +-------------+
  95 ```
  96
  97 ### 1.0
  98
  99 This was an improvement of having everything in one script, but the controller
 100 was still way too complicated for no good reason.
 101
 102 ```
 103 parallel    +----------+  +----------+          +----------+
 104 stateless   | sensor_1 |  | sensor_2 |    ...   | sensor_n |
 105 collectors  +----------+  +----------+          +----------+
 106                  |             |           |         |
 107                data          data        data      data
 108                  |             |           |         |
 109                  V             V           V         V
 110 serial      +----------------------------------------------+
 111 stateful    |                controller                    |
 112 observer    +----------------------------------------------+
 113                                |
 114                        decision messages
 115 decision                       |
 116 messages                       |
 117 copied to                      |
 118 any number                     |
 119 of interested                  |
 120 filter/actuator                |
 121 combinations                   |
 122                                |
 123                                V
 124                  +-------------+-+---------+---------+
 125                  |               |         |         |
 126                  V               V         V         V
 127 parallel    +------------+ +------------+     +------------+
 128 stateless   | filter_1   | | filter_2   | ... | filter_n   |
 129 filters     +------------+ +------------+     +------------+
 130                  |               |         |         |
 131                  V               V         V         V
 132 parallel    +------------+ +------------+     +------------+
 133 stateless   | actuator_1 | | actuator_2 | ... | actuator_n |
 134 executors   +------------+ +------------+     +------------+
 135                  |              |          |         |
 136               commands       commands   commands  commands
 137                  |              |          |         |
 138                  V              V          V         V
 139             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 140             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ operating system ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 141             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 142 ```
 143
 144 ### 0.x
 145
 146 A single script, re-executed in a loop at some intervals, serially grabbing all
 147 the needed data and outputting a status bar string, then passed to `xsetroot -name`,
 148 while saving state in files (e.g. previous totals, to be converted to deltas).
 149
 150 This actually worked surprisingly-OK, but had limitations:
 151
 152 - I use an SSD and want to minimize disk writes
 153 - not flexible-enough to support my main goal - easy experimentation with
 154   various ad-hoc monitors:
 155     - I want to set different update intervals for different data sources
 156     - I don't want long-running data collectors to block the main loop
 157
 158 ### Actuator
 159 Actuator is anything that takes action upon controller messages. A few generic
 160 ones are included:
 161
 162 - `khatus_actuate_alert_to_notify_send`
 163 - `khatus_actuate_status_bar_to_xsetroot_name`
 164
 165 and, by default, are left disconnected from the data feed, so if desired - need
 166 to be manually attached when starting `khatus`. See usage section.
 167
 168 ### Errors
 169 Any errors encountered by any sensor are propagated as alerts by the
 170 controller, which are in turn actualized as desktop notifications by the
 171 `khatus_actuate_alert_to_notify_send` actuator:
 172
 173 ![screenshot-self-error-propagation](screenshot-self-error-propagation.jpg)
 174
 175 TODO
 176 ----
 177
 178 - formalize message format and protocol
 179 - tests (design is starting to take shape, so it is time)
 180 - show how many Debian package updates are available
 181 - show how many Debian package security-updates are available
 182 - monitor disk usage rate of change and alert if suspiciously fast
 183 - bring back CPU usage monitor
 184 - actual METAR parser, to replace the flaky `metar` program
 185 - status bar templating language
 186 - retry/cache for sensors fetching flaky remote resources (such as weather)
 187 - throttling of broken sensors (constantly returns errors)
 188 - alert specification language
 189     - trigger threshold
 190     - above/bellow/equal to threshold value
 191     - priority
 192     - snooze time (if already alerted, when to re-alert?)
 193     - text: subject/body
 194 - monitor processes
 195     - totals (grand and per state)
 196     - zombies
 197     - threads
 198     - CPU hogs
 199     - memory hogs
 200     - memory leaks (if some process consistently grows)
 201     - is select process up?
 202     - log resource usage of select processes
 203 - monitor arbitrary HTTP endpoint availability
 204     - is status within expected range?
 205     - response time
 206         - is responce time within acceptable range?
 207 - report detailed status upon request (to a terminal)
 208     - use color to indicate age of data
 209 - monitor logins
 210     - totals (per time period)
 211         - failures
 212         - successes
 213     - most recent
 214         - success
 215         - failure
 216 - monitor battery time remaining
 217     - monitor accuracy (is percentage change rate on track to meet estimate?)
 218     - adjust estimate based on observed inaccuracies in past estimates (Kalman?)
 219
 220 Redesign notes
 221 --------------
 222
 223 - controller should not do formatting
 224 - need in-memory db for diskless feedback/throttling and cache
 225 - decouple sensor execution from sleep, i.e. a sensor is blocked not by sleep
 226   process directly, but by reading of a pipe, to where a sleep process will
 227   write a message announcing interval completion and thus signaling execution.
 228   This will allow us to manually signal a sensor to update (concretely - I just
 229   openned my laptop from sleep and want to force the weather to update
 230   immediately); likewise, the sleep process should be blocked on pipe-read
 231   until sensor execution is complete - this will allow us to reconfigure
 232   intervals at runtime (which seems like a better idea than the above in-memory
 233   DB one).
 234
 235 Ideas
 236 -----
 237
 238 - track devices:
 239     - alert when never before seen device is plugged-in
 240     - report history and trends on when and how-often each
 241       device/category is plugged-in, how-long it stays plaugged-in, etc.
 242 - daemonize `khatus`, so we don't have to re-launch `X11` to re-launch `khatus`
 243 - interoperate with other khatus instances
 244     - prefix machine ID to each data source
 245       (What should that ID be? Hostname? Pub key?)
 246     - fetch remote data and process locally
 247     - what transport to use?
 248         - ssh + rsync + cache dumps per some interval?
 249     - `A` can setup self penetration testing, by setting up probe of `A` on `B`
 250       and fetching results from `B` to `A`
 251 - offline mode - quick disable all network-using subsystems (sensors, monitors, etc)
 252 - classify each sensor as either "local" or "remote" (what about `iwconfig`, et al?)
 253 - store data with rrdtool
 254 - some kind of personal calendar thing integration
 255 - monitor tracking numbers (17track should be easiest to get started with)
 256 - monitor password digests against known leaked password databases
 257 - monitor stock prices
 258 - monitor some item price(s) at some store(s) (Amazon, etc.)
 259     - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/EX_RetrievingPriceInformation.html
 260     - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/ReturningPrices.html
 261     - https://developer.amazonservices.com/
 262 - monitor Amazon order status
 263     - https://developer.amazonservices.com/gp/mws/api.html?group=orders&section=orders
 264 - monitor eBay order status
 265     - http://developer.ebay.com/DevZone/XML/docs/Reference/eBay/GetOrders.html
 266 - monitor eBay auctions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_API)
 267 - monitor PayPal (https://www.programmableweb.com/api/paypal)
 268 - monitor bank account balance and transactions
 269     - https://communities.usaa.com/t5/Banking/Banking-via-API-Root/m-p/180789/highlight/true#M50758
 270     - https://plaid.com/
 271     - https://plaid.com/docs/api/
 272     - https://plaid.com/docs/api/#institution-overview
 273     - https://github.com/plaid
 274     - https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/online-banking-apis/
 275 - monitor/log road/traffic conditions
 276     - travel times for some route over a course of time
 277     - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh441725
 278     - https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/
 279     - https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/routes/
 280     - https://developer.mapquest.com/documentation/traffic-api/
 281     - https://developer.here.com/api-explorer/rest/traffic/traffic-flow-bounding-box
 282 - monitor news sources for patterns/substrings
 283     - http://developer.nytimes.com/
 284     - https://news.ycombinator.com/
 285     - https://lobste.rs/
 286     - https://www.undeadly.org/
 287     - http://openbsdnow.org/
 288     - https://lwn.net/
 289 - monitor a git repository
 290     - General
 291         - total branches
 292         - age of last change per branch
 293         - change set sizes
 294     - GitHub
 295         - pull requests
 296         - issues
 297 - monitor CI
 298     - Travis
 299     - Jenkins
 300 - pull/push data from/to other monitoring systems (Nagios, Graphite, etc.)
 301 - monitor file/directory age (can be used for email and other messaging systems)
 302 - monitor mailboxes for particular patterns/substrings
 303 - monitor IRC server(s)/channel(s) for particular patterns/substrings (use `ii`)
 304 - monitor iptables log
 305     - auto-(un)block upon some threshold of violations
 306 - monitor changes in an arbitrary web resource
 307     - deletions
 308     - insertions
 309     - delta = insertions - deletions
 310 - monitor/log LAN/WAN configurations (address, router, subnet)
 311 - monitor/log geolocation based on WAN IP address
 312 - correlate iptables violations with network/geolocation
 313 - monitor vulnerability databases
 314     - https://nvd.nist.gov/
 315     - https://vuldb.com/
 316     - http://cve.mitre.org/
 317 - vacation planning optimization
 318     - I want to visit a set of places within some time period. Given the
 319       current set of prices, a set of constraints (I need to stay some amount
 320       of days at each, I must be in X at Y date, etc), which visiting dates for
 321       each are cheapest?
 322 - browse https://www.programmableweb.com/ for some more ideas
 323 - GC trick: instead of actually doing GC, do a dummy run of building a status
 324   bar at `BEGIN`, to fill-in the atimes for keys we need, then use the atimes
 325   keys to build a regular expression to accept messages only from keys we
 326   actually use
 327
 328 Many of the above will undoubtedly need non-standard-system dependencies
 329 (languages, libraries, etc.), in which case - would they be better off as
 330 separate projects/repos?
 331
 332 With all these ideas, it is starting to sound very noisy, but no worries - to
 333 quickly and temporarily shut everything up - just kill `dunst` and or toggle
 334 the status bar (`Alt` + `B` in `dwm`). For a permanent change - just don't
 335 turn-on the unwanted monitors/sensors.