File activity

fileactivity is a meter to measure the rate at which lines get appended to a log file. When you see a lot of lines per minute on a particular file, it is a good indicator of where your load problem is. The thing shows hits per minute, 5 minutes and 15 minutes on a file. It understands a few types of timestamp (apache, syslog and exim, IIRC), and does an update every 15 minutes. The load average is printed out so you can compare the pattern of usage to the load. That doesn't usually help.

Audience: Linux system administrators
Requires: Python
Optional: A terminal :)
Language: Python
Licence: GPL

Download

You can do stuff:

fileactivity - python script

Usage

Here's how the help looks:

root@somewebserver [~]# fileactivity --help
usage: Usage: fileactivity [<options>]
File activity monitor, with quasi-load printout

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -m MMIN, --mmin=MMIN  ignore files older than m minutes (10)
  -n DISPLAY, --display=DISPLAY
                        display this many files
  -s SLEEP, --sleep=SLEEP
                        Sleep interval between checks (10 seconds)
  -c COUNT, --count=COUNT
                        Number of minutes to run for
  -z, --zero            Start with zero counters
  -r REGEX, --re=REGEX  Regexes to allow (default is any)

And this is what it looks like when it runs:

root@somewebserver [~]# fileactivity 
359 of 3159 files opened
Reading simple averages ............
Hits per minute: moving average over 1, 5 and 15 minutes:
    4.000     4.000     3.867 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/sghodf.org.za
    0.000     4.000     1.333 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/hwgoidshfasf.co.za
   24.000     4.800     2.867 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/oijgadsnia.com
    3.000     4.800     4.000 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/hdgiuodga.co.za
    0.000     5.200     6.200 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/desjasfogda.co.za
    9.000     6.600     4.867 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/redahdgoaufg.za.com
    0.000     8.200     6.133 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/n9dasf.co.za
    0.000    14.400    23.133 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/rubasfds.co.za
    8.000    14.800     5.467 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/psajdfl.co.za
   22.000    37.600    20.333 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/map51.co.za
 20:41:17 up 245 days, 13:01,  1 user,  load average: 2.24, 2.90, 2.53

    0.000     3.841     1.315 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/hwgoidshfasf.co.za
    4.215     4.046     3.884 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/sghodf.org.za
    2.449     4.609     3.946 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/hdgiuodga.co.za
   19.631     4.611     2.829 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/oijgadsnia.com
    0.000     4.991     6.116 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/desjasfogda.co.za
    7.376     6.342     4.803 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/redahdgoaufg.za.com
    0.000     7.886     6.054 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/n9dasf.co.za
    0.000    13.835    22.827 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/rubasfds.co.za
    7.526    14.444     5.464 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/psajdfl.co.za
   19.967    36.572    20.207 /usr/local/apache/domlogs/map51.co.za
 20:41:27 up 245 days, 13:01,  1 user,  load average: 2.20, 2.87, 2.53

It prints out changes every 15 seconds.