Top Processes Based Memory or CPU Usage Workflow

[zhaowu]

Alfred 2 Top Process Workflow

 

The initial motive of this workflow is to avoid frequent visits to the Activity Monitor when the fan goes loud. Now it has been evolved with two major features:

 

Suggestions are welcome. And Please go to http://zhaocai.github.com/alfred2-top-workflow/ for better view of the installation instruction.

 

- 1) List/Kill Top Processes by Memory/CPU/IO Usage

 

 

 

- 2) (working in progress) Get a glance of system status including internal battery, fan speed, CPU/GPU Temperature, bluetooth battery, disk capacity, etc.

 

 

Usage

 

0. Show Help

 

Just type -?, -h, or --help after the keyword to show help.

 

 

1. Top Processes

 

A. Keywords:

 

1.) top: Show a mixed processes list based on top cpu/memory usage.

 

 

     1. top -m, top --memory to show processes ranked by memory usage

 

     2. top -c, top --cpu, to show processes ranked by cpu usage

 

     3. top -i, top --io, to show processes ranked by io usage with callback from top io trace collector.

 

   Top IO requires [DTrace][Dtrace] and it would take a while to finish. The new callback design is to run the job in he background and post a notification (OSX 10.8+) using notification center. Click on the notification to show the result in alfred.

 

 

 

 

 

Modifier Key

 

   - none    : The default action is to list files opened by process ID

   - control : Kill the selected process

   - command : kill forcefully (kill -9)

   - alt     : Nice (lower) the selected process's cpu priority

   - shift   : Search web for process information

 

 

2.) kill: Filter process to kill.

 

Modifier Key

 

   - none: The default action is to kill by process ID

   - command : kill forcefully (kill -9)

 

3.) lsof: List files opened by process id

 

Modifier Key

 

   - none: The default action is to reveal file in Finder

 

B. Filter by Query

 

1.) To search for process state, use :idle, :sleep, :stopped, :zombie, :uninterruptible, :runnable, etc.

 

 

 

2. Glance an Eye on your system

 

#### A. Keywords:

 

• glance: Show system information including internal battery, bluetooth battery, disk capacity, etc.

 

 

 

B. Change Display Order

 

• Activate Alfred Preferences → Advanced → Top Result Keyword Latching

 

 

 

• Hit Enter for the feedback item you wish to show up on the top.

 

 

Installation

Two ways are provided:

1. You can download the Top Processes.alfredworkflow and import to Alfred 2. This method is suitable forregular users.

2. You can git clone or fork this repository and use rake install and rake uninstall to install. Check rake -T for available tasks. This method create a symlink to the alfred workflow directory: "~/Library/Application Support/Alfred 2/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows". This method is suitable fordevelopers.

 

 

Troubleshooting

 

1. Does not work in Mac OSX 10.9 (Maverick)

 

In OSX 10.9, the system ruby is upgraded to 2.0.0. You need to download the new version of this workflow which packs the ruby gems for 2.0.0 inside.

 

If the downloaded version does not work, try 

 

1.) open Terminal.app. If you use rvm or rbenv, switch to the system ruby.

• run cd "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Alfred 2/Alfred.alfredpreferences/workflows/me.zhaowu.top" && rake bundle:update

 

2. iotop causes mouse lagging

 

This issue is not caused by this workflow but by [DTrace][DTrace]. The related system log message is IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending..

In my Macbook Pro, any [DTrace][DTrace] based program will introduce this issue including the mac built-in /usr/bin/iotop, and /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app .

 

I upgrade to OS X 10.9 and this issue is resolved.

 

3. Encoding::CompatibilityError: incompatible character encodings: ASCII-8BIT and UTF-8

 

Add the following contents to /etc/launchd.conf. Restart is required.

 

setenv LANG en_US.UTF-8

setenv LC_ALL en_US.UTF-8

 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2013 by zhaowu

[lmartins]

This will keep me from frequent visits to the Activity Monitor. Thanks :-)

[slappy]

Interesting.  One question on the workflow, what exactly does the cmd modifier do?  

 

Press and hold cmd and the highlighted items info changes to 'Force Kill'.  

If I continue to hold down cmd and either click on the selected item or hit the return key it will kill the app.  

If I don't press the cmd key and either mouse click or hit return on an item it will also kill the app.  

[zhaowu]

Normally, kill a process means to send a signal to the process and let it finish it up and quit. It is safe. 

 

Force Kill means to send '-9       KILL (non-catchable, non-ignorable kill)' signal to kill the process. Normal it is not recommended to do that unless the process is hung or not responding. You may lose data by this.

 

Interesting.  One question on the workflow, what exactly does the cmd modifier do?  

 

Press and hold cmd and the highlighted items info changes to 'Force Kill'.  

If I continue to hold down cmd and either click on the selected item or hit the return key it will kill the app.  

If I don't press the cmd key and either mouse click or hit return on an item it will also kill the app.  

[slappy]

Understood, thanks for the quick reply. This workflow will be very handy for me. Excellent work.

[Carlos-Sz]

Nice workflow.

 

What does MEM: mean in the subtitle? If memory usage it seems not properly converted. Can you add or translate it into MB?

Edited March 17, 2013 by Carlos-Sz

[zhaowu]

It is % but MB. new workflow is updated in github.

Nice workflow.

 

What does MEM: mean in the subtitle? If memory usage it seems not properly converted. Can you add or translate it into MB?

[Carlos-Sz]

It is % but MB. new workflow is updated in github.

 

Great!

[zhaowu]

update: Use full command line for command like java, ruby, python, etc.

[zhaowu]

update readme and feedback  interleaving

[mccamel]

Wow this is a very good idea.  Thanks

[zhaowu]

Update: (March 25, 2013)
- add `lsof` keyword to List Files Opened by Process ID as default action
- now you can search for process state like idle, sleep, stopped, zombie, uninterruptible, runnable, etc.

- add kill keyword which would be a replacement for similar workflow

Edited March 25, 2013 by zhaowu

[haikkonen]

Just curious my friend, can you share to us your theme? Is a very nice one!!

Regards,

[zhaowu]

Just curious my friend, can you share to us your theme? Is a very nice one!!

Regards,

 

 

 

http://glo.li/X97bHP

Edited March 26, 2013 by zhaowu

[zhaowu]

update ( March 26, 2013 )

* hold alt key to nice cpu priority

[Domenic]

update ( March 26, 2013 )

* hold alt key to nice cpu priority

nice!

[zhaowu]

[Release]( 1.2 / March 28, 2013 )

 

- Use single entry for the top auto mixed mode.

- Alleyoop: Update Alfred Workflows

- rescue feedback if something goes wrong

Edited March 29, 2013 by zhaowu

[zhaowu]

[Release]( 1.3 / March 29, 2013 )

- refine keywords:

 

top

• top /m, top /mem, top /memory to show processes ranked by memory usage
• top /c, top /cpu, to show processes ranked by cpu usage

[Guest]

Something is wrong with your AlleyOOP Update (1.3). It shows up everytime in alleyoop.

[zhaowu]

Something is wrong with your AlleyOOP Update (1.3). It shows up everytime in alleyoop.

can you check the "

update.json" file in the workflow and post it.

[Guest]

{

    "version": 1.2,

    "remote_json": "https://github.com/zhaocai/alfred2-top-workflow/raw/master/version.json"

}

[zhaowu]

{

    "version": 1.2,

    "remote_json": "https://github.com/zhaocai/alfred2-top-workflow/raw/master/version.json"

}

should be fix now.

[Guest]

Yes, it is. Thank you. 

[FiXER]

Great workflow, I would have one feature request. Can you display actual app icons next to the processes?

[zhaowu]

Great workflow, I would have one feature request. Can you display actual app icons next to the processes?

Done!