System Monitoring Tool

This is a simple system monitoring tool built with Rust that provides real-time insights into CPU, memory, and disk usage. The tool also periodically logs these metrics to a file for historical analysis.

Features

• Real-Time Monitoring: Displays CPU usage, memory usage, and disk information in a terminal-based UI.
• Periodic Logging: Logs system metrics (CPU and memory usage) to a file (metrics_log.txt) every 5 seconds for historical tracking.
• User-Friendly Interface: Uses color-coded sections and a clean layout for easy readability.
• Cross-Platform: Compatible with Windows, Linux, and macOS systems.

Technologies Used

• Rust: Main programming language for high performance and reliability.
• Sysinfo: Library for accessing system information (CPU, memory, and disk metrics).
• Tokio: Asynchronous runtime for handling periodic logging without blocking the UI.
• TUI and Crossterm: Libraries for creating a terminal-based user interface.
• Chrono: Used for formatting timestamps in logs.

File Structure

system_monitor/
├── Cargo.toml         # Cargo manifest file to manage dependencies
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs        # Entry point of the application
│   ├── ui.rs          # Terminal UI setup and rendering
│   ├── metrics.rs     # System metrics fetching functions
│   ├── input.rs       # User input handling (e.g., for quitting)
└── └── logger.rs      # Logging metrics to file periodically

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust: Make sure Rust and Cargo are installed. You can install Rust from rust-lang.org.
• Dependencies: This tool uses several libraries. The required dependencies are listed in Cargo.toml.

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd system_monitor

2. Build the application:

   cargo build --release

3. Run the application:

   cargo run --release

Usage

• Real-Time Monitoring:

  • The terminal UI displays CPU usage, memory usage, and disk information.
  • These metrics are updated every second.

• Logging to File:

  • Every 5 seconds, system metrics are logged to metrics_log.txt in the root directory.
  • Each log entry includes a timestamp, CPU usage, and memory usage (used and total).
  • Example entry in metrics_log.txt:

    Timestamp: 2024-10-26 15:34:45, CPU Usage: 15.23%, Memory Usage: 2048 MB / 4096 MB
    

• Quit the Tool:

  • Press q to exit the application.

Code Overview

main.rs

The main entry point that initializes the terminal, refreshes metrics, and sets up an asynchronous logging interval every 5 seconds.

ui.rs

Handles terminal UI rendering using tui and crossterm, displaying CPU, memory, and disk metrics in real time.

metrics.rs

Fetches system metrics using the sysinfo library, providing functions to retrieve CPU usage, total memory, used memory, and available disk space.

input.rs

Handles user input (e.g., pressing q to exit).

logger.rs

Logs system metrics to metrics_log.txt every 5 seconds with a timestamp, CPU usage, and memory usage.

Cross-Verification of Metrics

To cross-verify the metrics recorded by this tool:

1. Task Manager (Windows), Activity Monitor (macOS), or top/htop (Linux) for real-time CPU and memory usage.
2. Performance Monitor (Windows) or sar (Linux) for historical data if available.

Possible Future Enhancements

• Network Usage Monitoring: Display bandwidth usage per interface.
• Threshold Alerts: Notify the user if CPU or memory usage exceeds a defined limit.
• Configuration File: Allow users to customize logging frequency, thresholds, and other settings.
• Process Monitoring: Show top resource-consuming processes.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.