inxi is a full featured CLI system information tool. It is available in most Linux distribution repositories, and does its best to support the BSDs.
Go to file
Harald Hope 281e57bb6f New version, new man. Fixes, stitches, and returns!!
Bugs:
1. As a fix (3), failure to handle spaces in mount source names. More of a fix than
a bug, since it was an old issue #63.
2. OSX errors, BSD errors, but not really inxi errors or bugs, more weird data
tripping null data or unreadable file errors, but I'll call those bugs since they
look like bugs to end users. See Fixes for more.
3. See Fix 4, this is sort of a bug, inxi failed to return expected values on
success/failure.

Fixes:
1. One of the documented config items, COLS_MAX_NO_DISPLAY had not been implemented
internally. This is now corrected.
2. Apple OSX was returning errors, those were fixed.
3. Finally handled ancient issue #63, support now there for spaces in remote source
name. This means that both spaces in source block name, and mount point name, are
in theory both handled now. This was also to fix an osx issue #164 despite the
fact that technically I do not support osx beyond fixing errors, but since in this
case the issue was a long standing one, I fixed it for everything.
4. Big fix, I'd completely left undone proper unix type error number returns in
inxi, oops. Thanks Unit193 for noticing that and prompting me to fix it. Now inxi
returns integer success/error numbers as expected.
5. OSX xml based version info broke, of course, naturally it would, so I added in
an osx fallback where if no distro version detected, use fallback unix method, which
is what all the other unices use.
6. Along with space in source name, fixed mapped handling a bit more too for
partitions.
6. Added cifs remote file system to disk size used blacklist, and iso9660. Not sure
how I'd missed those for so long.
7. OpenBSD vmstat in 6.3 changed the column order for avm/fre, and changed to a,
sigh, human readable default format, in M, so to handle this for all bsds, I had
to make a dynamic column detection for avm and fre, and use those after, and also
i had to add in a M detection, if found, *1024 and strip out M, sigh.
8. OpenBSD, another alternate ordering/syntax issue, the dmesg.boot data for disks
does not always use the same order in comma separated list, saw user case where
the first item after : was the MB size, not the second. Made detection dynamic.
9. Due to Android case, found types where no cpu speed data was found, no max speed
at least, which tripped an error due to null data for ARM, this is now handled,
now cpu speed min/max read permissions in /sys are checked first before trying to
read, and default failures are better handled.
10. On man page, added in clarification of the moving of Memory: item from Info:
line to ram Memory: line, explaining when it appears where. I do not removing the
item from -I, I may revert that change, I find it non-intuitive to move that
around.

Enhancements:
1. Added display manager Ly, plus Ly version number. Thanks NamedKitten, this
closes issues #166 #165 #162
2. Improved documentation a bit to avoid ambiguity re how to get colors in output.
That handles issue #161, thanks fugo for the nudge to improve the documentation.
3. First inxi on Android tests, using termux, which has a debian based apt
type installer, got inxi running on at least two devices, including pixel2, but
discovered that apparently as of android 5, /sys is now locked up in terms of
wildcard reads, but further analysis is required, but as of now, inxi works in
termux, but fails to get any Device data for A, G, or N. Thus it also fails to match
IF to Device, so none of the IP data shows up. The latter will probably be fixed
since Android has ip and ifconfig already, or termux does, but so far I found no
way to get device data for ARM in Android 5.x and greater (checked on
android 7 and 9 in real phones).
4. More disk vendors!! thanks linuxlite / linux hardware database for offering an
apparently never ending list of obscure and not so obscure disk vendors and
products.
5. While I was unable to get confirmation or documentation on file names for
tce repo files, I guessed that localmirrors would be used, but this may be
any random text file in /opt at all, no extensions, I'd have to test to confirm
or deny possible values.
6. To handle more complex debugger failures, added --debug-no-proc,
--debug-no-exit, to skip or enable completion where proc or sys debugger is hanging.

Changes:
1. Changed vendor in A, G, and N to -x, not -xxx, this data seems much more useful
and reliable than I'd first expected when I made the feature, the -xxx was more
an indication of my lack of trust in the method and source, but so far it seems
pretty good, so I bumped it up to an -x option. Note that also, it's quite useful
to know the vendor of, say, your network or graphics card, not just the actual
device internal data, which is all inxi has ever shown previously.
2. Small change, if no partition type data is found, dev, remote, mapped, default
now says 'source:' instead of 'dev:' which makes more sense. Note that df calls
that column 'source', so I decided to go with their language for the default not
found case. Also changed mapped to say mapped. This was part of a bit of a
refactor of the partition type logic, enhanced by adding mapped to existing types,
and moved the entire type detection block into the main data generator, and out
of the data line constructor.

Optimizations:
1. Tested, and dumped, List::Util first() as a possible way to speed up grep
searches of arrays, where the goal is just to see if something is in an array. My
expectation was that first(), returning the first found instance of the search term,
would of course be faster since it will always exit the search loop was met with
the sad fact that first() is about 2 to 4 times SLOWER than grep() native builtin.
I tested this fairly carefully, and used NYTProf optimizer tool and the results were
totally consistent, first() was always much slower than grep(), no matter what size
the array is. I assume this means the core C programming that makes grep is simply
much better than the File::Util module programming that makes first(). Removed
first() and now know that nothing will be faster than grep so no need to look there
for speed improvements.
The moral of the story: just because something should in theory be faster, does
sadly not mean it will be faster, for there are bigger things at work, skill of
the programmers who made the logic, how perl handles external vs internal tools,
and so on. As an aside, this forms a fairly consistent pattern where I've found
Perl by itself to be faster than modules in many cases, that is, it's faster to
write the code out than to use a module in many cases that I have tested, so I
will always test such ideas and dump every one that is in fact slower than native
Perl builtins.
2018-10-14 16:16:06 -07:00
inxi New version, new man. Fixes, stitches, and returns!! 2018-10-14 16:16:06 -07:00
inxi.1 New version, new man. Fixes, stitches, and returns!! 2018-10-14 16:16:06 -07:00
inxi.changelog New version, new man. Fixes, stitches, and returns!! 2018-10-14 16:16:06 -07:00
LICENSE.txt added gpl 3 license txt 2015-08-30 19:08:36 -07:00
README.txt readme update 2018-10-03 13:19:48 -07:00

README for inxi - a command line system information tool

The new faster, more powerful Perl inxi is here! File all issue reports 
with the master branch. All support for versions prior to 3.0 is now ended, 
sorry. 

Make sure to update to the current inxi from the master branch before filing
any issue reports. The code in pre 2.9 versions literally no longer exists in
inxi 3. Bugs from earlier versions cannot usually be solved in the new version 
since the pre 2.9 and the 2.9 and later versions are completely different 
internally.

===============================================================================
DEVELOPMENT AND ISSUES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Make inxi better! Expand supported hardware and OS data, fix broken items!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HELP PROJECT DEVELOPMENT! SUBMIT A DEBUGGER DATASET
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is easy to do, and only takes a few seconds. These datasets really help 
the project add and debug features. You will generally also be asked to provide 
this data for non trivial issue reports.

Note that the following options are present:

1. Generate local gz'ed debugger dataset. Leaves gz on your system:
 inxi version 3: inxi --debug 20 
 inxi version <= 2.3: inxi -@14
2. Generate, upload gz'ed debugger dataset. Leaves gz on your system:
 inxi version 3: inxi --debug 21
 inxi version <= 2.3: inxi -xx@14
3. Generate, upload, delete gz'ed debugger dataset:
 inxi version 3 only: inxi --debug 22

You can run these as regular user, or root/sudo, which will gather a bit more 
data, like from dmidecode, and other tools that need superuser permissions
to run.

ARM (plus MIPS, SPARC, PowerPC) and BSD datasets are particularly appreciated 
because we simply do not have enough of those.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FILE AN ISSUE IF YOU FIND SOMETHING MISSING, BROKEN, OR FOR AN ENHANCEMENT
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

inxi strives to support the widest range of operating systems and hardware,
from the most simple consumer desktops, to the most advanced professional
hardware and servers. 

The issues you post help maintain or expand that support, and are always
appreciated since user data and feedback is what keeps inxi working and
supporting the latest (or not so latest) hardware and operating systems. 

See INXI VERSION/SUPPORT/ISSUES/BUGS INFORMATION for more about issues/support.

See BSD/UNIX below for qualifications re BSDs, and OSX in particular. 

===============================================================================
SOURCE VERSION CONTROL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://github.com/smxi/inxi
MAIN BRANCH: master
DEVELOPMENT BRANCHES: inxi-perl, one, two
inxi-perl is the dev branch, the others are rarely if ever used. inxi itself
has the built in feature to be able to update itself from anywhere, including
these branches, which is very useful for development and debugging on various
user systems.

PULL REQUESTS: Please talk to me before starting to work on patches of any
reasonable complexity. inxi is hard to work on, and you have to understand how
it works before submitting patches, unless it's a trivial bug fix. Please:
NEVER even think about looking at or using previous inxi commits, previous to
the current master version, as a base for a patch. If you do, your patch / pull
request will probably be rejected. Developers, get your version from the 
inxi-perl branch, pinxi, otherwise you may not be current to actual development
versions. inxi-perl pinxi is always equal to or ahead of master branch inxi.

Man page updates, doc page updates, etc, of course, are easy and will probably
be accepted, as long as they are properly formatted and logically coherent. 

When under active development, inxi releases early, and releases often. 

PACKAGERS: inxi has one and only one 'release', and that is the current 
commit/version in the master branch (plus pinxi inxi-perl branch, of course,
but those should never be packaged). 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MASTER BRANCH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the only supported branch, and the current latest commit/version is
the only supported 'release'. There are no 'releases' of inxi beyond the 
current commit/version in master. All past versions are not supported. 

git clone https://github.com/smxi/inxi --branch master --single-branch

OR direct fast and easy install:
wget -O inxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/master/inxi

OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github):
wget -O inxi https://smxi.org/inxi
wget -O inxi smxi.org/inxi

NOTE: Just because github calls tagged commits 'Releases' does not mean they 
are releases! I can't change the words on the tag page. They are tagged 
commmits, period. A tag is a pointer to a commit, and has no further meaning. 

If your distribution has blocked -U self updater and you want a newer version:

Open /etc/inxi.conf and change false to true: B_ALLOW_UPDATE=true

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVELOPMENT BRANCH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All active development is now done on the inxi-perl branch (pinxi):

git clone https://github.com/smxi/inxi --branch inxi-perl --single-branch

OR direct fast and easy install:
wget -O pinxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/inxi-perl/pinxi

OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github):
wget -O pinxi https://smxi.org/pinxi
wget -O pinxi smxi.org/pinxi

Once new features have been debugged, tested, and are reasonably stable, pinxi 
is copied to inxi in the master branch.

It's a good idea to check with pinxi if you want to make sure your issue has 
not been corrected, since pinxi is always equal to or ahead of inxi.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LEGACY BRANCH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you'd like to look at or check out the Gawk/Bash version of inxi, you can
find it here, at the inxi-legacy branch (binxi):

git clone https://github.com/smxi/inxi --branch inxi-legacy --single-branch

OR direct fast and easy install:
wget -O binxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi/raw/inxi-legacy/binxi

OR easy to remember shortcut (which redirects to github):
wget -O binxi https://smxi.org/binxi

This version will not be maintained, and it's unlikely that any time will be
spent on it in the future, but it is there in case it's of use or interest to
anyone.

===============================================================================
SUPPORT INFO
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do not ask for basic help that reading the inxi -h / --help menus, or man page
would show you, and do not ask for features to be added that inxi already has. 
Also do not ask for support if your distro won't update its inxi version, some
are bad about that.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOCUMENTATION
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://smxi.org/docs/inxi.htm 
(smxi.org/docs/ is easier to remember, and is one click away from inxi.htm).
The one page wiki on github is only a pointer to the real resources.

https://github.com/smxi/inxi/tree/inxi-perl/docs
Contains specific Perl inxi documentation, of interest mostly to developers.
Includes internal inxi tools, values, configuration items. Also has useful
information about Perl version support, including the list of Core modules that
_should_ be included in a distribution's core modules, but which are 
unfortunately sometimes removed. 

INXI CONFIGURATION: https://smxi.org/docs/inxi-configuration.htm 
HTML MAN PAGE: https://smxi.org/docs/inxi-man.htm 
INXI OPTIONS PAGE: http://smxi.org/docs/inxi-options.htm 

NOTE: Check the inxi version number on each doc page to see which version 
will support the options listed. The man and options page also link to a 
legacy version, pre 2.9.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRC
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can go to: irc.oftc.net channel #smxi 
but be prepared to wait around for a while to get a response. Generally it's 
better to use github issues.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISSUES
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://github.com/smxi/inxi/issues
No issues accepted for non current inxi versions. See below for more on that.
Unfortunately as of 2.9, no support or issues can be accepted for older inxi's
because inxi 2.9 (Perl) and newer is a full rewrite, and legacy inxi is not
being supported since our time here on earth is finite (plus of course, one
reason for the rewrite was to never have to work with Gawk->Bash again!).

Sys Admin type inxi users always get the first level of support. ie, convince 
us you run real systems and networks, and your issue shoots to the top of the 
line. As do any real bugs. 

Failure to supply requested debugger data will lead To a distinct lack of 
interest on our part to help you with a bug. ie, saying, oh, it doesn't work, 
doesn't cut it, unless it's obvious why. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUPPORT FORUMS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://techpatterns.com/forums/forum-33.html
This is the best place to place support issues that may be complicated.

If you are developer, use:
DEVELOPER FORUMS: https://techpatterns.com/forums/forum-32.html

===============================================================================
ABOUT INXI
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

inxi is a command line system information tool. It was forked from the ancient
and mindbendingly perverse yet ingenius infobash, by locsmif. 

That was a buggy, impossible to update or maintain piece of software, so the
fork fixed those core issues, and made it flexible enough to expand the utility
of the original ideas. Locmsif has given his thumbs up to inxi, so don't be
fooled by legacy infobash stuff you may see out there.

inxi is lower case, except when I create a text header here in a file like
this, but it's always lower case. Sometimes to follow convention I will use
upper case inxi to start a sentence, but i find it a bad idea since invariably,
someone will repeat that and type it in as the command name, then someone will
copy that, and complain that the command: Inxi doesn't exist...

The primary purpose of inxi is for support, and sys admin use. inxi is used
widely for forum and IRC support, which is I believe it's most common function.

If you are piping output to paste or post (or writing to file), inxi now
automatically turns off color codes, so the old suggestion to use -c 0 to turn 
off colors is no longer required.

inxi strives to be as accurate as possible, but some things, like memory/ram 
data, depend on radically unreliable system self reporting based on OEM 
filling out data correctly, which doesn't often happen, so in those cases, 
you want to confirm things like ram capacity with a reputable hardware source, 
like crucial.com, which has the best ram hardware tool I know of.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMITMENT TO LONG TERM STABILITY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The core mission of inxi is to always work on all systems all the time. Well, 
all systems with the core tools inxi requires to operate installed. Ie, not 
Android, yet. What this means is this: you can have a 10 year old box, or 
probably 15, not sure, and you can install today's inxi on it, and it will run. 
It won't run fast, but it will run. I test inxi on a 200 MHz laptop from about 
1998 to keep it honest. That's also what was used to optimize the code at some 
points, since differences appear as seconds, not 10ths or 100ths of seconds on 
old systems like that.

inxi is being written, and tested, on Perl as old as 5.08, and will work on any 
system that runs Perl 5.08 or later. Pre 2.9.0 Gawk/Bash inxi will also run on 
any system no matter how old, within reason, so there should be no difference.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

inxi's functionality continues to grow over time, but it's also important to 
understand that each core new feature usually requires about 30 days work to 
get it stable. So new features are not trivial things, nor is it acceptable to 
submit a patch that works only on your personal system. One inxi feature (-s, 
sensors data), took about 2 hours to get working in the alpha test on the local 
dev system, but then to handle the massive chaos that is actual user sensors 
output and system variations, it took several rewrites and about 30 days to 
get somewhat reliable for about 98% or so of inxi users. So if your patch is 
rejected, it's likely because you have not thought it through adequately, have 
not done adequate testing cross system and platform, etc.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUPPORTED VERSIONS / DISTRO VERSIONS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Important: the only version of inxi that is supported is the latest current 
master branch version/commit. No issue reports or bug reports will be accepted 
for anything other than current master branch. No merges, attempts to patch old 
code from old versions, will be considered or accepted. If you are not updated 
to the latest inxi, do not file a bug report since it's probably been fixed 
ages ago. If your distro isn't packaging a current inxi, then file a bug report 
with your packager, not here. 

inxi is 'rolling release' software, just like Debian Sid, Gentoo, or Arch Linux 
are rolling release GNU/Linux distributions, with no 'release points'.

Distributions should never feel any advantage comes from using old inxi 
versions because inxi has as a core promise to you, the end user, that it will 
never require new tools to run. New tools may be required for a new feature, 
but that will always be handled internally by inxi, and will not cause any 
operational failures. This is a promise, and I will never as long as I run this 
project violate that core inxi requirement. Old inxi is NOT more stable than 
current inxi, it's just old, and lacking in bug fixes and features. For pre 2.9 
versions, it's also significantly slower, and with fewer features.

Your distro not updating inxi ever, then failing to show something that is 
fixed in current inxi is not a bug, and please do not post it here. File the 
issue with your distro, not here. Updating inxi in a package pool will NEVER 
make anything break or fail, period. It has no version based dependencies, just 
software, like Perl 5.xx, lspci, etc. There is never a valid reason to not 
update inxi in a package pool of any distro in the world (with one single known 
exception, the Slackware based Puppy Linux release, which ships without the 
full Perl language. The Debian based one works fine).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SEMANTIC VERSION NUMBERING
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

inxi uses 'semantic' version numbering, where the version numbers actually mean 
something.

The version number follows these guidelines:
Using example 3.2.28-6

The first digit(s), "3", is a major version, and almost never changes. Only a 
huge milestone, or if inxi reaches 3.9.xx, when it will simply move up to 4.0.0 
just to keep it clean, would cause a change. 

The second digit(s), "2", means a new real feature has been added. Not a 
tweaked existing feature, an actual new feature, which usually also has a new 
argument option letter attached. The second number goes from 0 to 9, and then 
rolls over the first after 9. It could also be adding a very complicated 
expansion of existing features, like Wayland. It depends.

The third, "28", is for everything small, can cover bug fixes, tweaks to 
existing features to add support for something, pretty much anything where you 
want the end user to know that they are not up to date. The third goes from 0 
to 99, then rolls over the second.

The fourth, "6", is extra information about certain types of inxi updates. I 
don't usually use this last one in master branch, but you will see it in 
branches one,two, inxi-perl, inxi-legacy since that is used to confirm remote 
test system patch version updates.

The fourth number, when used, will be alpha-numeric, a common version would be, 
in say, branch one: 2.2.28-b1-02, in other words: branch 1 patch version 2.

In the past, now and then the 4th, or 'patch', number, was used in trunk/master 
branches of inxi, but I've pretty much stopped doing that because it's 
confusing.

inxi does not use the fiction of date based versioning because that imparts no 
useful information to the end user, when you look at say, 2.2.28, and you last 
had 2.2.11, you can know with some certainty that inxi has no major new 
features, just fine tunings and bug fixes. And if you see one with 2.3.2, you 
will know that there is a new feature, almost, but not always, linked to one or 
more new line output items. Sometimes a fine tuning can be quite significant, 
sometimes it's a one line code fix. 

A move to a new full version number, like the rewrite of inxi to Perl, would 
reflect in first version say, 2.9.01, then after a period of testing, where 
most little glitches are fixed, a move to 3.0.0. These almost never happen. I 
do not expect for example version 4.0 to ever happen after 3.0 (early 2018), 
unless so many new features are added that it actually hits 3.9, then it would 
roll over to 4.

===============================================================================
BSD / UNIX
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BSD support is not as complete as GNU/Linux support due to the fact some of the 
data simply is not available, or is structured in a way that makes it unique to 
each BSD. This fragmentation makes supporting BSDs far more difficult than it 
should be in the 21st century. The BSD support in inxi is an ongoing process, 
with more features being added as new data sources and types are discovered.

Note that due to time/practicality constraints, in general, only the original
BSD branches will be actively supported: FreeBSD+derived; OpenBSD+derived;
NetBSD+derived. Other UNIX variants will generally only get the work required 
to make internal BSD flags get set and to remove visible output errors.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRUE BSDs 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All BSD issue reports unless trivial and obvious will require 1 of two things:

1. a full --debug 21 data dump so I don't have to spend days trying to get the 
information I need to resolve the issue file by painful file from the issue 
poster. This is only the start of the process, and realistically requires 2. to 
complete it.

2. direct SSH access to at least a comparable live BSD version/system, that is, 
if the issue is on a laptop, access has to be granted to the laptop, or a 
similar one. 

Option 2 is far preferred because in terms of my finite time on this planet of 
ours, the fact is, if I don't have direct (or SSH) access, I can't get much 
done, and the little I can get done will take 10 to 1000x longer than it 
should. That's my time spent (and sadly, with BSDs, largely lost), not yours. 

I decided I have to adopt this much more strict policy with BSDs after wasting 
untold hours on trying to get good BSD support, only to see that support break 
a few years down the road as the data inxi relied in changed structure or 
syntax, or the tools changed, or whatever else makes the BSDs such a challenge 
to support. In the end, I realized, the only BSDs that are well supported are 
ones that I have had direct access to for debugging and testing. 

I will always accept patches that are well done, if they do not break 
GNU/Linux, and extend BSD support, or add new BSD features, and follow the 
internal inxi logic, and aren't too long. inxi sets initial internal flags to 
identify that it is a BSD system vs a GNU/Linux system, and preloads some data 
structures for BSD use, so make sure you understand what inxi is doing before 
you get into it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPLE CORPORATION OSX
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Non-free/libre OSX is in my view a BSD in name only. It is the least Unix-like 
operating system I've ever seen that claims to be a Unix, its tools are 
mutated, its data randomly and non-standardly organized, and it totally fails 
to respect the 'spirit' of Unix, even though it might pass some random tests 
that certify a system as a 'Unix'. 

If you want me to use my time on OSX features or issues, you have to pay me, 
because Apple is all about money, not freedom (that's what the 'free' in 'free 
software' is referring to, not cost), and I'm not donating my finite time in 
support of non-free operating systems. 

### EOF ###