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armbsdcli-utilitieslinuxperlperl5remote-admin-toolsupport-toolssysadmin-toolsysinfosystem-administration
4c3ab65d46
with a lot of hacks and patches, but it had never been actually rewritten to
take advantage of Perl's far more powerful and robust data structures and logic.
This caused a continuous stream of error cases in subtle ways, or not so subtle,
and fixes were just changing how the errors manifested.
Tnanks very much to linuxquestions.org Slackware forum people for massive help,
and also to linux.org forum members for ongoing help and data and debugging.
Note Changes 5, change of default widths in display to 80 columns, and out (aka,
console, or ssh into remote system), 100. You can still use other widths if you
like something wider using the configuration options shown. Also upped max
columns wrapping line starters to own rows to 110 columns from 90, again the
idea being to make output more readable to other users when posted in public.
I've been thinking of this change for a long time, but was hoping -y would
register with users, but it hasn't gained enough traction, so the result is way
too many super hard to read issue reports, forum posts, linux kernel issues,
etc, it's honestly gotten sort of embarrassing because they make it look like
inxi has bad output. Sidescrolling code blocks in forums in particular are
absurdly hard to read and scan rapidly for data.
Going along with the width and indentation changes, for most main row types, if
they wrap to a second row, they are further indented 2 column2, to make it
easier to see what they belong to. The two levels of indentation contain more
useful visual cues as to what belongs to what.
There was a temptation to release this as either 3.4.00 or 4.0.00 but in the
end, I decided to follow the numbering rules, and to just roll it to 3.3.10
since there aren't really any primary new features even though CPU was basically
rewritten in large part, and big parts of inxi were also changed, upgraded, and
enhanced. But no truly new features, just some display control items like -Y,
--indent, --indents.
I hope this refactor meets its primary goals, and that the new defaults for
display help resolve public posting issues which have grown increasingly
annoying for anyone trying to read those pasted in too long outputs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KNOWN ISSUES:
1. Android seems to have CPU cache data, but does not show any 'size' item. But
it does have the other data for each cache type internally, which is odd.
2. In some instances, the parent key:value pairs with '' as value, those are
parents of children key:value pairs, are left hanging at end of line, with the
children on the following line. This can look awkward, but in other cases,
actually looks very good, it depends if it's at the start or end of the line.
I won't say this is not correctable, but it would be very difficult, and outside
the scope of this release, but that is something that I may look at for a future
release now that the output generator logic was reworked slightly for Change 5b.
It's tricky though, because in cases where it's the first item on the line, you
want that behavior, but when it's last, you don't. But this may be worth
revisiting in the future.
3. In some cases, -Y + -y1 may lead to the start of the block scrolling off the
top of the visible screen. This isn't really correctable, so if that's an issue
for you, just don't use -y1 with -Y and all the output will wrap nicely.
4. There is an unaccountable ~10-20ms delay reading cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq,
per thread/core, which really adds up on high thread count CPUs. There is a
workaround in inxi to use cpufreq_cur_freq if it is readable, ie, if you are
root or use sudo, but to fallback to scaling_cur_freq if can't read cpuinfo_...
This is a drag, and really looks like a kernel bug, or a frequency driver bug.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUGS:
1. 3.3.09 and 3.3.10 CPU bug fixes:
* Failed to filter out certain virtual machine CPU core speeds, and showed more
speeds than the instance actually has. Noticed this with KVM running on Xeon
CPUs.
* For many cases, L2 cache, particularly for Intel, was completely wrong, it was
showing L3 caches, or L3+L2. Failed to handle cases where L2 cache belongs to
more than 1 core, except for using a crude hack for AMD Bulldozer microarch.
Older Intel Core 4 core CPUs would sometimes be 1 L2 per die, and the 4 cores
were actually 2 core duo cpu dies, with one L2 cache per die.
* Shows wrong core count for complex core complexes like those found in Intel
Alder Lake, now shows correct count of actual cores, regardless of the MT or ST
state of each core.
* Showed invalid L3 cache values in some legacy cpus that had no L3 cache, that
is due to a bug in the dmidecode data itself. Solution is to never use dmidecode
cache data if any other valid L1, L2, or L3 cache data found for Linux, and to
only use dmidecode data for bsds if no L1, or L2, or L3 data found. Or if forced
with --dmidecode.
2. An unfortunately long standing bug found and fixed, thanks slackware users!
cp_cpu_arch was, and has been for a while, failing to convert hex stepping to
decimal, or test if the string it gets is even a possible hex value, this
resulted in all Intel CPUs with stepping > 9 failing to ID correctly for cpu
arch.
3. In a related bug, hex to decimal tool used to create --admin hex/decimal
output for family/model/stepping was also not testing if the string was an
actual valid hex number. Case in particular, power pc with revision field
contained a long string, which was of course not a valid hex number, and that
tripped a Perl error when it was asked to convert a non hex string to decimal.
4. Long standing bug found while doing Change 5: inxi actually never applied
separate in/out of dispay to widths because using a legacy boolean that was not
updated, so it was always using out of display widths.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIXES:
1. Incorrectly calling PowerPC 'revision' 'stepping' for -Ca, that is now stored
as $cpu{'revision'} to avoid mixing up the logics there. For PowerPC shows as
rev: [string].
2. Microarch:
* AMD family 15, model 2 as bulldozer, actually piledriver.
* AMD family 17, model 18, was supposed to be zen/zen+, since I can't tell those
apart, seen stepping 1 is zen+, but had incorrect match.
* Intel family 6, model 25, stepping 2 as nehalem, should have been westmere.
* Changed Penryn to Core Penryn, intel family 6, model 17
* misc other micro arch fine tunings.
3. Code fix 8, switched to global %risc for arm, mips, ppc, riscv, sparc. This
corrects many sloppy handlers, and makes all risc processing the same, and calls
device tree readers for all risc systems, not just arm or arm and mips.
4. In cases where bogomips were 0 due to false values in risc results, show N/A.
5. Removed all attempts to guess at what /proc/cpuinfo cache size: refers to,
it can literally be anything, a per core L1, a per core or cpu L2, or an L3.
So applying any math to it is just a random guess at that point. If any L1,2,3
cache data is found, don't use the cache: value at all, but that will only be
present if no /sys data was found anyway, and if cpuinfo had no specific cache
type fields, only generic cache.
6. Added failsafe tests for stepping and model id before doing conversion to
hex. Make sure integer!
7. Added L1 D cache, was only using I cache for BSDs. Output will show total for
L1 A + L1 D. No idea why I didn't use L1 D, makes little sense, but that's how
it goes.
8. Made bogomips tests more granular, now only rejects low sub 50 bogomips
values if %risc cpu type. Legacy ancient cpus like 486 could and did have
bogomip counts below 50.
https://tldp.org/HOWTO/BogoMips/bogo-list.html
9. See Enhancement 12 as well. If OpenBSD, which has no per core data or
physical cpu data, is running on MT capable cpu, but for security OpenBSD has
disabled MT, will now force MT to be not shown via the hw.smt value. This
removes a small glitch that would have bothered OpenBSD users who know that
OpenBSD has disabled MT for security purposes.
10. Changed BSD hack to use L2 cache totals to deduce > 1 physical cpus, that
was flat out dumb, since we can just use dmidecode type 4 to iterate physical
cpu counts and skip the pointless logic. Thus, if dmidecode, and if > 1
dmidecode type 4 found, and if physical cpu counts equal 1, then replace the
found counts with the dmidecode physical cpu counts.
11. Corrected bad assumption that threads would always be 2 per core for MT
tests. Still no way to reliably determine threads per core for non x86 cpus like
powerpc however, but those are very fringe and should rarely be an issue since
that data is only missing on very old linux now I think.
12. Fixed 'parameters:' going to its own line with -Sa, that wasn't supposed to.
-S is two lines, the kernel / host stuff, and the desktop/console/distro stuff.
13. Fixed case when key: value first word plus other parts of line longer than
max width, failed to wrap as expected.
14. Added start/end ' and " start / end \s to main filters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENHANCEMENTS:
1. CPU: most Linux will now show L1 and L3 cache with -Cx without needing
sudo/root, and it will be more accurate than ever before.
2. CPU: shows per CPU L1/L2/L3 totals, and shows actual full system physical
processor count * L1/L2/L3 total in parentheses, like: L2: 1.5 MiB (3 MiB).
3. CPU: A long standing annoyance, previously for main CPU 'Speed:' item, showed
the fastest core speed found, now shows avg: [speed] and with -Cx, shows the
'high:' as well if > 1 cores, and if 1 or more cores have a higher speed than
the other(s).
4. CPU: Handles advanced cases of new architectures, like Alder Lake with
Performance and Efficiency cores, future Zen, and existing ARM CPUs with 2 or
more different core sets, with different max/min frequencies. Previously a hack
was used to handle only ARM CPUs with this type of architecture. Will show
correct CPU core counts, which previous inxi versions would fail to do for Alder
Lake type scenarios of 8 single threaded CPUs and 4-8 multithreaded )MT)
perforance cores.
This should also in theory show different the different min/max speeds if they
were detected. Those did not seem to be set correctly in Alder Lake sample data
I saw however, P and E cores were set to the same min/max speeds.
5. Added CPU types MST (Multi+Single Thread), AMP (Asymmetric Multi Processing),
and AMCP (Asymmetrical Multi Core Processor). This will be applied to any CPU
that has this type of complex topology that has been dynamically detected, like
Alder Lake or different core count or min/max speed RISC CPUs.
6. CPU: shows with -Ca for cases where different L1/L2/L3 caches found per
physical CPU, as with Alder Lake, but also many other variants that were poorly
or not at all handled before, how many of each cache type (L1 Data, instruction)
were found, otherwise will show how many of each cache were found.
7. CPU: shows with -Ca in Topology: report, for cases like Alder Lake with
different core types in one physical CPU (type: MST AMCP), the number that are
single threaded (st) and number that are multi-threaded (mt).
8. Basic support for rsyc-v systems, going along with code fix 8, fix 3, now
it's easy to add this type of support.
9. Added shortcut options for --filter-label (--zl), --filter-uuid (--zu), and
andded new filter option, --filter-vulnerabilities (--zv). The latter is added
by request, a decent idea to have option to not show cpu vulnerabilities.
10. Going with fix 7, switched to a sort of pseudo L1 d/i with desc report for
any BSD with L1 I/D cache found, or elbrus cache0 (icache) / cache1 (d cache).
Elbrus should hopefully be handled by the /sys tool. Guesses on the L1 are ok,
since those are almost always per core, so it's fine. Didn't expect to enhance
any BSD cpu data this time around, but there you go!! If they have the data,
then it will be used. Not going to go overboard though in that, quite useless
overall since usually can't see how many CPUs are present, at least not usually.
11. For -Ca, full CPU topology report if any complex topogy is detected,
otherwise shows the same basic Info: 2x 6-core or Info: dual core as before, no
point in wasting a line for something with no more data than the short string.
Complex types include MT CPUs since they will have different thread counts etc,
and will have 2 or more threads per core, which will also be listed.
12. If smt status is defined (0/1), shows smt: enabled|disabled in Topology
section, can be useful for systems with disabled MT, but supporting it. If no
topology data found (OpenBSD for example), for -C shows 'smt: disabled' after
'type:' section, and enabled if -Cxxx (since MT really already tells you that).
13. For -Ca Speed: report, added 'governor:' item, if found. Can show 1 or more
active governors.
14. Output height (in lines) control: -Y [-2|-1|0|1-xxx]]. This lets you break
up any of the output into whatever number of lines you want. Also useful out of
DISPLAY for reading -h options menu items etc.
It came tp my attention that the long standing shift+pgup/pgdown (aka
'softscrollback) behavior had stopped working, and in fact has been removed from
the current Linux kernel, at least until it is rewritten to be more clean and
understandable. Read more about it in these kernel post/commit messages:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=50145474f6ef4a9c19205b173da6264a644c7489
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/CAHk-=whe4ZdTdCebneWqC4gSQZwsVJ5-Emg0BucOGCwPhOAJpw@mail.gmail.com/
Options for -Y are:
* -Y 0 or -Y: Set maximum block height to terminal line height.
* -Y [1-xxx]: Set maximum block line height to given integer.
* -Y -1: Print out one primary data block item at a time, with -F for example.
* -Y -2: Restore default unlimited height if LINES_MAX configuration item used.
15. And finally, more disk vendors/vendor ids. As usual. As expected.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHANGES:
1. If /sys or /proc/cpuinfo speed data available:
* For -b CPU item:
speed: [speed MHz] min/max: [min]/[max] MHz
becomes:
speed (MHz): avg: [speed] min/max: [min]/[max]
* For -C, Speed item
Speed: [speed MHz] min/max: [min]/[max] MHz Cores (MHz): ...
becomes:
Speed (MHz): avg: [speed] min/max: [min]/[max] cores: ...
* For short form, shows speed/min/max but uses average speed if available.
For -b and -C, only shows one MHz in Speed line starter, which slightly shortens
the line even with the added 'avg:' item since 3 MHz are replaced with 1.
2. Going with change 1, now the 'avg:' item shows not the fastest cpu speed
found, which was the case before, but shows an average of all cpu speeds found.
Showing the fastest made some sense back in the days of single core, or even
dual core CPUs, but makes little sense today with many core/threaded cpus.
With -x, it will show the high: [speed] item as well, after 'avg:'.
3. By suggestion, wrapped first Type item in Vulnerabilities to its own line,
that's a verbose --admin option after all, no need to save lines!
4. Going along with Fix 5, give up on trying to pretend we can guess at L2
cache, now if only 'cache' data was available from cpuinfo, will just say:
cache: [cache size]
note: check
and call it a day.
5a. Change default width to 80 columns, in and out of display. Too many users
are posting horribly wrapping inxi output in forums, issue trackers, etc, and it
frankly makes inxi look really bad, creates awful side scrolling code boxes,
etc. So now default widths in and out of console are 80 (since often data is
generated in SSH or out of X/Wayland) for issues.
This essentially makes -y 80/-y the default width. This is what I've been using
for a few years now, and after seeing far too many side scrolling or badly
wrapping inxi outputs online, I think it's probably time to just force 80 column
widths as default and call it a day.
You can change these new defaults using configuration options (these are the
previous options, though due to a bug, COLS_MAX_CONSOLE was never being used):
COLS_MAX_CONSOLE=115 # in display, terminal client max width
COLS_MAX_IRC=100
COLS_MAX_NO_DISPLAY=130 # not in display, no X/Wayland running
5b. Changed output wrapped indent to 1 column from 2, and make second and
greater rows of a line indent +1 to make it more clear that it is a child row of
its parent row. Note that because no arg short form, -S, and -I are special
types of rows, this behavior is not used, they just print out as usual. This 1
column indent also applies to -y1, making for a little more data per line but
more readable and easy to follow.
6. If > 1 physical cpu detected, no longer uses single/dual/triple/quad core
strings, rather uses: 2x 2-core. Also uses lower case -core, not -Core.
7. Only show die counts for CPU (on rare occasions > 1 found) with -xx. Not
particularly important bit of data afterall.
8. Make L1, L3 cache data show with -Cx, not -Cxx, now that it's working well.
9. Removed CPU die for -Cxx, that's only going to show with -Ca now.
10. If -Ca, and if certain complexity conditions are met, shows a separate
Topology line rather than the Info: 6-core type item. For -b, short, -Cx, -Cxxx
shows the Info: topology short form.
11. Bogomips always shows before flags data, whether -f or just -Cx trips flag
output.
12. Flags/Features now shows in the same place, under Speeds: always, whether
-Cx shortlist, or -Cf full list. Makes more sense that way, and code is much
cleaner too.
13. Bogomips, being essentially bogus units of speed for cpu, are moved into
Speed: report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOCUMENTATION:
1. Updated man/help for new CPU extra data options and output changes.
2. Cleaned up and added sample outputs for man CPU items.
3. Now that doas is getting into Linux distros, removed all mentions of doas as
a BSD option, and made it a general doas/sudo item. Glad to see doas making it
into linux distros, it's a good tool, much easier to configure and use than
sudo. Good job OpenBSD guys. Note that inxi already has had full doas support
for a while now, but this finalizes it, and makes it fully agnostic. Internally
doas is actually preferred over sudo, by the way.
4. Added documention items for INDENT (--indent), INDENT_MIN (--inident-min).
5. Re-ordered help menu and man page, created new Filters and Output Controls
sections to make stuff easier to find. In man page, also added on top a list of
OPTIONS sections to make finding stuff easier.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CODE:
1. Removed legacy /sys cpu functions: cpu_bugs_sys(); get_boost_status();
set_cpu_speeds_sys(). cpu_speeds() is deprecated and now will only be used for
legacy Linux and BSDs if they had any per core speeds found; get_caches() was
only a placeholder for the full featured cpu_sys data source, and was removed;
cpu_speeds() no longer needed, integrated into other logic; cpu_dies_sys()
removed, integrated into other logic.
This logic is now integrated into cpu_data_sys() data generator.
2. Changed the main CpuItems functions to use array/hash references, not passing
full hashes or arrays in most cases now.
3. For machine_data_soc(), switched to CpuItem::cpuinfo_grabber() which then
sets the global @cpuinfo and %cpuinfo_machine items, which will be used again
in Cpu if cpu data is requested. This gets rid of a full parsing of cpuinfo
just to get the machine data section, and also makes it so cpuinfo in cpu does
not need to worry about the machine data block, which is not related to the
processor blocks anyway, that was always a hack done by the kernel guys to toss
that SOC data somewhere as far as I can tell.
4. New tools:
* either_or() - takes a list, and returns the first defined element of list.
* regex_range() - generate ranges from comma, space, or ranges like 2-29, or any
combination of those, like 3,6,12-29
5. Added --force cpuinfo to bypass all /sys based cpu logic, useful for testing
to see what would have happened using old logic.
6. Added --dbg switches 39, 40, 41, for the new cpu sys data features, also made
more consistent --dbg 8 and --dbg 38 switches.
7. Added sys/cpuinfo pair debugger to support debugging complex sys/cpuinfo
issues.
8. Got rid of $b_arm,$b_mips,$b_ppc,$b_sparc, replaced with global %risc, also
added $risc{'riscv'} type. this makes general risc type feature testing a lot
easier since inxi can either test for %risc defined, or for a specific type of
risc cpu. This is much cleaner, and use $risc{'id'} for print purposes, which
got rid of a lot of tests. Also made all risc tests consistent, some were ARM
only, or arm/mips, but were supposed to be for all risc cpus.
9. Set help menu code to roughly 80 columns width assuming 2 space tab
indentation.
10. Changed all xxx_cleaner subs to clean_xxx, all filter subs to filter_xxx,
and row_defaults() to message().
11. Dumped redundant fallback logic in get_kernel_bits, if first getconf method
fails, use $sys_bits, and call it good, it was repeating the 32/64 bit tests
pointlessly.
12. Cleaned up print_data() to allow for more fine tuned indentation for the new
2 indent levels.
13. Made help menu code more or less wrap to 80 columns, or close. Ongoing to
bring to 80 columns where practical, but never at expense of clarity or logic.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Harald Hope - Tue, 13 Dec 2021 10:25:49 -0800
|
||
|---|---|---|
| inxi | ||
| inxi.1 | ||
| inxi.changelog | ||
| LICENSE.txt | ||
| README.txt | ||
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 commits, 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 INXI (in inxi-legacy repo) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you'd like to look at the Gawk/Bash version of inxi, you can find it in the inxi-legacy repo, as binxi in the /inxi-legacy directory: Direct fast and easy install: wget -O binxi https://github.com/smxi/inxi-legacy/raw/master/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. This was kept for a long time as the inxi-legacy branch of inxi, but was moved to the inxi-legacy repo 2021-09-24. ================================================================================ 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: https://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. 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, or is difficult to process. 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 ###