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knb
Asked: 2022-04-16 01:38:53 +0800 CST

2 system-performance reporting-tools (dstat, pcp) are proposed by apt - which package is "official"?

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When I try to run performance monitoring and reporting tool "dstat", I simply type

dstat

on the command line. I don't have it installed. Ubuntu 20.04 comes up with this output:

> dstat
# command output

Command 'dstat' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install dstat  # version 0.7.4-6, or
sudo apt install pcp    # version 5.0.3-1

Which package is "official"? Is pcp actually better? It has the higher version number, whereas dstat is v0.7. - Or does pcp simply include dstat 0.7. but also includes a web frontend (or something like that)

Get some basic info about both tools:

dstat

apt info dstat | grep -A 2 Description:

Description: versatile resource statistics tool
 Dstat is a versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat and ifstat.

pcp

apt info pcp | grep -A 2 Description:

Description: System level performance monitoring and performance management
 Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) is a framework and services to
 support system-level performance monitoring and performance

Update: Meanwhile I have installed dstat. I still do not understand why Ubuntu proposes both packages, as equivalent alternatives (or).

command-line

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    According to this post and this post, pcp is a newly developed version of dstat with extended capabilities.

    Dstat is a beloved tool by many, and a staple when diagnosing system performance issues. However, the original dstat is no longer actively developed. This poses an immediate problem for distributions like Fedora moving to a Python 3 stack, as it lacks a Python 3 implementation (both the tool itself, and its many plugins). It is also problematic in that the plugin system was relatively simplistic and in need of a significant redesign and rewrite to add new desired features.

    Interestingly, the current version of dstat for Ubuntu uses python3 so it seems there are some inconsistencies between the Redhat and Ubuntu versions of dstat and it appears our version is not as outdated.

    EDIT: the following applies to 18.04 and it seems that dstat is included in 20.04, possibly using the pcp dstat command

    For 18.04, dstat is not included with pcp and the pcp dstat command produces the following error:

    ~$ pcp dstat
Cannot find a pcp-dstat command to execute
Please install pcp system tools package

    I tried this with pcp installed and with both pcp and dstat installed. I'm pretty sure this is a dstat error and not an Ubuntu error. However, it is strange that, according to Ubuntu, pcp provides dstat on 18.04 when, apparently, it does not.

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