Question: Vmstat output does not display date and time, which is a pain when trying to store the vmstat output to do some performance analysis.
So, how do I add timestamp to Linux vmstat output ?
Answer: You can display timestamp on every line of the vmstat command output using a simple perl script as shown below.
Default Vmstat output (without timestamp)
$ vmstat 1 5 procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- ----cpu---- r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa 0 0 33308 450080 59020 6757044 1 1 551 148 1 6 26 9 60 5 0 0 33308 449960 59020 6757044 0 0 0 0 1068 1576 1 1 98 0 1 0 33308 453928 59020 6757044 0 0 0 48 1049 1628 2 1 97 0 0 0 33308 454120 59020 6757044 0 0 0 0 1034 1663 2 1 96 0 0 0 33308 454112 59020 6757044 0 0 0 0 1025 1535 1 1 98 0
Vmstat output with timestamp
Create the following simple timestamp.pl
$ vi timestamp.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl
while (<>) { print localtime() . ": $_"; }
Now pipe the vmstat command output to this timestamp.pl to display the timestamp as shown below.
$ vmstat 1 5 | timestamp.pl Sat Aug 22 20:50:36 2009: procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- --system-- ----cpu---- Sat Aug 22 20:50:36 2009: r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa Sat Aug 22 20:50:36 2009: 2 0 33308 452080 59084 6761140 1 1 551 148 1 6 26 9 60 5 Sat Aug 22 20:50:37 2009: 0 0 33308 454368 59084 6761140 0 0 0 0 1028 1713 2 1 96 0 Sat Aug 22 20:50:38 2009: 0 0 33308 454368 59084 6761140 0 0 0 0 1010 1432 0 0 100 0 Sat Aug 22 20:50:39 2009: 0 0 33308 454368 59084 6761140 0 0 0 12 1021 1481 1 0 99 0 Sat Aug 22 20:50:40 2009: 0 0 33308 457184 59084 6761140 0 0 0 0 1029 1549 1 1 98 0
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Thanks for great website.
Unfortunately I’m unable to get this to work. One part that seems to be missing is following:
chmod +x timestamp.pl
But when I type in your command “vmstat 1 5 | timestamp.pl” I get the following error message:
bash: timestamp.pl: command not found
What am I doing wrong?
[root ~]# vmstat 1 5 | timestamp.pl
bash: timestamp.pl: command not found
[root@220 ~]# vmstat 1 5 | perl timestamp.pl
Fri Aug 28 13:53:23 2009: procs memory page disks faults cpu
Fri Aug 28 13:53:23 2009: r b w avm fre flt re pi po fr sr ad18 ad20 in sy cs us sy id
Fri Aug 28 13:53:23 2009: 0 2 0 606280 170548 3308 0 0 1 3041 65 0 0 222 17009 5351 6 2 92
…
2-nd variant:
vmstat 1 5 | ./timestamp.pl
another way is to copy script or program to bin catalog
(csh):
~ ~> cp timestamp.pl bin/timestamp
~ ~> rehash
~ ~> vmstat 1 5 | timestamp
I hope so:
vmstat |awk ‘{print system (“date +%D\” \”%H:%M:|tr -d ‘\”\n’\””)$0}’
RNDr. Michael Banzet
Another way is :
vmstat 1 5 | awk ‘{print strftime(“%D %H:%M:%S”, systime()) ” ” $0 }’
here is a suggestion for awk in a shell:
:~> vmstat 1 5 | awk ‘{system(“/bin/echo -n `/bin/date`”); print “: ” $0}’
Fri Aug 28 17:58:17 CEST 2009: procs ———–memory———- —swap– —–io—- -system– —-cpu—-
Fri Aug 28 17:58:17 CEST 2009: r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
Fri Aug 28 17:58:17 CEST 2009: 3 0 104 88460 280268 1038164 0 0 67 13 35 30 1 0 99 1
Fri Aug 28 17:58:18 CEST 2009: 0 0 104 87760 280276 1038168 0 0 0 100 103 248 2 1 97 1
Fri Aug 28 17:58:19 CEST 2009: 0 0 104 87636 280276 1038168 0 0 0 0 114 235 0 0 100 0
Fri Aug 28 17:58:20 CEST 2009: 0 0 104 88124 280276 1038168 0 0 0 0 70 160 1 0 99 0
Fri Aug 28 17:58:21 CEST 2009: 0 0 104 88092 280276 1038168 0 0 0 0 104 231 1 1 99 0
you can modify the date output with the date command and the vmstat output with awk’s print and printf command (below is only an example for proof of concept – not meant to make sense š ):
:~> vmstat 1 5 | awk ‘{system(“/bin/echo -n `/bin/date +’%A-%D-%H:%M:%S’`”); print ” ” $3 ” ” $4 ” ” $5 ” ” $6}’
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:09 —swap– —–io—- -system– —-cpu—-
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:09 swpd free buff cache
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:09 104 56596 281372 1068124
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:10 104 55716 281372 1068124
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:11 104 55596 281372 1068124
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:12 104 55456 281380 1068124
Friday-08/28/09-18:04:13 104 55828 281380 1068124
Ulrich
Ok, Michael’s suggestion is much better than mine.
I would set the system command out of the print command, because you get an ugly zero at the end of the date. Here is what I mean:
:~> vmstat 1 5 |awk ‘{print system (“date +%A:|tr -d ā\”\nā\””)$0}’
Friday:0procs ———–memory———- —swap– —–io—- -system– —-cpu—-
Friday:0 r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
Friday:0 4 0 104 50060 283668 1070152 0 0 67 13 35 30 1 0 99 1
Friday:0 0 0 104 49476 283676 1070152 0 0 0 100 84 206 2 1 98 1
Friday:0 4 0 104 49684 283676 1070152 0 0 0 0 115 246 0 0 100 0
Friday:0 0 0 104 49160 283676 1070152 0 0 0 0 80 256 2 0 99 0
What I would do:
:~> vmstat 1 5 |awk ‘{system (“date +%A:|tr -d ā\”\nā\””) ; print $0}’
Friday:procs ———–memory———- —swap– —–io—- -system– —-cpu—-
Friday: r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy id wa
Friday: 2 0 104 49960 283708 1070156 0 0 67 13 35 30 1 0 99 1
Friday: 0 0 104 49132 283708 1070156 0 0 0 0 98 213 2 0 98 0
Friday: 3 0 104 49752 283708 1070156 0 0 0 0 110 247 0 0 100 0
Friday: 0 0 104 49216 283708 1070156 0 0 0 0 87 364 1 1 98 0
Ulrich
You can do it just in bash and no awk
vmstat 1 5 | while read line; do echo “`date`$line”; done
@All,
Thanks a lot for sharing your alternative ways to display the timestap on vmstat output. It looks great.
Another solution in Perl:
vmstat 1 4 | perl -pe ‘print localtime().” “‘