I have finally decided to release PyKstat, a Python interface to the Solaris kstat(3k) API. The package can be found at http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/~annis/creations/pykstat.html Here is the README file which comes with the package... This is the initial release of a Python interface to the Solaris kstat API. I recommend checking out the man pages for information on the C API. This will only work for Solaris, and has been tested on Solaris 2.5, 2.5.1, and 2.6 for SPARC Solaris, and 2.6 for the Intel version of Solaris, using Python 1.5.1 and 1.5.2. * Why did I do this? I am currently re-implementing a machine monitoring system. The original version, written in Perl, has to fork off and parse the output from various system data tools, such as iostat, vmstat, uptime, etc. As it turns out, the vast majority of this data -- and a whole lot more -- is available via the kstat(3k) interface. I wanted to be able to get all this data without forking. * How did I do this? The PyKstat package has several parts, starting with a helper library in C wrapping kstat into something more friendly. The next layer is the lowest Python layer, and is generated by SWIG. I distribute the SWIG generated wrappers, so you do not need SWIG installed to use this package... unless you want to. The SWIG layer is little more than a Python version of my wrappers. The next layer is in kstat.py. This provides an object oriented interface, and nicely hides the chain-following you have to do if you use the simplest interface. kstat.py provides a single class, Kstat, which does all the interesting work. This interface does however assume some familiarity with the kstat(3k) API. The final layer of PyKstat, and the interface I suspect most people will want to use, is in kstats.py. This interface is *not* OOPy, but it does use the Kstat class as its engine. I strongly recommend looking at the doc strings in kstats.py and playing with the many functions provided to get a feel for the API. For the perversely curious, the dependencies are: kstat API <- wkstat.c (my helpers) <- wkstatmodule.so (SWIG generated interface to wkstat.c) <- kstat.py (OOPy interface to wkstatmodule.so) <- kstats.py (the most friendly interface). * What about bugs? There are doubtless some bugs. However, I don't believe there are any major ones. I have been using this software to check machine statistics for a few months now, and in fact some single Python programs have been running *continuously* for a month and reporting on machine statistics. If you discover any bugs, certainly let me know, but try to include as much information as possible, and a snippet of code which causes the problem. The install process could be more elegant. * Cool! How do I install this. Take a look at the Makefile. It's pretty simple. You should only need to change your CC, though I recommend using gcc, and the two lines saying where your Python is installed. Then run 'make', then 'make install'. The install process is crude in the extreme, and simply copies a few files into your Python library area. Check out the few examples in the examples directory to get an idea of how this package can be used. I've included the program netd as an example. It will *not* work for you, since it requires libraries I've not made public yet. It does, however, provide an interesting example. William S. Annis 99jun09 == William Annis - System Administrator - Biomedical Computing Group annis@biostat.wisc.edu PGP ID:1024/FBF64031 Mi parolas Esperanton - La Internacia Lingvo www.esperanto.org <P><A HREF="http://www.biostat.wisc.edu/~annis/creations/pykstat.html"> PyKstat 0.01</A> - directly access Solaris kernel statistics facility, kstat(3k), from within Python. (09-Jun-99) -- ----------- comp.lang.python.announce (moderated) ---------- Article Submission Address: python-announce@python.org Python Language Home Page: http://www.python.org/ Python Quick Help Index: http://www.python.org/Help.html ------------------------------------------------------------