From Newsgroup: alt.os.linux.slackware
sysstat comes with an rc switch, but it doesn't do much of anything. For
years I've had another one around here but decided yesterday to shine it
up and post it in the hopes someone would find it useful. It can be used
to start, stop, and also output a graph in SVG.
rc.sysstat
sysstat version 12.8.0
(C) Sebastien Godard (sysstat <at> orange.fr)
[+] systat data collection server run control switch
Usage:
rc.sysstat <start | stop | restart | graph>
In the sysstat manpage, the cron daemon runs it but I prefer to have the
daemon running and have it sample every N minutes. Then cron only needs
to generate the reports.
sar
...
10:34:16 AM CPU %user %nice %system %iowait %steal %idle 10:49:16 AM all 20.67 0.00 2.18 0.10 0.00 77.05 Average: all 19.38 0.00 2.59 0.23 0.00 77.80
Clobber /etc/rc.d/rc.sysstat, set executable, make sure it's hooked into
the startup scripts, and read the script comments for the rest of the
inner workings. Inkscape will view the SVG graphs.
#!/bin/bash
##
## $Id: rc.sysstat,v 1.1 2026/09/02 17:52:19 jayjwa Exp $
##
## Script to control the stats gathering suite of programs,
## sysstat. "sadc" is the backend of "sar" that collects the
## data. This script launches, stops, and restarts the main
## collector. A graph can also be requested via this script.
## Other scripts, as cron jobs under root and systab
## (the virtual user for the system itself for fcrontab),
## will see to it that system report summaries are made at
## the right times.
##
## The following examples are in fcrontab format:
# Enter a "restart" mark in the data file for sadc and make sure that
# data file is created just after midnight each day so that the 'sar'
# command will always produce output instead of 'file not found'.
#& 1 0 * * * /usr/lib64/sa/sadc -
##
# Generate a summary of process accounting each midnight
# This is only the report generation, but is still needed.
#%nightly * 23 /usr/lib64/sa/sa2 -A
#%nightly * 23 /usr/lib64/sa/sa1 --rotate
##
## Default options set in this script:
## -S = Specify which optional activities should be collected by sadc
## -F = Force creation of logfile (if something messes it up, this
## command will ensure it gets reset correctly.)
## -L = Lock the logfile during write to avoid corruption of it
## [first numeric position] = make a record at this interval, in seconds
## [second numeric position] = make this many records then stop (count)
##
## $Log: rc.sysstat,v $
## Revision 1.1 2026/09/02 17:52:19 jayjwa
## Initial revision
##
##
## --------------------------------------------------------------------
## [Script data] ------------------------------------------------------
# Color codes for fancy output
readonly RED='\033[0;31m' # Error conditions
readonly GREEN='\033[0;32m' # Operation was successful readonly BLUE='\033[0;34m' # Informational and other readonly NC='\033[0m' # Shut off color output
# The user's function to perform: must be one of
# (start, stop, restart), else give usage message.
command=$1
# The 'sadc' binary itself. As per Slackware64 Current: SADC="/usr/lib64/sa/sadc"
# The options to pass to sadc. See 'man sadc'.
options="-F -S XALL -L"
# Take system activity data record every (sample_rate) seconds.
# 60s per minute, 900/60 = every 15 minutes record data
sample_rate=900
# Help/usage text function
usage() {
printf "${BLUE}"
# Announce program version, too
$SADC -V
printf "%s${NC}\\n\\n" \
"[+] systat data collection server run control switch
Usage:
$(basename ${0}) <start | stop | restart | graph>"
}
# Sanity function. The directory /var/log/sa must exit for the data
# files to be written correctly.
sane() {
mkdir -p /var/log/sa
}
## [Execution mode] ------------------------------------------------------------
case ${command} in
'start')
# Start the collector, sadc, and log to syslog
if ! ps -C sadc 1> /dev/null; then
# Not running, start it as per options given, log restart
sane
$SADC -
$SADC ${options} ${sample_rate} - &
printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\\n" "[+] sysstat data collection server started"
printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\\n" " Rate: ${sample_rate}"
# Note operation in syslog. 'logger' is part of util-linux
logger -t sysstat -p daemon.info -- "sysstat data collector started, sampling at every ${sample_rate} seconds"
else
# Don't do anything if it's already running except note this fact
printf "${BLUE}%s${NC}\\n" "[+] systat is already running"
fi
;;
'stop')
# Stop sadc
if ps -C sadc 1> /dev/null; then
killall -q sadc
printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\\n" "[+] sysstat halted"
logger -t sysstat -p daemon.notice -- "sysstat shut down by rc script"
else
printf "${RED}%s${NC}\\n" "[-] sysstat not running"
fi
;;
'restart')
# If it's not running, this shouldn't error out
killall -q sadc
sleep 1
sane
# Write a restart note and then proceed as in 'start' function
$SADC -
$SADC ${options} ${sample_rate} - &
printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\\n" "[+] sysstat data collection server restarted"
printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\\n" " Rate: ${sample_rate}"
# Note operation in syslog.
logger -t sysstat -p daemon.info -- "sysstat data collector restarted, sampling at every ${sample_rate} seconds"
;;
'graph')
# Output a graph to date-labeled file as an SVG image in
# the users's home directory (which should always be writable).
# If someone can write into the user's home for symlink attacks
# then there are larger problems to solve.
# 'sadf' is in /usr/bin by default.
sadf -P ALL -T -g > ~/sysstat-graph-$(date +%b-%d-%a-%H:%M).svg && \
printf "${GREEN}%s${NC}\\n" "Graph written in SVG format to ~/" || \
printf "${RED}%s${NC}" "Unable to write graph to ~/"
;;
*)
# Give help/usage message on all other input and exit
usage
exit 1
esac
## EOF
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