- clichart ? ^^^^ + CLIChart ? ^^^^
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About clichart

? ^^^^ +

About CLIChart

? ^^^^ If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a chart (or graph) is worth 10,000 lines of data. -

Clichart is a tool for quick visualisation of tabular data on the command line by ? ^^^ +

CLIChart is a set of tools for quick visualisation of tabular data on the command line by ? ^^^ +++++++ + generating and displaying charts. It can:

  • Display charts in a window, save them to disk (JPEG or PNG), or both
  • Accept data in comma- or whitespace-separated formats
  • Read data from a file, or have it piped into its standard input
  • Display XY line charts, with the X axis based on dates, times or values. The Y axis must be simple values (integer or decimal) -
  • Be used interactively, or driven via scripts. ? - +
  • Be used interactively, or driven via scripts +
  • Generate summary data based on counts, averages, minimum, maximum of input fields +
  • Generate summary data based on discrete values +
  • Generate aggregates from tabular data +
  • Operate in CLI server mode, generating 1 or more charts based on commands passed via + standard in (either from another script, or from a command file).
- Probably the easiest way to get a feel for what clichart can do, and whether it's ? ^^^^ + Probably the easiest way to get a feel for what CLIChart can do, and whether it's ? ^^^^ of interest to you, is to look at the quick start guide. -

Clichart was originally developed for interactive charting of data from server log ? ^^^ +

CLIChart was originally developed for interactive charting of data from server log ? ^^^ files, so its primary audience is probably software developers and system administrators. -

The project also includes other tools (linestats, discretestats and mid) to help generate summary data - from log files and other textual data. If you're using Java, you can also use clichart as a library. +

The main tool in the CLIChart project is clichart, which (surprisingly enough) generates charts + from the Command Line Interface (CLI). The project also includes other tools (linestats, discretestats, + aggregate and mid) to help generate summary data from log files and other textual data. If you're using + Java, you can also use clichart as a library. + + + Tools in the CLIChart package + + +

Tools in the CLIChart package - click for the full-sized diagram.

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Sample output from clichart

? ^^^^ +

Sample output from CLIChart

? ^^^^ - Here's a sample chart generated by clichart, from a CSV file extracted from data in a ? ^^^^ + Here's a sample chart generated by CLIChart, from a CSV file extracted from data in a ? ^^^^ system log (click the image to see the full-size chart). Sample chart

The command-line required to generate the chart was: 

      clichart -fcl 0,1,2,3 -t "Processing of Foo Requests - 12 Feb 2006" \
              -y "Requests per minute"  system.log.2006-02-12.fooRates.csv
And bear in mind that most of the command-line is titles and other prettiness, so it's pretty simple and quick.

Here's a more involved chart, including a second Y axis displayed as a bar. Sample chart 2 -

Requirements for running clichart

? ^^^^ +

Requirements for running CLIChart

? ^^^^ - Clichart requires Java version 1.4 (aka Java 4) and above. However, Java 1.5 or 1.6 (aka Java 5 and 6) ? ^^^ + CLIChart requires Java version 1.4 (aka Java 4) and above. However, Java 1.5 or 1.6 (aka Java 5 and 6) ? ^^^ - are better choices (i.e. run faster). Clichart should run whereever Java does, but it gets ? ^^^ + are better choices (i.e. run faster). CLIChart should run whereever Java does, but it gets ? ^^^ tested on Linux and Windows.

The additional tools for generation of tabular data require Python 2.2 or above, and should run anywhere.

Installation is simple - see here for details.

Download and Forums

- Clichart is hosted on SourceForge - you'll find ? ^^^ + CLIChart is hosted on SourceForge - you'll find ? ^^^ the project download page here.

SourceForge also has the project forum pages, which are a great place to ask questions and find answers. -

Quick start with clichart

? ^^^^ +

Quick start with CLIChart

? ^^^^ The quick start page will give you a fast run - through the tools in clichart, so you can see them in action. The page also has ? ^^^^ + through the tools in CLIChart, so you can see them in action. The page also has ? ^^^^ examples of the output from running against data in the samples directory - provided with clichart. ? ^^^^ + provided with CLIChart. ? ^^^^ -

Installing clichart

? ^^^^ +

Installing CLIChart

? ^^^^ Mostly, all you have to do is unzip the package. See the installation page for more information.

Documentation

See the project documentation index.

Licence

- Clichart is licenced under the GNU Lesser (or Library) Public Licence. See the LICENCE.txt file ? ^^^ + CLIChart is licenced under the GNU Lesser (or Library) Public Licence. See the LICENCE.txt file ? ^^^ for details.

Contact Me

My name's John Dickson. I'm an architect for server-side Java systems, and I seem to have - spent far too much of my life looking at logs to try to understand what the system was ? --- + spent far too much of my life looking at logs trying to understand what the system was ? +++ - doing at particular moments. Clichart grew out of that experience. ? ^^^ + doing at particular moments. CLIChart grew out of that experience. ? ^^^

You can get in touch with me at the email address: 'captsens at gmail dot com'. I'd love to - hear whether clichart scratches your itch, and if not why not. ? ^^^^ + hear whether CLIChart scratches your itch, and if not why not. ? ^^^^