GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 127714
can't sort by process characteristics
Last modified: 2012-12-06 12:05:54 UTC
I can't sort processes by cpu usage, memory usage, process name, etc... because the system monitor contains a process tree, not a process list, which can only sort by characteristics of top level processes and not their children. For instance, system monitor reports that X is using 66.3MB of memory (second only to MozillaFirebird-bin at 101MB), but when I sort by memory it's nowhere near the top since it's a child process of gdm, which uses only 10.6MB of memory. I would like to see the current "Process Listing" separated into a process tree (for viewing parent-child relationships, possibly with an "End Process Tree" button in addition to an "End Process" button) and a process list (for absolute sorting of all processes by certain characteristics).
View->Dependencies or prefs/show dependencies. Is this what you want? Gnome-System monitor can either show a list or tree.
>View->Dependencies or prefs/show dependencies. > >Is this what you want? Gnome-System monitor can either show a list or >tree. Ah. The process list mode does exactly what I need. Thanks. :) Still, it was hard for me to find. I think of process trees and process lists as tools for different tasks (with different strengths and weaknesses). This is probably my windows experience showing through, but since the operations one might want to perform in each environment (changing priority, killing a process, etc..) have so much overlap, it seems like a great idea to have both in one application. Also, when I see "Process Dependencies", I think of an option that will give me information similar to what I really get when I choose to view "Memory Maps" ("How do I find out which libraries this process depends upon?") How about this: Maybe the name of the "Process Listing" tab could be changed to "Processes", and the "Process Dependencies" View menu item could be moved onto the tab and implemented as a couple of radio buttions. Like this: _________ |Processes|___________________________________________________ [o] Process List Search:[_______] View:(My Processes V) [ ] Process Tree <<process list or tree>> (More Info >>) (End Process) -------------------------------------------------------------- I think that would make it very obvious to the new user which options are available, and what they do.
Reopening with this new information.
*** Bug 130081 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I like the sound of your idea tint, but having just coming from using the fantastic Process Explorer on Windows, I have a few suggestions. I think the radio buttons should be replaced with a checkbox to save space, i.e.: ________ ___________ ___________ ______________ | System | Processes | Resources | File Systems | ---------+ +--------------------------------------------- [ ] Show process tree Search:[_________________________] Users are able to either show the processes as a tree, or sort them by a column. The 'Show process tree' checkbox is checked by default. When the checkbox is unchecked, the last sort options are restored. When the 'Show process tree' checkbox becomes checked, the current sort options are saved and then disabled (always sorted by process name when in tree mode). When a column is clicked to sort by, the checkbox becomes unchecked, as you cannot sort by anything else whilst in tree mode.
Wow, I just saw how old this thread is... Why is this still the same?
@ZimbiX: This is a pretty combination of other bugs, so based on what I have seen, this bug is getting fixed... slowly, but it is getting fixed. (In reply to comment #5) > I like the sound of your idea tint, but having just coming from using the > fantastic Process Explorer on Windows, I have a few suggestions. > I think the radio buttons should be replaced with a checkbox to save space, > i.e.: > ________ ___________ ___________ ______________ > | System | Processes | Resources | File Systems | > ---------+ +--------------------------------------------- > [ ] Show process tree Search:[_________________________] > Something like the checkbox you are asking has already been implemented, right now the Processes tab has a View button with items to select My/Active/All processes, and an additional checkbox for Dependencies (the same action as Show process tree, however the naming is a bit awkward). About the search field, there is another bug, namely bug #509787 to add a filter textbox to filter the processes shown. > Users are able to either show the processes as a tree, or sort them by a > column. > The 'Show process tree' checkbox is checked by default. > When the checkbox is unchecked, the last sort options are restored. > When the 'Show process tree' checkbox becomes checked, the current sort options > are saved and then disabled (always sorted by process name when in tree mode). > When a column is clicked to sort by, the checkbox becomes unchecked, as you > cannot sort by anything else whilst in tree mode. Sorting can be useful in the tree mode too, with some more adjustments (see bug #130081). Basically most columns are numeric, and sorting those can be useful, e.g. finding the most cpu consuming process, however as suggested in the other bug, this would require that the parent shows its own cpu usage + the usage of its children (the same for memory), and if that gets implemented, sorting makes sense in tree view too, there's no point of making sorting and the tree view mutually exclusive.
Based on the above comment I am marking this as a duplicate of bug #130081, as that suggests a possible solution of fixing sorting in Dependencies view. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 130081 ***