system_monitor

Table of Contents

• About
• Image
• Installation
  • Dependencies
• Documentation
  • Overview
  • How it works
  • Code structure
  • Running the program
  • Testing
  • Known Limitations

About

A simple system monitor for Linux, using gtk4/gtkmm-4.0 and written in C++. This project was created as part of a school assignment to learn system-level programming in C++ and explore GUI development in gtk.

This program displays real-time usages statistics for the CPU, GPU, memory, hard drives and internet (upload/download). The program gets system information from the Linux /proc pseudo-filesystem and uses the Nvidia API to retrieve the GPU stats.

Image

Installation

Dependencies

• gtk4
• gtkmm-4.0
• cmake
• ninja
• gcc/g++

You can also use your favorite package manager

On Arch you would use pacman:

sudo pacman -S gcc gtk4 gtkmm4.0 cmake ninja

Using git

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Helland369/system_monitor.git

cd to project

cd system_monitor

cmake command

cmake --fresh -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON

cd to build

cd build

run the program

./system_monitor

Binary

You can get a binary here, but you need the gtk4 and gtkmm-4.0 dependencies.

Documentation

Overview

This system monitor gathers system statistics by reading files from the /proc pseudo-filesystem and accessing the NVIDIA API for GPU stats. It uses GTK4 and gtkmm-4.0 to build a modern, native Linux GUI.

• While running the program, you can press 1 through 5 to change the layout of the boxes.

How it works

• CPU & Memory Usage:

  Retrieved from /proc/stat, /proc/meminfo, and other related files.

• Disk Usage:

  Read from /proc/diskstats.

• Network Usage:

  Calculated Using /proc/net/dev, tracking changes in RX/TX byte counts over time.

• GPU Usage:

  Fetched via the NVIDIA Management Library (NVML).

• GUI:

  Built with GTK4 widgets using the gtkmm C++ bindings, updated in real time using timers.

Code structure

• /src/main.cpp Main entry point of the program.

• /src/SystemMonitorWindow.cpp GTK related UI and rendering.

• /src/CpuUsage.cpp Logic for gathering CPU usage info.

• src/FileSystem.cpp Logic for gathering Disk usage info.

• src/MemInfo.cpp Logic for gathering memory usage info.

• src/NetInfo.cpp Logic for gathering Network info.

• src/NvidiaInfo.cpp Logic for talking to the Nvidia api (NVML).

Running the program

After building the project, you can run the binary from the build/ folder:

./system_monitor

Testing

Tested on Arch Linux in I3 and X11

Known Limitations

• GPU monitoring only works with Nvidia GPUs via NVML.

• The program only supports Linux.

• GTK themes don't work.