HotSpot CLI: AI-Powered Thermal Scan for Process Anomalies

Problem:

Monitoring process health and quickly identifying resource-hungry or anomalous processes on a server can be a manual and tedious task using top or ps aux. We need a quick, visual way to spot 'hotspots' – processes consuming excessive CPU or memory, potentially indicating a problem or misconfiguration, reminiscent of an 'AI-powered thermal scan'.

Solution (Tool Name):

HotSpot CLI (a Zsh/Bash function)

CODE SNIPPET:


# Add this function to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
hotspot() {
  echo -e "\033[1;36m--- HotSpot CLI: AI-Powered Thermal Scan (Top 10 Processes) ---\033[0m"
  echo -e "\033[1;33mPID     USER        %CPU    %MEM    COMMAND\033[0m"
  ps -eo pid,user,%cpu,%mem,command --sort=-%cpu | sed 1d | head -n 10 | \
  awk '{
    cpu = $3; mem = $4;
    # Define thresholds for "hot" processes
    cpu_threshold = 5.0; # Processes using >5% CPU
    mem_threshold = 5.0; # Processes using >5% Memory

    color_start = "";
    color_end = "\033[0m"; # Reset color

    if (cpu > cpu_threshold && mem > mem_threshold) {
      color_start = "\033[0;31m"; # Red for high CPU AND high MEM (Critical)
    } else if (cpu > cpu_threshold) {
      color_start = "\033[0;33m"; # Yellow for high CPU
    } else if (mem > mem_threshold) {
      color_start = "\033[0;35m"; # Magenta for high MEM
    }
    
    # Reconstruct line with potential color and ensure spacing
    printf "%s%-7s %-10s %-7s %-7s %s%s\n", color_start, $1, $2, $3, $4, substr($0, index($0,$5)), color_end;
  }'
  echo -e "\n\033[1;36m--- Legend: \033[0;31mHIGH CPU & MEM\033[0m, \033[0;33mHIGH CPU\033[0m, \033[0;35mHIGH MEM\033[0m ---\033[0m"
}

# Usage: Just type 'hotspot' in your terminal

Explanation:

The hotspot function provides an "AI-powered" thermal scan by intelligently highlighting potential process anomalies.

  • It leverages standard Unix utilities: ps to list processes (sorted by CPU), sed to skip the header, and head to focus on the top 10 most resource-intensive processes.
  • The "AI" component is a simple, yet effective, awk script that acts as a rule-based engine:
    • Processes consuming >5% CPU AND >5% Memory are flagged as critical and shown in RED.
    • Processes consuming >5% CPU (but not both) are highlighted in YELLOW.
    • Processes consuming >5% Memory (but not both) are highlighted in MAGENTA.
  • This color-coding allows for immediate visual identification of "hot" processes, enabling rapid anomaly detection and troubleshooting of performance issues or runaway applications without extensive manual analysis of raw process data. It's a quick and practical way to get an "at-a-glance" health check of your system's processes.

📚 More to Read

Explore more components and tools to boost your workflow.

ℹ️ Note: Code snippets are ready to copy-paste. Happy coding!

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