Configuration

No configuration file is mandatory to use Glances.

Furthermore a configuration file is needed to access more settings.

Location

Note

A template is available in the /usr{,/local}/share/doc/glances (Unix-like) directory or directly on GitHub.

You can put your own glances.conf file in the following locations:

Linux, SunOS	~/.config/glances/, /etc/glances/, /usr/share/docs/glances/
*BSD	~/.config/glances/, /usr/local/etc/glances/, /usr/share/docs/glances/
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/glances/, /usr/local/etc/glances/, /usr/share/docs/glances/
Windows	%APPDATA%\glances\glances.conf

• On Windows XP, %APPDATA% is: C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Application Data.

• On Windows Vista and later: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming.

User-specific options override system-wide options and options given on the command line override either.

Syntax

Glances reads configuration files in the ini syntax.

A first section (called global) is available:

[global]
# Refresh rate (default is a minimum of 2 seconds)
# Can be overwrite by the -t <sec> option
# It is also possible to overwrite it in each plugin sections
refresh=2
# Does Glances should check if a newer version is available on PyPI ?
check_update=false
# History size (maximum number of values)
# Default is 28800: 1 day with 1 point every 3 seconds
history_size=28800

Each plugin, export module and application monitoring process (AMP) can have a section. Below an example for the CPU plugin:

[cpu]
disable=False
refresh=3
user_careful=50
user_warning=70
user_critical=90
iowait_careful=50
iowait_warning=70
iowait_critical=90
system_careful=50
system_warning=70
system_critical=90
steal_careful=50
steal_warning=70
steal_critical=90

an InfluxDB export module:

[influxdb]
# Configuration for the --export influxdb option
# https://influxdb.com/
host=localhost
port=8086
user=root
password=root
db=glances
prefix=localhost
#tags=foo:bar,spam:eggs

or a Nginx AMP:

[amp_nginx]
# Nginx status page should be enable (https://easyengine.io/tutorials/nginx/status-page/)
enable=true
regex=\/usr\/sbin\/nginx
refresh=60
one_line=false
status_url=http://localhost/nginx_status

With Glances 3.0 or higher it is also possible to use dynamic configuration value using system command. For example, if you to set the prefix of an InfluxDB export to the current hostname, use:

[influxdb]
...
prefix=`hostname`

Or if you want to add the Operating System name as a tag:

[influxdb]
...
tags=system:`uname -a`

Logging

Glances logs all of its internal messages to a log file.

DEBUG messages can been logged using the -d option on the command line.

The location of the Glances depends of your operating system. You could displayed the Glances log file full path using the``glances -V`` command line.

The file is automatically rotate when the size is higher than 1 MB.

If you want to use another system path or change the log message, you can use your own logger configuration. First of all, you have to create a glances.json file with, for example, the following content (JSON format):

{
    "version": 1,
    "disable_existing_loggers": "False",
    "root": {
        "level": "INFO",
        "handlers": ["file", "console"]
    },
    "formatters": {
        "standard": {
            "format": "%(asctime)s -- %(levelname)s -- %(message)s"
        },
        "short": {
            "format": "%(levelname)s: %(message)s"
        },
        "free": {
            "format": "%(message)s"
        }
    },
    "handlers": {
        "file": {
            "level": "DEBUG",
            "class": "logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler",
            "formatter": "standard",
            "filename": "/var/tmp/glances.log"
        },
        "console": {
            "level": "CRITICAL",
            "class": "logging.StreamHandler",
            "formatter": "free"
        }
    },
    "loggers": {
        "debug": {
            "handlers": ["file", "console"],
            "level": "DEBUG"
        },
        "verbose": {
            "handlers": ["file", "console"],
            "level": "INFO"
        },
        "standard": {
            "handlers": ["file"],
            "level": "INFO"
        },
        "requests": {
            "handlers": ["file", "console"],
            "level": "ERROR"
        },
        "elasticsearch": {
            "handlers": ["file", "console"],
            "level": "ERROR"
        },
        "elasticsearch.trace": {
            "handlers": ["file", "console"],
            "level": "ERROR"
        }
    }
}

and start Glances using the following command line:

LOG_CFG=<path>/glances.json glances

Note

Replace <path> by the folder where your glances.json file is hosted.