Bug#1032615: dstat is discontinued, let us consider dool ?

[Christian Ehrhardt]

Package: dstat
Version: 0.7.4-6.1

(Resent as I forgot to add package and version due to all the writing)

Hi,
I've used dstat for years and was always happy. Then I stepped away
for a while and recently found it would break if some options were
used. For example in current sid:

root@d10-sid:~# dstat --cpu-adv --noupdate --output foo.csv 10 6
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/dstat", line 2847, in <module>
main()
File "/usr/bin/dstat", line 2687, in main
scheduler.run()
File "/usr/lib/python3.11/sched.py", line 151, in run
action(*argument, **kwargs)
File "/usr/bin/dstat", line 2806, in perform
oline = oline + o.showcsv() + o.showcsvend(totlist, vislist)
^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/bin/dstat", line 547, in showcsv
if isinstance(self.val[name], types.ListType) or
isinstance(self.val[name], types.TupleType):
^^^^^
NameError: name 'types' is not defined. Did you mean: 'type'?

Since I remembered this as rather well developed I wondered and had a
look at [1].
Reading there didn't make me too happy as it is essentially dead since
almost 4 years now due to [2].


But it made me spot that there is a continued fork in the form of [3]

That not only fixes the issue I had above, but many many others.
So I wondered if/how we should consider replacing dstat with dool in Debian?

I did check, but there is no ITP yet listed in [4]
So it seems there was no discussion yet AFAICS.

Hence I wanted to ask how/if you'd want to play this out.
1. Should we add dool independent of dstat, and once dool looks good
make dstat a transitional (and add a name alias and conflicts to dool
to take over as drop in)?
2. Should we keep src:dstat even though it actually isn't and use the
dool content (just adding a license and wording changes in some
places, and adding both binary names, probably man page alternatives
as well)
3. Anything else (there are too many details to predict)

Please let me know what you think and prefer, based on that I could
prepare an ITP+upload or a proposal to change src:dstat once I have
some weekend time again. Due to the freezes we have some time anyway
:-)

Thanks in advance for thinking about this with me,
Christian

[1]: https://github.com/dstat-real/dstat
[2]: https://github.com/dstat-real/dstat/issues/170
[3]: https://github.com/scottchiefbaker/dool
[4]: https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/requested

--
Christian Ehrhardt
Senior Staff Engineer, Ubuntu Server
Canonical Ltd

[Emanuele Rocca]

Hi Christian,

On Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 08:24:22AM +0100, Christian Ehrhardt wrote:
> So I wondered if/how we should consider replacing dstat with dool in Debian?

Thanks for starting the discussion. I agree that dstat in Debian could use some
improvement! :-)

Dool looks good, let's get it in the archive. Feel free to go ahead with
ITP+upload if you have the time and add me as co-maintainer.

> 1. Should we add dool independent of dstat, and once dool looks good
> make dstat a transitional (and add a name alias and conflicts to dool
> to take over as drop in)?

I think this is the way to go.

Thanks,
ema

[Christian Ehrhardt]

Thanks for your feedback, accordingly I've opened an ITP for dool at
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1032875

[Marc Lehmann]

Please do NOT consider dool as replacement for dstat, but pcp instead.

The reasons are not only that pcp seems to be much more actively maintained,
it is also vastly more compatible to dstat than dool. For example, dool uses
an unreadable color palette (e.g. black text on black background) by
default, and uses a very different default output format.

pcp both works with the same terminals as dstat, and has a practically
identical default output format, i.e. it is indistinguishable top dstat
for most users out of the box.

It would certainly be great to package dool, but since it does not seem
to try to maintain bakcwards compatibility to dstat at all, it should not
be the default replacement, instead it should be pcp, which, for existing
dstat users, provides essentially the same experience.

--
The choice of a Deliantra, the free code+content MORPG
-----==- _GNU_ http://www.deliantra.net
----==-- _ generation
---==---(_)__ __ ____ __ Marc Lehmann
--==---/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / sch...@schmorp.de
-=====/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\