tuxctl
A lightweight, keyboard-first control center for the Linux terminal: system
overview, processes, systemd services, the journal and network interfaces in
one restrained TUI, written in Rust with Ratatui.
Documentation ·
Installation ·
Controls ·
Changelog
Features
- Overview: CPU, GPU, memory, network, storage and pinned-process cards
with graphs, temperatures and power, colored by load, laid out to fit any
terminal from 40×15 up.
- Processes: sort, search, pin, inspect, and send
SIGTERM / SIGKILL
only after confirmation, through pidfds so a reused PID is never hit.
- Services: systemd units and their states, searchable and filterable.
- Logs: the systemd journal, followed live, filtered by priority.
- Network: interfaces with live rates, addresses and error counters.
- Cheap: about 0.6 % of one core and under 3 MiB of memory when idle
(static build), with redraws only when something visible changes.
- Careful: asks for no privileges, and text from other users can never
reach the terminal as escape sequences.
Keyboard first, with mouse support for tabs, rows, sorting and buttons.
Install
Static binaries for x86_64 and aarch64 Linux are attached to every
release:
arch=$(uname -m)
base=https://github.com/Seqat/tuxctl/releases/latest/download
curl -LO "$base/tuxctl-$arch-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz" -LO "$base/SHA256SUMS"
sha256sum -c --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS
tar xzf "tuxctl-$arch-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz"
install -Dm755 "tuxctl-$arch-unknown-linux-musl/tuxctl" ~/.local/bin/tuxctl
Or from crates.io, with Rust 1.88 or newer:
cargo install tuxctl --locked
The static binaries cannot show NVIDIA GPUs on the proprietary driver. On
x86_64, download tuxctl-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz instead (the same
commands with gnu for musl; needs glibc 2.28 or newer), or build from
crates.io. See Installation
for verification and other options.
Quick start
tuxctl # start on the Overview
tuxctl --check # list the sensors tuxctl finds on this machine
| Key | Action |
|---|
1 – 5, Tab | Switch screens |
↑ ↓ / k j | Move the selection |
/ | Search |
Enter | Details |
T / K | SIGTERM / SIGKILL the selected process (asks first) |
P | Pin a process to the top and the Overview |
+ / - | Change the sampling interval |
? | Help for the current screen |
q | Quit (asks first); Ctrl+C quits at once |
All keys and mouse actions are on the
Controls page.
Requirements
Linux, with systemctl and journalctl for the Services and Logs screens.
Some sensors need an optional step, such as SATA disk temperatures or CPU
power; tuxctl --check tells you which, and
Optional setup explains
each one.
Documentation
The documentation covers each screen,
temperatures and GPUs,
design and reliability,
performance and
development. Its sources are
in docs/.
Contributing and security
See CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request, and the
security policy to report a vulnerability privately.
License
MIT; see LICENSE.
