Bug 1153049 - Terrible view of new top program
Summary: Terrible view of new top program
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: procps-ng
Version: 21
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jaromír Cápík
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2014-10-15 13:45 UTC by Vasiliy Glazov
Modified: 2016-02-01 02:00 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

Fixed In Version: procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2014-11-01 17:12:08 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
top in GNOME (152.03 KB, image/png)
2014-10-16 20:59 UTC, Lubomir Rintel
no flags Details
red on black (106.93 KB, image/png)
2014-10-20 17:03 UTC, Jaromír Cápík
no flags Details
3.3.8-17 - old (51.22 KB, image/png)
2014-10-20 21:35 UTC, Account closed by the user
no flags Details
3.3.10-4 - new (54.76 KB, image/png)
2014-10-20 21:35 UTC, Account closed by the user
no flags Details

Description Vasiliy Glazov 2014-10-15 13:45:54 UTC
Description of problem:

With last update procps-ng output of top program is terrible. It has RED color and tree view. It is not good for eye and psychology and not allow quickly see most heavy load programs.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
procps-ng-3.3.10-3.fc21

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Just run top


Additional info:
Please return at least old output mode of top.

Comment 1 Vasiliy Glazov 2014-10-16 06:02:10 UTC
And also need return type of loading like %sys %idle %wa etc.

Comment 2 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-16 06:23:17 UTC
Hello Vasiliy.

It seems you haven't tried to explore the new top yet. You can do that by yourself by pressing the following combination of keys (respect the capital letters and note, that the character next to 'z' is digit '1', not letter 'l'): 

tttmmVbz1W

The above disables the cpu/memory graph modes, disables the forest view, changes reversed to bold, turns the colors off, disables the per-cpu stats and writes the configuration down.

But ... even when you consider the new top look hostile, I know it is just about how your brain accepts/rejects the unexpected layout change and surprise that breaks your habbits. The same happened in my case when I saw that for the first time, but I decided to give it a try and got used to it quite quickly. Well, to be honest I did few tweaks by switching the forrest view off, changing reversed to bold, changing the cpu graph mode from lines to filled bars and saving the config (key combination "VbtW" after removing ~/.toprc).
If you don't like the red and brown color, you can define your own colors with the 'Z' key, but honestly, I haven't found a better looking color combination than the default one.

Please, let me know whether you're ok with the hints above.

Thanks,
Jaromir.

Comment 3 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-16 06:31:43 UTC
... maybe one more hint ... you can change the set of columns and their order and sort order by pressing the 'f' key and then following the instructions in the header.

Comment 4 Vasiliy Glazov 2014-10-16 06:36:59 UTC
I am understand that I can do it via keys and save to .toprc. But if a new view good for all users by default?

Many users will be forced to do this manipulations.

Whatever it was we can return to discussion after Fedora 21 Release and more people update their systems.

Comment 5 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-16 07:28:03 UTC
Hello Vasiliy.

We'll probably newer get enough feedback to get accurate stats. You would have to let people vote.
By changing the defaults the 'top' tells users that the new features exist, as majority of users is not aware of any enhancements made in the tool during the last few years. I was thinking about that a lot and this way we can achieve an enlightenment and that's intended.

Regards,
Jaromir.

Comment 6 Morten Stevens 2014-10-16 09:40:50 UTC
@Jaromír

I think we should use the old style as default.

The new look is really terrible and many users do not know how to get the old style.

Please check: https://mstevens.fedorapeople.org/img/top.png and https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2014-12798/open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21,procps-ng-3.3.10-3.fc21

Comment 7 Vadim 2014-10-16 10:04:27 UTC
Hi, guys! I agree with Vasiliy Glazov that new style of top is not very well.

Comment 8 Ilia Danolov 2014-10-16 10:17:35 UTC
I agree with Vasiliy Glazov that new style of top is not good.

Comment 9 Michele Baldessari 2014-10-16 13:44:35 UTC
I think this new top is a nice improvement in general.

Maybe the default colors could be a bit softer on the eye though ;)
Maybe start off with normal white/gray for the process tree and the
same colors for cpu? 

Or maybe user the terminal colors-d facility from util-linux? (haven't
checked if it's already used and the defaults there need revisiting)
http://karelzak.blogspot.it/2014/04/terminal-colorsd.html

Comment 10 Michal Schmidt 2014-10-16 18:34:07 UTC
(In reply to Jaromír Cápík from comment #2)
> tttmmVbz1W

Thank you. I will be able to use this as a starting point for my own configuration.

Is there a way to configure a target to be printed using the default foreground color, so that it's white if the terminal has black background and vice-versa?

Comment 11 Lubomir Rintel 2014-10-16 20:59:56 UTC
Created attachment 947745 [details]
top in GNOME

This looks even more terible with GNOME's default color scheme. The red looks barely readable.

Could we turn on the monochromatic scheme back? It makes no assumption about terminal background. Given we basically only use two colors (red & brown) this should not be a big issue.

Comment 12 Lubomir Rintel 2014-10-16 21:45:48 UTC
Also, seems like the top can't be configured sanely system-wide. /etc/toprc looks rather useless for this purpose :(

Comment 13 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-20 14:12:14 UTC
I'm discussing all your comments with the author.

But now I'm more interested in the overflow seen on the picture.
Lubomire, could you please reproduce the overflow issue on the
Mem line and then switch the memory graphs back to the old mode
by pressing the 'm' key twice?
I'd like to know all the numbers on the Mem and the Swap line.

Thanks,
Jaromir.

Comment 14 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-20 16:16:47 UTC
(In reply to Morten Stevens from comment #6)
> @Jaromír
> 
> I think we should use the old style as default.
> 
> The new look is really terrible and many users do not know how to get the
> old style.

This goes against the idea of teaching people. I wanted to show people how to tweak the settings. If the users don't know, then they should learn how instead of consuming what's served.
Anyway, I'm sick of fighting with people who are able to give negative karma just because of their inability to accept changes in the look. It is not a valid reason for negative karma.

Comment 15 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-20 16:24:33 UTC
I just disabled the new defaults.

Comment 16 Michal Schmidt 2014-10-20 16:42:56 UTC
(In reply to Jaromír Cápík from comment #14)
> [people] give negative karma just because of their inability to accept
> changes in the look. It is not a valid reason for negative karma.

Well, I did not give negative karma, but I can understand why people would think at least some of the changes were bugs. I myself did suspect at first that the dominantly red look was a bug, until I found this BZ. It really was hardly readable on my dark terminal.

The update description contained the sentence "top offers new startup defaults" among the 20 (or so) lines, but in my view this did not sufficiently highlight the nature and intention of these changes.

As for the individual changes themselves, in my view:
I do not understand how the process tree view can be useful. I makes the CPU-hungry processes that I mainly want to see when I run top not appear on the screen at all.
I dislike the red color by default.
I really like the bar graphs for per-CPU loads. They instantly communicate to me the idea of the CPU load (though I acknowledge bug 1153820).

Comment 17 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-20 17:03:42 UTC
Created attachment 948638 [details]
red on black

Red on black looks well in my case ... I think it's only about habits. Like I stated above, at first I didn't like the colours, but after few weeks everything changed and now I don't like the old defaults.

Comment 18 Fedora Update System 2014-10-20 17:15:17 UTC
procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21,open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 21.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21,open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21

Comment 19 Morten Stevens 2014-10-20 17:30:37 UTC
(In reply to Jaromír Cápík from comment #14)

> This goes against the idea of teaching people. I wanted to show people how
> to tweak the settings. If the users don't know, then they should learn how
> instead of consuming what's served.
> Anyway, I'm sick of fighting with people who are able to give negative karma
> just because of their inability to accept changes in the look. It is not a
> valid reason for negative karma.

The reason for my negative karma was: The new startup defaults were unusable for me. The "top" command is an integral part of every UNIX system and the new startup default doesn't work as expected for me and many other users. The other reason was: We've still another process monitoring software with colors: htop

Nevertheless, thank you for going back to the old defaults.

Comment 20 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-20 18:33:48 UTC
(In reply to Morten Stevens from comment #19)
> The reason for my negative karma was: The new startup defaults were unusable
> for me. The "top" command is an integral part of every UNIX system

Sorry to disagree here. The 'top' tool is not available on all UNIX systems.


> and the
> new startup default doesn't work as expected for me and many other users.

Well, many = 5 in our case. But we also had 2 users, who liked the new changes. But it's common that satisfied people don't say a word and those who disagree can kill the whole idea and a lot of effort in few seconds. And with no comments or comments like "the new top behaviour is odd". The only valid negative karma I accept was that from Lubomir Rintel, who filled useful comments and also submitted bug reports.


> The other reason was: We've still another process monitoring software with
> colors: htop

Yes, and you're the co-maintainer. I know. That's why I thought you take that as a competition.


> Nevertheless, thank you for going back to the old defaults.

I had no choice. It's like hitting the wall with head. I wanted to bring all the 3.3.10 enhancements to users as soon as possible and to bump the API prior beta freeze and spent a lot of time on this task. You have no idea, how frustrating this is.

Comment 21 Account closed by the user 2014-10-20 21:34:08 UTC
3.3.8-17 vs. 3.3.10-4, tested on Fedora 20.

"free" and "used" columns did swap the order.

Comment 22 Account closed by the user 2014-10-20 21:35:07 UTC
Created attachment 948746 [details]
3.3.8-17 - old

Comment 23 Account closed by the user 2014-10-20 21:35:57 UTC
Created attachment 948747 [details]
3.3.10-4 - new

Comment 24 Morten Stevens 2014-10-21 09:57:10 UTC
(In reply to Jaromír Cápík from comment #20)

> Yes, and you're the co-maintainer. I know. That's why I thought you take
> that as a competition.

To make this clear: No, this was not a competition for me. Yes, I'm co-maintainer for htop, but this has no impact on my karma rating. Personally, I prefer top instead of htop.

Comment 25 Vasiliy Glazov 2014-10-21 10:07:34 UTC
(In reply to Jaromír Cápík from comment #13)
> I'm discussing all your comments with the author.
> 
> But now I'm more interested in the overflow seen on the picture.
> Lubomire, could you please reproduce the overflow issue on the
> Mem line and then switch the memory graphs back to the old mode
> by pressing the 'm' key twice?
> I'd like to know all the numbers on the Mem and the Swap line.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jaromir.

I also has wrong data for mem in bar view.
In number mode:
GiB Mem :    5,829 total,    0,584 free,    2,791 used,    2,454 buff/cache
GiB Swap:    2,000 total,    1,994 free,    0,006 used.    2,647 avail Mem

In bar mode:
GiB Mem : 54,2/5,829    [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||                                             ]
GiB Swap:  0,3/2,000    [                                                                                                    ]

It is for procps-ng-3.3.10-3.fc21.x86_64

Comment 26 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-21 12:12:09 UTC
(In reply to Xose Vazquez Perez from comment #21)
> 3.3.8-17 vs. 3.3.10-4, tested on Fedora 20.
> 
> "free" and "used" columns did swap the order.

Hi Xose.

Yes, that's true. Moreover the cached is now joined with buffers and a new entry called "avail Mem" appeared under.

Comment 27 Jaromír Cápík 2014-10-21 12:20:53 UTC
> I also has wrong data for mem in bar view.
> In number mode:
> GiB Mem :    5,829 total,    0,584 free,    2,791 used,    2,454 buff/cache
> GiB Swap:    2,000 total,    1,994 free,    0,006 used.    2,647 avail Mem
> 
> In bar mode:
> GiB Mem : 54,2/5,829   
> [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||                    
> ]
> GiB Swap:  0,3/2,000    [                                                   
> ]
> 
> It is for procps-ng-3.3.10-3.fc21.x86_64

Nope, it's correct in your case. The number represents a percentage of available/unavailable memory. Nowadays the value reported as 'free' loses the importance as a lot of memory is usually ocuppied by caches, but usually a lot of that space can be reclaimed. Moreover, a part of the space reported as free is protected by the kernel and cannot be used. That's why you should look at the 'avail Mem' field instead of the 'free' field. The latest procps-ng reflects the latest changes in the kernel memory management and I expect questions and confusions till users get used to that.

Comment 28 Fedora Update System 2014-10-21 17:24:43 UTC
Package procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21, open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21:
* should fix your issue,
* was pushed to the Fedora 21 testing repository,
* should be available at your local mirror within two days.
Update it with:
# su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21 open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21'
as soon as you are able to.
Please go to the following url:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2014-13392/procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21,open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21
then log in and leave karma (feedback).

Comment 29 Fedora Update System 2014-11-01 17:12:08 UTC
procps-ng-3.3.10-4.fc21, open-vm-tools-9.4.6-4.fc21 has been pushed to the Fedora 21 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.


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