Run glances webserver as a user service (agent) on macOS

README.md

com.boneskull.glances-web

This launch agent will automatically start a glances web server

Installation

1. Install Homebrew.
2. Install glances. Execute brew install glances.
3. Copy the .plist file in this gist into ~/Library/LaunchAgents/.
4. EDIT the .plist: change /Users/boneskull/ to /Users/<you>/
5. Execute launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.boneskull.glances-web.plist. Do not run this command with superuser privileges.

Notes

• You can also just install glances via pip3 if you have it.
• This may be better installed as a global daemon instead of a user agent.

com.boneskull.glances-web.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>KeepAlive</key>
	<true/>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>com.boneskull.glances-web</string>
	<key>ProcessType</key>
	<string>Interactive</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/usr/local/bin/glances</string>
		<string>-w</string>
	</array>
	<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
	<string>/Users/boneskull/Library/Logs/com.boneskull.glances-web.err.log</string>
	<key>StandardOutPath</key>
	<string>/Users/boneskull/Library/Logs/com.boneskull.glances-web.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

For some reason I can't get this to work... I installed glances using pip3, and with the array strings, the directory I'm not sure is valid anymore, or at least with pip3...

It runs the plist file because it creates the log files, but it's not running the glances web server. When I run "glances -w" in terminal it works as it should...

@iamronr At the time this was written, homebrew installed executables into /usr/local/bin, but now I think it's /opt/homebrew/bin. You'll need to change that path and also the path to the logs (replace boneskull with your username)

@iamronr At the time this was written, homebrew installed executables into /usr/local/bin, but now I think it's /opt/homebrew/bin. You'll need to change that path and also the path to the logs (replace boneskull with your username)

It would still use homebrew even if the install was done with pip3 and not brew?

ah no. I don’t know where it’d be. run which glances from terminal and it should tell you. use that

ah no. I don’t know where it’d be. run which glances from terminal and it should tell you. use that

Comes back to this -> /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.12/bin/glances

Going to test it in a few and see if it works...

I've been getting this in terminal:

Load failed: 5: Input/output error
Try running `launchctl bootstrap` as root for richer errors.

I solved it. For local installs using pip3, routing to the glances script is necessary. Using which glances like you suggested showed the path. My error that I was getting was a result of glances-web already being loaded. I had to unload and reload to get it working again. I used an app called LaunchControl on macOS to aid.

Thanks a lot for the right up. I finally have glances going, and have added it to my server dashboard -- gethomepage.dev

@iamronr LaunchControl is great!

I agree! 100%. I had no idea about it until I actually needed something like it. Now it's a must-have app for me and my self-hosted stuff.

How can this be adapted to running as root? And where does the glances.conf file go when running as root? /etc/glances/glances.conf didn't seem to work for me