AMPLOT(8)

📦
version 3.5.4 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💅 AMPLOT — the amplot(8) glow-up

okay bestie, pull up a chair because this is the manual page for amplot, from the System Administration Commands girlies. it's giving "let me show you what your Amanda backups actually did last night" and honestly? iconic. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

amplot — visualize the behavior of Amanda 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

amplot [-b] [-c] [-e] [-g] [-l] [-p] [-t T] amdump_files

like. that's it. that's the whole incantation. 💫

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so here's the tea: amplot reads an amdump output file — the one Amanda generates every single run, like amdump.1 — and translates all that info into a picture format. why? so you can look at it and go "oh. okay. so that's how my installation is doing" and figure out if any parameters need to be changed. vibe check, but for your backup setup. 📊

amplot also prints out the amdump lines it either does not understand or knows to be warning or error lines — and then a summary of the start, end and total time for each backup image. no secrets, no cap. 👑

under the hood? amplot is a shell script that executes an awk program (amplot.awk) to scan that amdump output file. then it executes a gnuplot program (amplot.g) to generate the graph. the awk program is written in an enhanced version of awk, such as GNU awk (gawk(1) version 2.15 or later) or nawk(1) — yes bestie, version 2.15 or later, don't play with me. 🧚

during execution, amplot generates a few temporary files that gnuplot uses. these files are deleted at the end of execution, so don't get attached. 💀

also!! peep the amanda(8) man page for more deets about Amanda. iykyk. 💜

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

one bullet per flag, all of them, no skipping, periodt. 💅

  • -b — generate a b/w postscript file (you need -p for this one, she doesn't work solo).
  • -c — compress amdump_files after plotting. cleanup queen behavior.
  • -e — extend the X (time) axis if needed. give her room to breathe.
  • -g — direct gnuplot output directly to the X11 display. this is the default, main character energy, always on unless you say otherwise.
  • -p — direct postscript output to a file named YYYYMMDD.ps (this is the opposite of -g, so pick a lane).
  • -l — generate landscape oriented output (needs -p, she's not independent either).
  • -t T — set the right edge of the plot to be T hours.

and bestie, heads up: the amdump_files may be in various compressed formats — compress, gzip, pact, compact. she's flexible like that. 🌈

🔥 INTERPRETATION 🔥

the figure is divided into a number of regions, and there are titles on the top that show important statistical information about the configuration and from this execution of amdump. slay.

in the figure:

  • the X axis is time, with 0 being the moment amdump was started.
  • the Y axis is divided into 5 regions:

QUEUES: how many backups have not been started, how many are waiting on space in the holding disk, and how many have been transferred successfully to tape. the three moods. 😭

%BANDWIDTH: percentage of allowed network bandwidth in use.

HOLDING DISK: the higher line depicts space allocated on the holding disk to backups in progress and completed backups waiting to be written to tape. the lower line depicts the fraction of the holding disk containing completed backups waiting to be written to tape, including the file currently being written to tape. the scale is percentage of the holding disk. two lines, one legend, we love a duo. ✨

TAPE: tape drive usage.

%DUMPERS: percentage of active dumpers.

aaaand the idle period at the left of the graph? that's the time amdump is asking the machines how much data they are going to dump. this process can take a while if hosts are down or if it takes them a long time to generate estimates. so if the left side looks dead, it's not dead, it's just thinking. 🧠

🙈 BUGS 🙈

she reports lines she does not recognize — mainly error cases, but some are legitimate lines the program needs to be taught about. so if amplot is acting brand new about a line that looks perfectly fine to you, that's the known vibe. noted. 💀

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/ 🦋

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

  • Olafur Gudmundsson <ogud@tis.com> — Trusted Information Systems
  • Stefan G. Weichinger <sgw@amanda.org>
this little baddie is Amanda 3.5.4, dated 08/26/2026. that's the version, that's the date, no cap. go plot something gorgeous bestie 💖🎀✨
📦 where this page comes from