Tools: Installing SysLens: A Lightweight Linux System Information Tool

If you are a Linux enthusiast or a developer, you know the importance of quickly checking your system’s health, hardware specifications, and resource usage. SysLens is a lightweight, terminal-based tool written in C that provides a real-time snapshot of your system by reading the Linux /proc filesystem. In this guide, I’ll walk you through installing SysLens on your Linux machine, compiling it from source, and optionally installing it system-wide. Before you start, make sure you have: A Linux-based operating system (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch, etc.) gcc or clang compiler installed Basic terminal knowledge Step 1: Clone the Repository First, clone the SysLens GitHub repository to your local machine: git clone https://github.com/mahmudul626/syslens.git
cd syslens Step 2: Build from Source SysLens uses a simple Makefile for compilation. To build the project: If successful, this will create an executable named syslens in the project directory. Run the tool directly from the terminal: You’ll see three sections: System Info: OS name, kernel version, CPU model, uptime, and current user. Resource Usage: RAM, swap usage, and load averages with visual progress bars. Active Processes: Total tasks, running, sleeping, and zombie processes. You can also use flags to display specific sections: ./syslens -s # System info only
./syslens -m # Resource usage only
./syslens -p # Active processes only
./syslens --version
./syslens --help Step 4: Optional System-wide Installation To make SysLens accessible from anywhere on your system: This will copy the executable to /usr/bin/syslens. Now you can simply run: Step 5: Testing & Validation SysLens has been designed to work on multiple Linux distributions. You can validate its performance using tools like: valgrind – for memory leak detection cppcheck – for static code analysis These are already integrated in the CI/CD workflow if you are contributing or compiling from the source. SysLens is a lightweight, fast, and reliable Linux CLI tool to monitor your system. Whether you are a developer, sysadmin, or hobbyist, it provides an instant overview of your system’s health and performance. Try it out, contribute, or suggest improvements on GitHub. Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. as well , this person and/or - System Info: OS name, kernel version, CPU model, uptime, and current user.
- Resource Usage: RAM, swap usage, and load averages with visual progress bars.
- Active Processes: Total tasks, running, sleeping, and zombie processes. - Location Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Joined Feb 3, 2026