Is there software which time- tracks window & application usage?
EDIT: a version of the script with sorted reports can be found here
Always fun to write a script for it!
The script below will produce an output (report) like:
------------------------------------------------------------
nautilus
0:00:05 (3%)
------------------------------------------------------------
0:00:05 (3%) .usagelogs
------------------------------------------------------------
firefox
0:01:10 (36%)
------------------------------------------------------------
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0:00:15 (8%) scripts - Is there software which time- tracks window & application usage? - Ask Ubuntu - Mozilla Firefox
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------------------------------------------------------------
gedit
0:02:00 (62%)
------------------------------------------------------------
0:02:00 (62%) 2016_06_04_10_33_29.txt (~/.usagelogs) - gedit
============================================================
started: 2016-06-04 10:33:29 updated: 2016-06-04 10:36:46
============================================================
..which is updated once per minute.
Notes
The report will possibly report windows under the category: "Unknown". This is the case when windows have
pid 0(tkinterwindows, such asIdlewindows, aPythonIDE). Their window title and usage will be reported correctly however.The lock screen with password input is reported a "nux input window".
-
The percentages are rounded percentages, which might occasionally lead to minor differences between the application's percentage and the sum of its window's percentage.
An example: If an application has two windows used, each used
0,7%of the total time, both windows will report1%each (0.7--> rounded to1), while the application's usage reports1%(1.4--> rounded to1)No need to say that these differences are totally irrelevant in the whole picture.
The script
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import time
import os
# -- set update/round time (seconds)
period = 5
# --
# don change anything below
home = os.environ["HOME"]
logdir = home+"/.usagelogs"
def currtime(tformat=None):
return time.strftime("%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S") if tformat == "file"\
else time.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
try:
os.mkdir(logdir)
except FileExistsError:
pass
# path to your logfile
log = logdir+"/"+currtime("file")+".txt"; startt = currtime()
def get(command):
try:
return subprocess.check_output(command).decode("utf-8").strip()
except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
pass
def time_format(s):
# convert time format from seconds to h:m:s
m, s = divmod(s, 60); h, m = divmod(m, 60)
return "%d:%02d:%02d" % (h, m, s)
def summarize():
with open(log, "wt" ) as report:
totaltime = sum([it[2] for it in winlist])
report.write("")
for app in applist:
wins = [r for r in winlist if r[0] == app]
apptime = sum([it[2] for it in winlist if it[0] == app])
appperc = round(100*apptime/totaltime)
report.write(("-"*60)+"\n"+app+"\n"+time_format(apptime)+\
" ("+str(appperc)+"%)\n"+("-"*60)+"\n")
for w in wins:
wperc = str(round(100*w[2]/totaltime))
report.write(" "+time_format(w[2])+" ("+\
wperc+"%)"+(6-len(wperc))*" "+w[1]+"\n")
report.write("\n"+"="*60+"\nstarted: "+startt+"\t"+\
"updated: "+currtime()+"\n"+"="*60)
t = 0; applist = []; winlist = []
while True:
time.sleep(period)
frpid = get(["xdotool", "getactivewindow", "getwindowpid"])
frname = get(["xdotool", "getactivewindow", "getwindowname"])
app = get(["ps", "-p", frpid, "-o", "comm="]) if frpid != None else "Unknown"
# fix a few names
if "gnome-terminal" in app:
app = "gnome-terminal"
elif app == "soffice.bin":
app = "libreoffice"
# add app to list
if not app in applist:
applist.append(app)
checklist = [item[1] for item in winlist]
if not frname in checklist:
winlist.append([app, frname, 1*period])
else:
winlist[checklist.index(frname)][
2] = winlist[checklist.index(frname)][2]+1*period
if t == 60/period:
summarize()
t = 0
else:
t += 1
How to set up
-
The script needs
xdotoolto get the window's informationsudo apt-get install xdotool Copy the script into an empty file, save it as
window_logs.py-
Test- run the script: tart the script by the command (from a terminal):
python3 /path/to/window_logs.pyAfter one minute, the script creates a log file with the first results in
~/.usagelogs. The file is time- stamped with the creation date & time. The file is updated once per minute.At the bottom of the file, you can see both the start- time and the time-stamp of the latest edit. This way you can always see what is the file's time span.
If the script restarts, a new file with a new (start-) time stamp is created.
-
If all works fine, add to Startup Applications: Dash > Startup Applications > Add. Add the command:
/bin/bash -c "sleep 15 && python3 /path/to/window_logs.py"
More notes
-
~/.uselogsis a hidden directory by default. Press (innautilus) Ctrl+H to make it visible. -
As it is, the script rounds the window's activeness on 5 seconds, assuming less then 5 seconds is not really using the window. If you'd like to change the value, set it in the head of the script in the line:
# -- set update/round time (seconds) period = 5 # -- -
The script is extremely "low on juice". Furthermore, since the time- updates per window are done inside the script, the number of lines in the log file is limited to the actual number of used windows.
Nevertheless, I wouldn't run the script for weeks in a row for example, to prevent accumulating too many lines (=window records) to maintain.
there is arbtt that does exactly what you describe: https://www.joachim-breitner.de/blog/336-The_Automatic_Rule-Based_Time_Tracker
update: this project is still alive (Oct 2020) and the arbtt home page here: http://arbtt.nomeata.de/
the github project is here: https://github.com/nomeata/arbtt