ProcessWatcher 3.2

What it's all about

ProcessWatcher can display two kinds of windows: processes list windows and process information windows. Processes list windows display the list of the running processes; you can use it to switch to another application at the click of the mouse (see below). Process information windows give information about the process such as the Process Serial Number, the active time, the launch flags, the memory used.

ProcessWatcher can connect to a remote ProcessWatcher application (either ProcessWatcher or PWd, the ProcessWatcher background only "daemon" application) to monitor the processes running on another machine of the network.

Using ProcessWatcher you can also kill the running processes, launch new processes, and send Open AppleEvents to running processes.

The Processes List Window

The main window is called "Processes". It displays the list of the running processes on the local machine. The processes include the applications with a user-interface (the same list displayed in the Application menu on the right end of the menu bar) and background only applications (such as the Apple Guide or PWd for instance). To open this window, use the Processes:Show List menu item.

When this window is opened, you can:

• option-click or command-click to bring the process to front
• double click on a process name to open its Process Information window
• use the Process menu to open the process info window, kill the application, bring it to front or send it Open AppleEvent.
• use contextual menu under MacOS 8.

• Let ProcessWatcher in the background, then option-click on a process name in its "Processes" window: the front application is hidden and the clicked one brought to front.
• Select the Finder in the Processes window, then use the Processes:Kill menu item. The Finder quits. You can launch it again using the Processes:Launch... menu item and selecting the Finder from the System folder.

Process Information Windows

To open a Process Information window, double-click on a process name in a Processes List window, use the Get Info or Info for All menu items. These windows provides information on the process:

• its icon
• its Process Serial Number (PSN)
• its type and signature
• its launch mode
• its location in memory
• the memory allocated and the free memory available for the process
• the launcher PSN (the PSN of the process which launched the process, usually the Finder)
• the launch date and hour
• the active time
• the launch flags in the right part of the window.

The launch flags can be hidden or shown by clicking on the small arrow in the window. The launch flags are hidden by default, but this can be changed in the Preferences dialog. Use Balloons Help and point at the flags for more information.

Remote monitoring

To be able to monitor remote machines, you must ensure first that Application Linking in on and that you have the right privileges to link to remote processes.

These settings are found:

• in the Chooser, Appletalk should be activated
• in the Control Panel folder, open Sharing Setup to allow program linking
• in the Control Panel folder of the remote machine, open Users and Groups and open your User icon to give you the program linking permission
• under Finder, select Sharing... menu item while the remote process ison is selected to allow program linking for a particular process

You can then connect using the Remote Connection... command from the Process menu. Note that most commands from the Process menu are available remotely (such as Kill or Send Open AppleEvent...).

PWd

Launching other processes

Process Menu

• Show List open the Process List window (main window).
• Remote Connection... establish a connection with another Macintosh for remote monitoring. Select the remote computer and the application to connect to (either ProcessWatcher or PWd).
• Get Info open the Information Window for the selected process.
• Info For All open the Information Window for all processes.
• Bring To Front bring the selected process to the front.
• Send Open AppleEvent... send an Open AppleEvent to the selected process. Select first the file to open from the Open dialog box.
• Kill try to kill the selected process by sending the Quit AppleEvent.
• Launch... launch a process from the Open dialog box. To show all files in the Open dialog box, press the Option key while selecting the command from the menu.
• Remote Launch... launch a process on a remote computer. The file must be visible from the two computers (for instance, it can be on a shared disk).

Preferences

• The font used for the Processes List windows
• Whether ProcessWatcher should quit when its main window is closed
• Whether the process flags should be shown when a Process Information window is opened.

Scripting

Here is a small example of a script sent to ProcessWatcher:

tell application "ProcessWatcher"
   set the bounds of window 1 to {50, 50, 200, 250}
   connect "ProcessWatcher" at machine "Michael" at zone "Python"
   set the bounds of window "Michael:Processes" to {210, 50, 410, 250}
   connect "PWd" at machine "Terry"
   set the bounds of window "Terry:Processes" to {420, 50, 630, 250}
   kill "Finder"
end tell

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