So I was looking in the log, here: /var/log/piaware.log
…and thinking that I could just parse the log for the interesting numbers that I want.
Then I started to think that maybe there was a way to query the process directly (the one that is writing to the log in the first place) for the interesting numbers that I would like to graph. Why duplicate work, right?
So, is there any way to pull numbers directly from the piaware process(es) like positions/minute, messages received from dump1090, messages sent to flightaware?
I see those stats in the log, but maybe there exists a way to produce them? I don’t know enough about the piaware process(es) …
I have enabled logging for my dump978 feed into dump1090. I don’t get many position hits so I shouldn’t fill up the logs.
If I did it for dump1090 (I get 1 million receive reports per day that go to FA. Probably 10 times as much don’t make it) then I would quickly fill up the file system.
You can also send the traffic for VRS or modesmixer.
While that looks like a full project, I am not sure installing additional stuff is the direction I wish to take.
Really, I have a graphing solution in place, all it is missing are the numbers generated by piaware.
I would rather poll the existing processes for the numbers, but if pulling them out of the log file is going to be more straightforward, then that is the approach I will have to take.
I am not sure what I was hoping for, perhaps a way to have the existing processes spit out the numbers sent to FlightAware. As I really have no idea of the inner workings of the dump1090 or piaware software, the log file offered me a tantalizing insight into what numbers are generated.
The graphs on the user adsb page are quite nice, and I could be satisfied with that report, but I felt it would be better from an analytical standpoint to have a second set of graphs for comparison.
I don’t have that directory on this system. I bought a preconfigured kit from Amazon, thinking that would be the fastest way to get up an running. There is a /run/piaware/status.json … but I have no idea what to do with that file either.
Thanks for the information, would you please elaborate?
I believe that the piaware version installed is 3.1.0~bpo8+1
I see that via ‘aptitude show piaware’ that it “suggests” dump1090-fa, but when I make a query about that package, it returns with:
No current or candidate version found for dump1090-fa
Package: dump1090-fa
State: not a real package
So I believe that I do not have that software installed. I hope this is more information that is useful, and thanks for your assistance!
~ $ dpkg -l 'dump1090*'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
ii dump1090 1.2-3 armhf ADS-B Ground Station System for R
un dump1090-fa <none> <none> (no description available)
Ok. That version of dump1090 does not provide stats in any useful form. I suggest you upgrade it to dump1090-fa (you can probably do that via the stats page upgrade-dump1090 command).
OK, so via the stats page, I asked it to upgrade all debian packages. The result of " dpkg -l ‘dump1090*’ " is now:
~ $ dpkg -l 'dump1090*'
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
ii dump1090 3.1.0 all transitional dummy package for du
ii dump1090-fa 3.1.0 armhf ADS-B Ground Station System for R
…and looking in the /run/dump1090-fa directory, I now see a stats.json
Any suggestions on how best to process that file as I see quite a bit of stuff in there. Is the file format explained somewhere as well as what some of the fields mean? I think I can sort out what some of them are, but I sure would appreciate a detailed description.
Thanks again for the clue about upgrading, I didn’t realize that this piaware system was downlevel. The new stats webpage is much nicer!
