Usage concepts

There are two ways of using ximinez: it can be used just to show the disk usage for a given directory tree, or it can be used to show the usage differences between two folder snapshots.

In order to explore the usage for a given folder, you only have to take a snapshot of the folder or load it from a file. Then you can browse through it.

In order to compare snapshots, you need at least two snapshots of the given folder (you can compare a snapshot with itself or with snapshot of another folder, but it doesn't make much sense). The GUI also provides an option to compare a snapshot with current state, but that's just a shortcut to taking a new snapshot.

Once the snapshot is taken, ximinez works completely offline. You can take the snapshot on one computer and then analyze it on another. You can also use the command line inteface (ximinezcli) to take snapshots, for example when monitoring servers.

Taking snapshot and exploring usage

First you have to start ximinez, then you have to:

  • choose File->New or click the New button on the toolbar
  • select the folder you wish to analyze
  • set exclusions if desired
  • wait until the snapshot is done (it may take a while when doing a large folder tree)
  • check the snapshot summary for possible errors (you have to decide whether an error is critical or not)
  • browse through the snapshot

Finally you can store the snapshot to a file if you want.

Browsing & general GUI usage

Although browsing the directory tree and using a simple GUI is not something that requires extra documentation these days, there are a couple of things you should know:

  • Ximinez does not try to guess the optimal window sizes, column widths, positions, visible columns, sort order etc., but it does store all these settings so you only have to set them once.
  • The main window displays folder tree without any files in it. The files can be displayed in a supplementary window by selecting Tools->Show files or by right-clicking on one of the folders in the tree and then selecting Show files.
  • You can select the columns to be displayed by right-clicking on the column header. This is also the preferred way of seing the descriptions of the column names. The column names have to be somehow cryptic since there is very little space to display them.
  • It is also possible to reorder the columns by removing them and then adding them (automatically to the right-most position). This is quite silly and we're going to fix it somehow, but until then, you can use this trick.
  • You can sort the tree and the file list by clicking on the column headers. When searching for "lost free space", it makes most sense to sort by recursive size on disk difference, so you can quickly see the folders with the greatest usage increase.

Comparing existing snapshots

Again, you have to start ximinez (ximinezcli is no good at comparing or displaying), then:

  • first you have to load one of the snapshots (choose File->Open or click the Open toolbar button)
  • then click the Compare toolbar button
  • select the right comparison mode: compare against existing snapshot
  • then select the snapshot file to compare to
  • review the snapshot file summary
  • then wait until the comparison is done (it may take a while when comparing large snapshots)
  • review the comparison summary
  • browse the comparison. The folder tree and the file list should display comparison-specific columns now.

You can also store the comparison if you want. It's basically just a snapshot of a different type.

Comparing existing snapshot with current state

This procedure is very similar to the previous one, except when it comes to selecting the "other" snapshot.

  • first you have to load the old snapshot (choose File->Open or click the Open toolbar button)
  • then click the Compare toolbar button
  • select the right comparison mode: compare against current state
  • then select the folder if it's different from the default
  • modify exclusions if desired
  • review the snapshot summary
  • then wait until the comparison is done (it may take a while when comparing large snapshots)
  • review the comparison summary
  • browse the comparison. The folder tree and the file list should display comparison-specific columns now.

The default folder and exclusions are taken from the old snapshot, so in most cases you only have to confirm them.

Using the command line tool - ximinezcli

ximinezcli has only one function: it takes snapshots. The usage is fairly simple. Start it without any parameters to see the available options.
Some examples should also be helpful:

  • Take a snapshot of /bin folder and store it to /tmp/bin.xiz:
    ximinezcli -o /tmp/bin.xiz /bin/
  • Take a snapshot of /bin folder and store it to /tmp/bin.[CURRENT_TIMESTAMP].xiz:
    ximinezcli -o /tmp/bin.xiz -t /bin/
  • Take a snapshot of /usr/lib folder and store it to /tmp/usrlib.xiz, excluding /usr/lib/openoffice and all *.so.* files:
    ximinezcli -o /tmp/usrlib.xiz -x '*.so.*' -x /usr/lib/openoffice/ /usr/lib/
    Please note the single quotes around wildcards; they prevent wildcard shell expansion. You don't have to use them on windows, just on unix-like systems.
  • Take a snapshot of /home folder and store it to /tmp/home.xiz and also to remote SFTP server:
    ximinezcli -o /tmp/home.xiz -r username:password@remote-server:/tmp/home.xiz /home/
    Use username and password when logging in to the remote server. This is considered bad practice since anyone could see the password simply by looking at the process list.
  • Take a snapshot of /home folder and only store it to the remote SFTP server:
    ximinezcli -i /path/to/private/key -r username@remote-server:/tmp/home.xiz /home/
    This way you can connect to the remote server in a more secure manner - by using a private SSH key. You should however take care of protecting the key properly.

Manual pages

As of this moment, the manual pages are still quite modest. You can find them here anyway: ximinez and ximinezcli.