amass
Amass system information and expose it as JSON
Installation
npm install -g amass
Usage
$ amass | json os.arch
x64
$ amass | json os.type
Darwin
$ amass | json os.cpus.0
{
"model": "MacBookAir5,2",
"speed": 1800,
"times": {
"user": 105979210,
"nice": 0,
"sys": 35549920,
"idle": 314724130,
"irq": 0
}
}
By default, amass exposes 3 keys
amass | json -k
[
"amass",
"os",
"process"
]
You can extend this by writing plugins
Why?
There are other well-known programs that do a similar function. amass
is written
completely in node, and as such, doesn't rely on user-land tools that often
behave differently on different operating systems, nor does it use and abuse
sed
, awk
, cut
, etc. all information comes from node's builtin modules.
Also, speed.
dave @ [ manilla :: (Darwin) ] ~/dev/node-amass $ time ./bin/amass.js > /dev/null
real 0m0.064s
user 0m0.053s
sys 0m0.010s
Plugins
still in beta
Extend the functionality of amass
by writing/using plugins
how to add plugins
You may need to sudo
some of these commands.
Adding a plugin (amass-etc-passwd)
$ amass --add amass-etc-passwd
amass-etc-passwd@0.0.0 node_modules/amass-etc-passwd
└── etc-passwd@0.1.1 (lazylines@1.0.0)
Now, when you run amass
, you'll see a new root key of etc-passwd
View the installed plugins
$ amass --list
amass@0.0.4 /private/var/amass
└─┬ amass-etc-passwd@0.0.0
└─┬ etc-passwd@0.1.1
└── lazylines@1.0.0
That shows you the installed plugins and their dependencies. If the output
looks familiar to you, it's because it is straight from npm
.
Now, remove the plugin
$ amass --remove amass-etc-passwd
$ echo $?
0
Notice no output is generated (just like npm remove
), but that the exit code
is properly set.
List the plugins once more and see that it is empty
$ amass --list
amass@0.0.4 /private/var/amass
└── (empty)
write your own plugins
As of right now, a module must be published to npm before it can be used,
or symlinked to /var/amass/node_modules
. Let's create a simple hello world
plugin.
/var/amass/node_modules/my_plugin/index.js
module.exports = function(cb) {
var data = {
"name": "dave",
"hello": "world"
};
cb(null, data);
};
There you go, that's it. Now, when you run amass
, you will see your data.
$ amass | json my_plugin
{
"name": "dave",
"hello": "world"
}
To write a module, have your exports
be a function that takes a single
argument (the callback), and call it with your data (or any error.
The key that the data will have in the amass
output is the name of your
module.
technical details
- Plugins are stored in
/var/amass
, this directory is created lazily
when invoked with an option that pertains to plugins. - Plugins should be standalone node modules that expose useful system
information, and as such, be installed in node_modules in
/var/amass
.
License
MIT License