PyXLoad for macOS

A faithful, borderless xload clone for macOS, written in Python. PyXLoad displays the one-minute CPU load average in an always-on-top floating window and adds an optional Apple Silicon GPU graph.

It preserves the behaviour of the Xaw StripChart behind the original xload: one sample per horizontal pixel, filled one-pixel columns, integer scale intervals, dynamic scaling and jumpScroll overflow.

Highlights

• CPU load graph faithful to xload and Xaw StripChart
• optional Apple Silicon GPU utilisation widget, without sudo
• borderless, square-cornered floating windows
• no Dock or Command-Tab icon
• draggable from anywhere in the graph
• runs CPU and GPU widgets inside one application
• remembers each widget's size and position separately for every monitor arrangement
• starts automatically at login using one per-user LaunchAgent
• no Python dependencies beyond Tkinter
• supports the historic X11 Fixed 10×20 Mac conversion, FixedRegular

Requirements

• macOS on Apple Silicon for the GPU graph
• Python 3.14 with Tkinter

With MacPorts:

sudo port install python314 py314-tkinter

The CPU graph also works on other macOS architectures. GPU collection uses Apple's IOGPU registry and may vary between macOS and hardware versions.

Installation

Double-click install.command, or run:

chmod +x install.command uninstall.command
./install.command

Installation itself does not require sudo. The scripts install PyXLoad in ~/Applications/PyXLoad and create one LaunchAgent in ~/Library/LaunchAgents.

The supplied profile reproduces Christian Pagé's setup on kamari:

Graph	Geometry	Label	Unit per grid interval
CPU	150x100+1640+154	kamari	1 load-average unit
GPU	150x100+1640+260	kamari GPU	10 percentage points

Both use a 3-second update period, black background, white histogram, magenta grid and FixedRegular at native size 16.

CPU is always present. Use GPU widget in either graph's context menu to show or hide the second widget; hiding it preserves all saved positions.

Controls

• drag anywhere to move a window
• right-click or Control-click for the context menu
• Command-Q or Escape to quit for the current session
• use uninstall.command to unload the agents and move installed files to the Trash

Run pyxload.py --help for all options. Historical spellings such as -update, -scale, -geometry, -hl, -highlight, -label, -nolabel, -jumpscroll and -fn are accepted.

Fidelity audit

The implementation was checked directly against the X.Org sources for xload.c, app-defaults/XLoad, and libXaw StripChart.c.

PyXLoad reproduces:

• the one-minute system load average
• the first sample after one update period
• the Xaw default update period of 10 seconds, with a one-second minimum
• minimum scale 1
• one filled vertical column of exactly one pixel per sample
• history starting at the left without stretching
• jumpScroll=1
• persistent dynamic scale state, including Xaw's exact-integer edge case
• scale reduction when the former maximum scrolls out or the chart repaints
• integer positioning of scale - 1 reference lines
• a double-width reference at each logical-core multiple (for example 16, 32, 48 on a 16-core Mac), marking one, two, or more runnable tasks per core
• a label area separate from the chart, so the graph cannot cover its text

Intentional macOS additions are the native floating window, contextual menu, saved position, optional unfilled trace and GPU source. The obsolete X11 -remote/rwhod and keyboard-LED -lights modes are not implemented.

The GPU graph uses the identical StripChart mechanics after normalising one scale unit to 10% utilisation.

Historical companion font

The recommended typeface is Christian Pagé's preserved 2003 Mac conversion of X11 Fixed 10×20: pagecp/x11-fixed-10x20.

PyXLoad remains usable with another fixed-width font when FixedRegular is not installed.

Licence

MIT. See LICENSE.

The X.Org projects are referenced for behavioural compatibility; their source code is not bundled or copied into this project.