Linux acpi Command with Practical Examples

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn about the acpi command, a utility that provides information about the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) on your system. The lab covers the basics of the acpi command, how to monitor battery status, and how to customize its behavior. You will start by checking if the acpi command is installed on your system, and if not, you will learn how to install it. Then, you will explore the basic usage of the acpi command and dive deeper into monitoring battery status. Finally, you will learn how to customize the acpi command's behavior to suit your needs.

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Introduction to the acpi Command

In this step, you will learn about the acpi command, which is a utility that provides information about the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) on your system. ACPI is a standard for power management in modern computers.

First, let's check if the acpi command is installed on your system:

which acpi

Example output:

/usr/bin/acpi

If the command is not found, you can install it using the following command:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y acpi

Now, let's run the acpi command to see the basic information it provides:

acpi

Example output:

Battery 0: Discharging, 93%, 02:41:13 remaining
Thermal 0: ok, 45.0 degrees C

The output shows the battery status and the current temperature of the system.

You can also use the acpi command with various options to get more detailed information. For example, to get information about the battery status only, you can use the -b option:

acpi -b

Example output:

Battery 0: Discharging, 93%, 02:41:13 remaining

In the next step, you will learn how to use the acpi command to monitor the battery status in more detail.

Monitoring Battery Status with acpi

In this step, you will learn how to use the acpi command to monitor the battery status of your system in more detail.

First, let's check the current battery status:

acpi -b

Example output:

Battery 0: Discharging, 93%, 02:41:13 remaining

The output shows the battery percentage, charging/discharging status, and the estimated remaining time.

You can also get more detailed information about the battery by using the -i option:

acpi -i

Example output:

Battery 0
  design capacity: 5900 mAh
  last full capacity: 5700 mAh
  battery technology: Li-ion
  design voltage: 11.1 V
  cycle count: 123
  condition: Good, 96.61% of design capacity

This output provides information about the battery's design capacity, last full capacity, technology, voltage, cycle count, and condition.

To get the battery status in a more machine-readable format, you can use the -s option:

acpi -s

Example output:

battery 0 Discharging 93% 02:41:13

This format can be useful for scripting or integrating the battery status information into other tools.

In the next step, you will learn how to customize the behavior of the acpi command.

Customizing acpi Behavior

In this step, you will learn how to customize the behavior of the acpi command to suit your needs.

The acpi command reads its configuration from the /etc/acpi/ directory. Let's create a custom configuration file to customize the command's behavior.

First, create a new file in the /etc/acpi/ directory:

sudo nano /etc/acpi/custom.sh

In this file, you can add custom scripts or configuration options for the acpi command. For example, you can create a script to display the battery status in a specific format:

#!/bin/bash

battery_status=$(acpi -b)
battery_percent=$(echo "$battery_status" | awk -F'[,,%]' '{print $2}')
battery_time=$(echo "$battery_status" | awk -F'[,]' '{print $3}')

echo "Battery: $battery_percent% ($battery_time remaining)"

Save the file and make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/acpi/custom.sh

Now, you can run the acpi command with the -c option to use the custom configuration:

acpi -c

Example output:

Battery: 93% (02:41:13 remaining)

You can also customize the acpi command to perform specific actions based on the battery status. For example, you can create a script to automatically suspend the system when the battery level reaches a certain threshold.

In the next step, you will learn how to verify the customizations you've made to the acpi command.

Summary

In this lab, you learned about the acpi command, which provides information about the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) on your system. You first checked if the acpi command was installed and learned how to install it if necessary. Then, you ran the acpi command to see the basic information it provides, such as the battery status and the current temperature of the system. You also explored the various options available with the acpi command, such as the -b option to get information about the battery status only. Finally, you learned how to use the acpi command to monitor the battery status in more detail, including information about the battery's design capacity, last full capacity, technology, voltage, cycle count, and condition.

Linux Commands Cheat Sheet