# gander

> gander is a cross-platform interactive process viewer for Linux, macOS and
> FreeBSD, written in Rust. Think htop, with a layout that shows you one process
> instead of all of them at once: a live inspector sits beside the process table
> and follows the selection. It keeps most of htop's keybindings, samples in the
> background, and ships a JSON batch mode for scripts.

gander's default `panels` layout puts a compact system column on the left, the
process table in the middle and a live inspector on the right showing the
selected process's command line, state, memory and runtime. Press `L` for the
classic full-width `htop` layout. The macOS backend reads sysctl, Mach and
libproc; the FreeBSD backend reads sysctl and libkvm. On Linux there is more to
read: PSS/EPSS, PSI, zram/zswap, GPU, delay accounting and container identity
are available as optional columns or meters.

Current release: v0.6.7 (October 2026).

Install: `brew install pandasir/tap/gander` (macOS), `cargo install gander-bin`
(any platform with Rust). There is no published AUR package yet. On Arch Linux,
build from the PKGBUILD in this repository:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/pandasir/gander && cd gander/packaging/aur && makepkg -si
```

Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora/RHEL install from signed repositories hosted on this site:

```bash
# Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, …
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://pandasir.github.io/gander/gander.gpg \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/gander.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/gander.gpg] https://pandasir.github.io/gander stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gander.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install gander

# Fedora, RHEL, Rocky, Alma, openSUSE, …
sudo rpm --import https://pandasir.github.io/gander/RPM-GPG-KEY-gander
sudo curl -fsSL https://pandasir.github.io/gander/gander.repo \
  -o /etc/yum.repos.d/gander.repo
sudo dnf install gander
```

Upgrades then arrive with `apt upgrade` / `dnf upgrade`.

## Pages

- [gander — a cross-platform interactive process viewer](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/): landing page with screenshots, install commands and feature overview
- [gander vs htop](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/vs-htop.html): what gander keeps from htop's keys, and where the layouts differ
- [gander vs btop](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/vs-btop.html): two different answers to "not htop"
- [gander vs bottom](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/vs-bottom.html): FreeBSD support, JSON batch mode and layout compared
- [htop on macOS](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/htop-for-macos.html): what macOS will and will not let a process viewer read, and how gander handles it
- [htop on FreeBSD](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/htop-for-freebsd.html): what FreeBSD exposes to process viewers, and what gander reads
- [A JSON process list for scripts](https://pandasir.github.io/gander/json-process-list.html): gander's batch mode — `--json`, `-n`, `--sort`, `--filter` and `--limit` without the TUI

## Source and releases

- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/pandasir/gander): source, README in English, 简体中文, 日本語 and 한국어, issue tracker
- [Releases](https://github.com/pandasir/gander/releases): signed release binaries for Linux, macOS and FreeBSD
- [Keybindings](https://github.com/pandasir/gander/blob/main/docs/KEYS.md): the full key map, htop-compatible unless noted
- [Roadmap](https://github.com/pandasir/gander/blob/main/docs/ROADMAP.md): planned platforms and features
- [Portability](https://github.com/pandasir/gander/blob/main/docs/PORTABILITY.md): which capabilities each platform's backend can read, and which other Unix targets compile without a live backend

## License

GPL-2.0-or-later.