sa

The "sa" command line tool is primarily used in Unix-like operating systems, particularly Linux, to analyze system accounting information. It stands for "System Accounting" and provides a comprehensive overview of user activities, resource usage, and system performance.

With the "sa" command, users can examine the commands executed by individual users, including when they were executed, how long they ran, and the resources consumed. It can also display system wide statistics such as CPU usage, memory utilization, and disk I/O.

The tool makes use of the "sysstat" package, which collects various system performance data at regular intervals, and stores them in binary files for later analysis using the "sa" command.

It uses a set of files located in the "/var/log/sa" directory to store the collected data, with each file corresponding to a specific day. These files are rotated on a regular basis to prevent them from growing too large.

The "sa" command offers a wide range of options to filter and analyze the collected data, including generating reports in different formats like ASCII or CSV. It can also generate graphs and charts for visualizing system performance trends over time.

Overall, the "sa" command line tool is a powerful system accounting utility that helps administrators analyze resource usage patterns and troubleshoot performance issues.