Data Guardian

Data Guardian is a system utility that monitors the disk I/O usage of applications running on your computer. It tracks read/write operations and alerts you when applications exceed a configured data threshold.

Features

• Process Monitoring: Tracks disk read/write operations across all running processes
• Threshold Alerts: Receive notifications when applications exceed data thresholds
• Local-First: All data processing happens locally for maximum privacy
• Efficient Storage: Compressed historical data with configurable compression levels
• Cross-Platform: Supports Linux, macOS, and Windows with platform-specific notifications
• Low Overhead: Minimal system resource usage with efficient process scanning
• Configurable: Flexible settings for thresholds and check intervals
• Smart Notification System: Built-in cooldown period to prevent notification spam

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.85 or higher
• Cargo package manager
• Platform-specific dependencies:
  • Linux: libdbus-1-dev (for notifications via notify-rust)
  • macOS: None (uses osascript for notifications)
  • Windows: None (uses notify-rust for notifications)

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/xosnrdev/data-guardian.git
cd data-guardian

# Build and install
cargo install --path .

From Cargo

cargo install data-guardian

From Release

see https://github.com/xosnrdev/data-guardian/releases

Usage

Quick Start

1. Start the service:

   dg
   

2. The service will run in the background and monitor disk I/O usage of all processes

3. Receive notifications when applications exceed configured thresholds

Configuration

The service can be configured in three ways (in order of precedence):

1. Environment variables:

   DATAGUARDIAN_DATA_LIMIT=1073741824
   DATAGUARDIAN_CHECK_INTERVAL_SECONDS=60
   DATAGUARDIAN_PERSISTENCE_INTERVAL_SECONDS=300
   

2. User configuration file at:

   • Linux: ~/.config/DataGuardian/config.toml
   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/DataGuardian/config.toml
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\DataGuardian\config.toml

   Example config.toml:

   # Data limit in bytes before triggering alerts
   data_limit = 1073741824  # 1 GB
   
   # How often to check process data usage (in seconds)
   check_interval_seconds = 60
   
   # How often to save usage data to disk (in seconds)
   persistence_interval_seconds = 300  # 5 minutes
   

3. Default values:

   • data_limit: 1 GB (1073741824 bytes)
   • check_interval_seconds: 60 seconds
   • persistence_interval_seconds: 300 seconds (5 minutes)

Environment Variables

• DATAGUARDIAN_DATA_LIMIT: Override data limit (minimum: 1MB)
• DATAGUARDIAN_CHECK_INTERVAL_SECONDS: Override check interval (minimum: 1 second)
• DATAGUARDIAN_PERSISTENCE_INTERVAL_SECONDS: Override persistence interval (minimum: 10 seconds)
• RUST_LOG: Set logging level (error, warn, info, debug, trace)

Limitations

• Only tracks processes while the service is running
• Uses a single global threshold rather than per-application limits
• May have different behavior on different platforms
• Focuses only on disk I/O (not network or other resource usage)

License

MIT License