Differences between mutability and FlightAware dump1090


What are the main differences between the Mutability dump1090 and the FlightAware fork of it?

I can find documentation on the differences between it and antirez’s original, but that is it.


I would like to know the same thing, in a high-level overview.

Some disadvantages I’ve found so far with dump1090-fa is that you cannot use some tools/third-party apps because they are not compatible, like collectd stats/graphs, AboveTustin, etc ,etc.

Anyway, for simplicity I’m still running the FA version, without any issue and very satisfied.


@limaunion Have you noticed any issues going to other way at all?


dump1090-fa is basically dump1090-mutability + a bunch of additional work. I’d like to backport some of the changes but I haven’t found the spare time yet. The demodulators are essentially the same. The dump1090-fa message decoder is somewhat better.

dump1090-fa does provide essentially the same stats output etc as dump1090-mutability so collectd et al should work fine, you just need to point at the right URL.


@Marsfan: No, because I didn’t try dump1090-mutability yet.

@obj: Thanks for your comments! It helps me as a newbie to understand a little more about dump1090-fa. Just one additional question, I seem to remember (not sure at all) that some third-party app required output to a file in json format for later analysis, does FA support this too? Thanks again.


The json output from dump1090-mutability & dump1090-fa should be similar (probably not identical)


Cool. Thanks, I started using dump1090-fa. The map is a heck of a lot better. Now if we could add the heat map capability that one person figured out.


I’ve been running mutability for a while now, and given other discussions I was thinking of moving back to the “official” fa version. Alas, the original poster implied that my collectd stuff would not work, and I love the stats and graphs I’ve got going with mutability.

Is it true the FA version doesn’t support these graphs?



No, this is totally wrong. The graphs work with both the mutability and fa versions of dump1090.

There are two ways you can get Skyview map
(1) Uninstall dump1090-mutability and install dump1090-fa
(2) Retain dump1090-mutability, and change only the GUI/Skin, so you see Skyview map instead of two-clock map.

For step-by-step instructions for both the above options, see thread Tweaks, and go to "TWEAK #2: REPLACING TWO-CLOCK MAP BY SKYVIEW MAP (DUMP1090-FA)