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.\" netsniff-ng - the packet sniffing beast
.\" Copyright 2013 Daniel Borkmann.
.\" Subject to the GPL, version 2.
-
+.PP
.TH IFPPS 8 "03 March 2013" "Linux" "netsniff-ng toolkit"
.SH NAME
ifpps \- top-like networking and system statistics
-
+.PP
.SH SYNOPSIS
-
+.PP
\fB ifpps\fR { [\fIoptions\fR] | [\fIdevice\fR] }
-
+.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
-
+.PP
ifpps is a small utility which periodically provides top-like networking
and system statistics from the kernel. ifpps gathers its data directly
from procfs files and does not apply any user space monitoring libraries
-which would falsify statistics on high load.
-
+which would falsify statistics under high load.
+.PP
For instance, consider the following scenario: two directly connected
Linux machines with Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz CPUs, 4 GB RAM, and
an Intel 82566DC-2 Gigabit Ethernet NIC are used for performance evaluation.
@@ -24,74 +24,73 @@ One machine generates 64 byte network packets by using the kernel space
packet generator pktgen with a maximum possible packet rate. The other
machine displays statistics about incoming network packets by using i)
iptraf(8) and ii) ifpps.
-
-iptraf that incorporates pcap(3) shows an average packet rate of
-246,000 pps while on the other hand ifpps shows an average packet rate of
-1,378,000 pps. Hence, due to copying packets and deferring statistics
-creation into user space, measurement error of approx. 460 per cent
+.PP
+iptraf which incorporates pcap(3) shows an average packet rate of
+246,000 pps while on the other hand ifpps shows an average packet rate
+of 1,378,000 pps. Hence, due to packet copies and deferring statistics
+creation into user space, a measurement error of approximately 460 per cent
occurs. Tools like iptraf might display much more information such as
-TCP per flow statistics (therefore the use of the pcap library), which
-is not implemented in ifpps, because overall networking statistics are
-in our focus; statistics, which are also fairly reliable under high packet
-load.
-
+TCP per flow statistics (hence the use of the pcap library), that is not
+possible with ifpps, because overall networking statistics are our focus;
+statistics, which are also fairly reliable under high packet load.
+.PP
.SH OPTIONS
-
+.PP
.SS -d <netdev>, --dev <netdev>
-Networking device to fetch statistics from, e.g. eth0, wlan0.
-
+Networking device to fetch statistics from, for example, eth0, wlan0.
+.PP
.SS -t <time>, --interval <time>
-Statistics refresh interval in milliseconds, default is 1000 ms.
-
+Statistics refresh interval in milliseconds, default is 1000ms.
+.PP
.SS -p, --promisc
Turn on promiscuous mode for the given networking device.
-
+.PP
.SS -c, --csv
Output (once) the ncurses data to the terminal as gnuplot(1)-ready data.
-
+.PP
.SS -l, --loop
Continuously output the terminal data after a refresh interval. This option
-only is available, if option ``-c'' is given. For ``-l'' it is usually
-recommended to redirect the output into a file that is later being processed
-with gnuplot(1).
-
+is only available, if option \[lq]-c\[rq] is given. For \[lq]-l\[rq] it is usually
+recommended to redirect the output into a file that is to be be processed
+later with gnuplot(1).
+.PP
.SS -v, --version
-Show versioning information.
-
+Show version information.
+.PP
.SS -h, --help
Show user help.
-
+.PP
.SH USAGE EXAMPLE
-
+.PP
.SS ifpps eth0
Default ncurses output for the eth0 device.
-
+.PP
.SS ifpps -pd eth0
Ncurses output for the eth0 device in promiscuous mode.
-
+.PP
.SS ifpps -lpcd wlan0 > plot.dat
Continuous terminal output for the wlan0 device in promiscuous mode.
-
+.PP
.SH NOTE
On 10Gbit/s cards or higher, receive and transmit statistics are usually
-accumulated each > 1sec. Thus, it might be advised to alter the timing
-option to a higher accumulation interval for such cards.
-
+accumulated at a higher duration interval than 1 second. Thus, it might
+be advisable to alter the timing to a higher accumulation interval for such cards.
+.PP
.SH BUGS
-Systems with a failry high number of cores (> 32) are currently not
-supported. This should however not be a big deal to fix that. The only
-challenge would be to display the presented information in a sane way,
-probably by selectively hiding uninteresting statistics.
-
+Systems with greater than 32 cores are currently not supported. This
+should, however, not be a big task to fix. The only challenge would
+be to display the presented information in a sane way, probably by
+selectively hiding uninteresting statistics.
+.PP
.SH LEGAL
ifpps is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2.0.
-
+.PP
.SH HISTORY
.B ifpps
was originally written for the netsniff-ng toolkit by Daniel Borkmann. It
is currently maintained by Tobias Klauser <tklauser@distanz.ch> and Daniel
Borkmann <dborkma@tik.ee.ethz.ch>.
-
+.PP
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR netsniff-ng (8),
.BR trafgen (8),
@@ -100,6 +99,6 @@ Borkmann <dborkma@tik.ee.ethz.ch>.
.BR flowtop (8),
.BR astraceroute (8),
.BR curvetun (8)
-
+.PP
.SH AUTHOR
Manpage was written by Daniel Borkmann.