NAME

       bmon - bandwidth monitor and rate estimator

SYNOPSIS

       bmon [--show-all] [--use-si] [--input=MODULE] [--output=MODULE] [OPTIONS...]

DESCRIPTION

       bmon  is  a  monitoring  and  debugging  tool to capture networking related statistics and
       prepare them visually in  a  human  friendly  way.  It  features  various  output  methods
       including  an  interactive  curses  user  interface  and  a  programmable  text output for
       scripting.

OPTIONS

        -h, --help
           Prints a short help text and exits.

        -V, --version
           Prints the versioning identifier and exits.

        -i, --input=MODULE[:OPTIONS][,MODULE...]
           Set list of input modules to load and use. Multiple modules can be used  in  parallel.
           bmon  automatically  loads  a  useful  and  working input module by default. See INPUT
           MODULES for more details.

        -o, --outputMODULE[:OPTIONS][,MODULE...]
           Set list of output modules to load and use. Multiple modules can be used in  parallel.
           By  default,  bmon will use the curses output mode, if that is not available due to an
           incompatible console it will fall back to a simple text mode. See OUTPUT  MODULES  for
           more details.

        -U, --use-si
           Use SI unit system (1KB = 1'000 bytes) instead of 1KB = 1'024 bytes.

        -f, --configfile=FILE
           Set alternative path to configuration file.

        -p, --policy=POLICY
           Set  policy  defining which network interfaces to display. See INTERFACE SELECTION for
           more details.

        -a, --show-all=
           Display all interfaces, even interface that are administratively down.

        -r, --read-interval=FLOAT
           Set interval in seconds in which input modules read statistics from their source.  The
           default is 1.0 seconds.

        -R, --rate-interval=FLOAT
           Set  interval  in seconds in which the rate per counter is calculated.  The default is
           1.0 seconds.

        -b, --use-bit
           Show rates in bits per second instead of bytes per second.

        -L, --lifetime=FLOAT
           Set lifetime of an element in  seconds  before  it  is  no  longer  displayed  without
           receiving any statistical updates. The default is 30 seconds.

INPUT MODULES

       Input modules provide statistical data about elements. Each element consists of attributes
       which represents a counter, a rate, or a percentage. Elements may carry  additional  child
       elements  to  represent  a  hierarchy.  Each element is assigned to a group defined by the
       input module. Input modules are polled in the frequence of the configured read interval.

       The following input modules are available:

       netlink
              Uses the Netlink protocol to collect interface and traffic control statistics  from
              the kernel. This is the default input module.

       proc   Reads interface statistics from the /proc/net/dev file. This is considered a legacy
              interface and provided for backwards compatibily reasons. This is a fallback module
              if the Netlink interface is not available.

       dummy  Programmable input module for debugging and testing purposes.

       null   No data collected.

       To  receive  additional  information about a module, run the module with the "help" option
       set like this:

           bmon -i netlink:help

       See MODULE CONFIGURATION for more details.

OUTPUT MODULES

       Output modules display or export the statistical data collected by input modules. Multiple
       output  modules can be run at the same time. bmon will not prevent possible conflicts such
       as multiple output modules writing to the console.

       The following output modules exist:

       curses Interactive curses based text user interface providing real time  rate  estimations
              and  a  graphical representatio nof each attribute. Press '?'  to display the quick
              reference guide. This is the default output mode.

       ascii  Simple programmable text output intended for human consumption. Capable of printing
              list  of  interfaces,  detailed  counters  and  graphs  to the console. This is the
              default fallback output mode if curses is not available.

       format Fully scriptable output mode inteded for consumption by other  programs.   See  the
              module help text for additional information.

       null   Disable output.

       To  receive  additional  information about a module, run the module with the "help" option
       set like this:

           bmon -o curses:help

       See MODULE CONFIGURATION for more details.

MODULE CONFIGURATION

       The syntax to configure modules is as follows:

           ARGUMENT ::= mod1[:OPTS][,mod2[:OPTS]...]
           OPTS     ::= OPTION[;OPTION...]
           OPTION   ::= option[=value]

       Run the module with option "help" to receive the list of options for each module:

           bmon -i module:help

INTERFACE SELECTION

       The following syntax is used to define the interface selection policy:

           SELECTION ::= NAME[,NAME[,...]]
           NAME      ::= [!]interface

       The interface name may contain the  character  '*'  which  will  act  as  a  wildcard  and
       represents any number of any character type, e.g. eth*, h*0, ...

       Examples:

           lo,eth0,eth1
           eth*,!eth0

EXAMPLES

       To run bmon in curses mode monitoring the interfaces eth0 and eth1:

           bmon -p eth0,eth1 -o curses

       To  run  bmon  in  format  mode,  monitoring  any eth* interfaces, with a specified format
       string:

           bmon -p 'eth*' -o format:fmt='$(element:name) $(attr:rxrate:packets)\n'

FILES

       /etc/bmon.conf
       $HOME/.bmonrc

SEE ALSO

       ip(8), netstat(8), ifconfig(8), netlink(7),

AUTHOR

       Thomas Graf <tgraf@suug.ch> among others