Provided by: nttcp_1.47-13build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       nttcp - new test TCP program

SYNOPSIS

       nttcp [ local options ] partner-host [ partner-host ] ...  [ remote options ]

DESCRIPTION

       The  nttcp  program  measures  the  transferrate  (and other numbers) on a TCP, UDP or UDP
       multicast connection.  To use nttcp you have  to  provide  the  executable  on  the  local
       machine  and  on  a  partner  machine.  On the partner machine simply start nttcp with the
       option -i.  Started this way, nttcp is waiting for connections from other nttcps.  On  the
       local  host simply call nttcp with the name of the partner host. It will contact the nttcp
       started on the partner machine and initiate the transfer. On default the program transfers
       2048  buffers of 4KByte length (a total of 8 MByte) to the partner host. On both sides the
       performance will be measured and the findings (both, remote and local) are reported on the
       local  side.  You  may  change  nearly every parameter of the transmission via commandline
       options, even what and how results are printed.

OPTIONS

       -r     defines the receive transfer direction; data is sent from the partner host  to  the
              local host.

       -t     defines  the  transmit  transfer direction; data is sent from the local host to the
              partner host. This is the default direction.

       -T     Print a title line.

       -u     Use the UDP protocol instead of TCP (which is the default).

       -g     Gap time in microseconds between packets. This delay is implemented via the timeout
              parameter  of select(2) and a loop with gettimeofday(2). The accuracy of this value
              is misleading.  Most machines will not be able to delay exactly the  given  amount.
              The  code  will try its best to achieve the desired delay. For TCP connections this
              option does only implement a delay between the write(2) system calls. It  does  not
              really delay between the real output on the physical device.

       -v     Give more and verbose output; only useful for debugging purposes.

       -D     Set  the  TCP_NODELAY option on the transmitting socket.  With this option set, the
              socket does not buffer any write requests.

       -f format string
              Specify your own output format. See OUTPUT.

       -n number of buffers
              The given number of buffers  will  be  written  to  the  transmitting  socket.   It
              defaults to 2048.

       -l length of buffer
              The given length defines the size of one buffer written to the transmitting socket.
              Defaults to 4096.

       -x fixed length of data
              The given length defines the amount of data that will  be  transfered.   Subsequent
              specified  -l  or  -n  options will adapt the corresponding other value so that the
              number of buffers and the length of buffer multiplies to the given fixed length.

       -w number of kilo bytes
              Defines the buffer size of the transmitting and receiving socket.  This  is  system
              dependant; usally it is 16K.

       -c     If  this option is present, the receiving side will compare the bytes received with
              the pattern used by the sending side. At most the first  100  differences  will  be
              reported. If the transmission is via TCP, a uniq pattern for the whole transmission
              is generated. For UDP the same pattern for each paket is  used.  You  can  force  a
              stream pattern with the -s switch; but if one paket is lost, all subsequent packets
              contain patterns not expected and will be reported as different. Since  every  byte
              is  numbered,  this  can  be  used  to  detect  the  first  packet  lost during the
              transmission.
              BUT be aware: if there is a difference, this option may lead  to  packet-losses  on
              UDP  transmissions  or  to  degration  in performance, since the preparation of the
              output is simple-minded and uses a lot of CPU time.

       -s     Forces the generation of a stream pattern if UPD packet data is  compared.  See  -c
              switch.

       -S seed string
              give  any  string to initialize the pattern generator. By default this seed has the
              value 'This is a simple init string'.  This enforces the -c option.

       -pport number
              On default the partner host will listen on port 5037. This can be overwritten  with
              this option.

       -i     If  you have no root access on the partner host, or do not want hacking with inetd,
              this option directs nttcp to behave  as  a  daemon,  waiting  for  connections  and
              spawning off child processes by itself as inetd would do it otherwise.

       -Rnumber of getpid() calls
              This  option  does  not  transmit  any  data,  but  calls the given number of times
              getpid(2) and calculates the number of calls per second. This is a measure for  the
              speed of the machine and the system call interface.

       -mmulticast IP:port
              This  option  is used to force sending to the specified multicast address and port.
              This option enforces the -u and-t switch.AlsoseeMULTICASTlaterinthisdocument.

OUTPUT

       The output of the program consists of two lines of numbers;  or  more  lines  if  used  in
       transmitting  to more than one machine (multicasting).  The first line for the measures of
       the local host the other line for the measure of the partner host. This is also  indicated
       with  the  first  characters beeing a 'l' respective 'r'. If the -T flag was given, also a
       Title line is given. The default format of the outout looks like this:

            Bytes  Real s   CPU s Real-MBit/s  CPU-MBit/s   Calls  Real-C/s   CPU-C/s
       l  8388608    7.51    0.25      8.7307    259.8676    2048    272.83   8120.86
       r  8388608    7.55    0.95      8.6804     68.9853    3831    507.42   4032.63

       The timing and rate values marked with 'CPU' use the sum of system  and  user  time  only.
       Real  timing  and rate values are computed using the time from the begin to the end of the
       transmission.
       It is possible to specify another form of the output. This is done similiar to the  format
       strings  of  printf(3s).  The  conversion  characters  of printf(3s) are replaced with the
       following tags. Each tag is preceded by '%' as in printf(3s). Between  the  '%'  character
       and  the tag there are width and precision specifications allowed as with printf(3s).  Two
       types of values are printed integers and floats. For these types  the  conversion  letters
       'd' respective 'f' of printf(3s) are used.

       l   prints the buffer length in bytes. Integer value.

       n   prints the buffer count. Integer value.

       c   prints the number of calls. Integer value.

       rt  prints the real time in s. Float value.

       rbr prints the real bit rate in MBit/s. Float value.

       rcr prints the real call rate in calls/s. Float value.

       ct  prints the cpu time in s. Float value.

       cbr prints the cpu bit rate in MBit/s. Float value.

       ccr prints the cpu call rate in calls/s. Float value.

       The default format is produced with the following format string:
           "%9b%8.2rt%8.2ct%12.4rbr%12.4cbr%8c%10.2rcr%10.2ccr"

INSTALLATION

       To  make  most convenient use of this program, it can be installed on the partner machine,
       so that inetd(8) can  start  it.  To  accomplish  this,  two  files  have  to  be  edited:
       /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/services.

       The respective lines may look like this:

       inetd.conf:
          ttcp stream tcp nowait nobody /usr/local/etc/nttcp nttcp

       services:
          ttcp 5037/tcp # to measure tcp transfer rates

       After  these  changes  have  been  made, the inetd(8) process has to be notified via a HUP
       signal (or killed and restarted on older versions of unix).

MULTICASTING

       Beginning with version 1.4 there is support generating multicast traffic. You even needn't
       set  any option, but simply specify more than one partner host. This mode is restricted to
       sending packets from the local host to the partner hosts. And  of  course  works  only  on
       machines  that  have  a  multicast enabled IP stack. Tested is this feature on Solaris2.6,
       HPUX-10 and HPUX-11 and Irix 6.2.  Also FreeBSD-2.2.6 compiled with option MROUTING works.
       But  be  aware  what this means to your networking environment. Most ethernet switches for
       example handle multicast traffic as broadcast.  This way  you  will  flood  your  complete
       network with these packets.

ENVIRONMENT

       The  are  two  environment  variables  NTTCP_LOC_OPT and NTTCP_REM_OPT that can be used to
       preset the local options and remote options respectivly. They take the same format as  the
       commandline does.  Commandline options override those settings from the environment.

SECURITY

       Under  security  considerations,  the  inetd-mode  of  operation  is NOT suggested.  Hosts
       configured to start nttcp this way, are very open to denial-of-service attacks. If you are
       concerned about this issue, you should consider either the use of tcpwrapper or simply not
       install nttcp this way.
       Also be sure to run nttcp as non-root when started via inetd(8). I have taken some care to
       avoid buffer-overrun prone coding. But the source is too big now to be sure in all corners
       of the code.

       You may also consider not to provide general access to this programm.  It  may  easily  be
       used  to  flood  your network with lots of traffic.  This may be used to launch or support
       denial-of-service attacks.

WARNING

       There are a lot of pitfalls in explaining unexpected measures.  Be sure to get a  thorough
       understanding  of  your  network  and  the devices used and installed. Also it is extremly
       helpful to have a deep understanding of  the  things  that  happen  in  your  machine  and
       operating  system.  A  short example shows what is meant here: If you see packet losses on
       UDP transfers, it may be, that the packets  are  lost  on  the  sending  host!  For  today
       machines  it is easy to produce packets much faster than a 10MBit ethernet can swallow it,
       so they may be dropped on the UDP stack of the  operating  system.  This  depends  on  the
       implementation  of  your  IP  stack.   So,  to be sure, use a second machine, and snoop or
       tcpdump the traffic in question, to be sure what happens on the medium.

BUGS

       Any program without bugs?

SEE ALSO

       inetd(8).

HISTORY

       This program was written to ease the measurement of TCP transfer rates  in  a  network  of
       unix  workstations.  It  is  based  on the ttcp.c program, which was (I suppose) posted to
       comp.sources.misc.  This man-page describes version 1.4.

AUTHOR

       Elmar Bartel
       Fakultaet fuer Informatik,
       Technische Universitaet Muenchen.

       bartel@informatik.tu-muenchen.de

                                            5 Oct 1998                                   nttcp(1)