Provided by: vnstat_2.10-1_amd64 
NAME
vnstat.conf - vnStat configuration file
SYNOPSIS
/etc/vnstat.conf
DESCRIPTION
vnstat(1), vnstati(1) and vnstatd(8) all use the same configuration file for configuration
related settings. Some of the settings are common for all three programs. The file
consists of keyword-argument pairs, one per line. Empty lines and lines starting with '#'
or ';' are interpreted as comments and not processed. Arguments may optionally be
enclosed in double quotes (") in order to represent arguments containing spaces. Arguments
can be padded with spaces or tabulator characters. A hardcoded default value will be used
if a keyword can't be found from the configuration file or if the configured value cannot
be parsed or is outside supported value range.
The configuration file is divided into three sections based on the usage of each keyword.
The first section contains keywords that are considered common for all commands, the
second section is for daemon related keywords and the last section is for image output.
COMMON KEYWORDS
DatabaseDir
Specifies the directory where the database is to be stored. A full path must be
given and a leading '/' isn't required.
DayFormat, MonthFormat, TopFormat
Formatting of date in available outputs. Uses the same format as date(1). (vnstat
and vnstati only)
DefaultDecimals
Number of decimals to use in outputs. Value range: 0..2 (vnstat and vnstati only)
EstimateBarVisible
Show a visual representation of the traffic estimation if OutputStyle has been
configured with a value of 1 or 2 to make the bar column visible. 1 = enabled, 0 =
disabled. (vnstat only, see EstimateStyle for vnstati)
EstimateText
Replace default "estimated" text on the estimate line with custom text. Limited to
9 characters. (vnstat and vnstati only)
EstimateVisible
Show a line with traffic estimation for the selected time period or alert as the
last line of the output in output modes supporting it. Disabling estimate
visibility also disables estimate conditions in --alert. 1 = enabled, 0 =
disabled. (vnstat and vnstati only)
HourlyDecimals
Number of decimals to use in hourly graph output. Value range: 0..2 (vnstat only)
HourlySectionStyle
Select what kind of spacer is used for separating the numerical sections of the
hourly graph output. 0 = none, 1 = '|', 2 = '][', 3 = '[ ]'. (vnstat only)
Interface
Default interface used when no other interface is specified on the command line.
Leave empty for automatic selection. The automatic selection will prioritize the
interface with most traffic for outputs doing database queries. Queries not using
the database will first check if the database is available and select the interface
with most traffic out those that are currently visible in the system. If no
database can be read then the first available interface will be used. (vnstat and
vnstati only)
InterfaceMatchMethod
Method for matching interface given for a query to an interface in the database.
Method 0 requires the interface name to be a case sensitive exact match. Method 1
extends the previous method by allowing a case sensitive exact match of the
interface alias. Method 2 extends the previous method by allowing a case
insensitive exact match of the interface alias. Method 3 extends the previous
method by allowing a case insensitive match of the beginning of the interface
alias.
Methods will be evaluated in the order described above resulting in exact interface
matches always taking precedence. If any interface alias matching method results in
multiple matches then the interface with the highest total traffic will be used.
(vnstat and vnstati only)
List5Mins, ListHours, ListDays, ListMonths, ListYears, ListTop
Number of entries to show in list outputs unless overridden from the command line.
Set to 0 to show all entries available in the database. (vnstat and vnstati)
Locale Locale setting to be used for prints. This replaces the LC_ALL environment
variable. Set to "-" or leave empty in order to use the system default value.
(vnstat and vnstati only)
OutputStyle
Modify the content and style of text outputs. 0 = minimal and narrow output for
terminal with limited width, 1 = normal output with bar column visible, 2 = same as
1 except rate is visible in summary output, 3 = rate column is visible in all
outputs where it is supported. (vnstat and vnstati only)
QueryMode
Default query mode when no parameters are given. 0 = normal, 1 = days, 2 = months,
3 = top, 5 = short, 6 = years, 7 = hours graph, 8 = xml, 9 = one line, 10 = json,
11 = hours and 12 = 5 minute. (vnstat only)
RateUnit
Select which unit is used when traffic rate is visible. 0 = bytes, 1 = bits.
(vnstat and vnstati only)
RateUnitMode
Select used prefix when traffic rate is shown in bits per second. IEC binary
prefixes are calculated with powers of 1024. SI decimal prefixes are calculated
with powers of 1000. 0 = IEC binary prefixes (Kibit/s...), 1 = SI decimal prefixes
(kbit/s...). (vnstat and vnstati only)
RXCharacter, TXCharacter
Character used for representing the percentual share of received and transmitted
traffic in list mode outputs. (vnstat only)
RXHourCharacter, TXHourCharacter
Character used for representing the percentual share of received and transmitted
traffic in hourly graph output. (vnstat only)
Sampletime
Defines how many seconds the -tr option will sample traffic. Value range: 2..600
(vnstat only)
UnitMode
Select how units are prefixed. IEC and JEDEC binary prefixes are calculated with
powers of 1024. SI decimal prefixes are calculated with powers of 1000. 0 = IEC
standard prefixes (B/KiB/MiB/GiB...), 1 = old style (JEDEC) binary prefixes
(B/KB/MB/GB...), 2 = SI decimals prefixes (B/kB/MB/GB...) (vnstat and vnstati
only)
DAEMON RELATED KEYWORDS
5MinuteHours
Data retention duration for the 5 minute resolution entries. The configuration
defines for how many past hours entries will be stored. Set to -1 for unlimited
entries or to 0 to disable the data collection of this resolution.
64bitInterfaceCounters
Select interface counter handling. Set to 1 for defining that all interfaces use
64-bit counters on the kernel side and 0 for defining 32-bit counter. Set to -1 for
using the old style logic used in earlier versions where counter values within
32-bits are assumed to be 32-bit and anything larger is assumed to be a 64-bit
counter. This may produce false results if a 64-bit counter is reset within the
32-bits. Set to -2 for using automatic detection based on available kernel
datastructures.
AlwaysAddNewInterfaces
Enable or disable automatic creation of new database entries for interfaces not
currently in the database even if the database file already exists when the daemon
is started. New database entries will also get created for new interfaces seen
while the daemon is running. Pseudo interfaces lo, lo0 and sit0 are always excluded
from getting added. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
BandwidthDetection
Try to automatically detect MaxBandwidth value for each monitored interface. Mostly
only ethernet interfaces support this feature. MaxBandwidth will be used as
fallback value if detection fails. Any interface specific MaxBW configuration will
disable the detection for the specified interface. In Linux, the detection is
disabled for tun interfaces due to the Linux kernel always reporting 10 Mbit
regardless of the used real interface. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
BandwidthDetectionInterval
How often in minutes interface specific detection of MaxBandwidth is done for
detecting possible changes when BandwidthDetection is enabled. Can be disabled by
setting to 0. Value range: 0..30
BootVariation
Time in seconds how much the boot time reported by system kernel can variate
between updates. Value range: 0..300
CheckDiskSpace
Enable or disable the availability check of at least some free disk space before a
database write. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
CreateDirs
Enable or disable the creation of directories when a configured path doesn't exist.
This includes DatabaseDir , LogFile and PidFile directories. The LogFile directory
will be created only when UseLogging has been set to 1. The PidFile directory will
be created only if the daemon is started as a background process. The daemon
process will try to create the directory using permissions of the user used to
start the process.
DaemonGroup
Specify the group to which the daemon process should switch during startup. The
group can either be the name of the group or a numerical group id. Leave empty to
disable group switching. This option can only be used when the process is started
as root.
DaemonUser
Specify the user to which the daemon process should switch during startup. The
user can either be the login of the user or a numerical user id. Leave empty to
disable user switching. This option can only be used when the process is started as
root.
DailyDays
Data retention duration for the one day resolution entries. The configuration
defines for how many past days entries will be stored. Set to -1 for unlimited
entries or to 0 to disable the data collection of this resolution.
DatabaseSynchronous
Change the setting of the SQLite "synchronous" flag which controls how much care is
taken to ensure disk writes have fully completed when writing data to the database
before continuing other actions. Higher values take extra steps to ensure data
safety at the cost of slower performance. A value of 0 will result in all handling
being left to the filesystem itself. Set to -1 to select the default value
according to database mode controlled by DatabaseWriteAheadLogging setting. See
SQLite documentation for more details regarding values from 1 to 3. Value range:
-1..3
DatabaseWriteAheadLogging
Enable or disable SQLite Write-Ahead Logging mode for the database. See SQLite
documentation for more details and note that support for read-only operations isn't
available in older SQLite versions. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
HourlyDays
Data retention duration for the one hour resolution entries. The configuration
defines for how many past days entries will be stored. Set to -1 for unlimited
entries or to 0 to disable the data collection of this resolution.
LogFile
Specify log file path and name to be used if UseLogging is set to 1.
MaxBandwidth
Maximum bandwidth for all interfaces. If the interface specific traffic exceeds the
given value then the data is assumed to be invalid and rejected. Set to 0 in order
to disable the feature. Value range: 0..50000
MaxBW Same as MaxBandwidth but can be used for setting individual limits for selected
interfaces. The name of the interface is specified directly after the MaxBW keyword
without spaces. For example MaxBWeth0 for eth0 and MaxBWppp0 for ppp0.
BandwidthDetection is disabled on an interface specific level for each MaxBW
configuration. Value range: 0..50000
MonthlyMonths
Data retention duration for the one month resolution entries. The configuration
defines for how many past months entries will be stored. Set to -1 for unlimited
entries or to 0 to disable the data collection of this resolution.
MonthRotate
Day of month that months are expected to change. Usually set to 1 but can be set to
alternative values for example for tracking monthly billed traffic where the
billing period doesn't start on the first day. For example, if set to 7, days of
February up to and including the 6th will count for January. Changing this option
will not cause existing data to be recalculated. Value range: 1..28
MonthRotateAffectsYears
Enable or disable MonthRotate also affecting yearly data. Applicable only when
MonthRotate has a value greater than one. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
OfflineSaveInterval
How often in minutes cached interface data is saved to file when all monitored
interfaces are offline. Value range: SaveInterval..60
PidFile
Specify pid file path and name to be used. The file is created only if the daemon
is started as a background process.
PollInterval
How often in seconds interfaces are checked for status changes. Value range: 2..60
RescanDatabaseOnSave
Automatically discover added interfaces from the database and start monitoring.
The rescan is done every SaveInterval or OfflineSaveInterval minutes depending on
the current activity state. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
SaveInterval
How often in minutes cached interface data is saved to file. Value range: (
UpdateInterval / 60 )..60
SaveOnStatusChange
Enable or disable the additional saving to file of cached interface data when the
availability of an interface changes, i.e., when an interface goes offline or comes
online. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
TimeSyncWait
How many minutes to wait during daemon startup for system clock to sync if most
recent database update appears to be in the future. This may be needed in systems
without a real-time clock (RTC) which require some time after boot to query and set
the correct time. 0 = wait disabled. Value range: 0..60
TopDayEntries
Data retention duration for the top day entries. The configuration defines how many
of the past top day entries will be stored. Set to -1 for unlimited entries or to 0
to disable the data collection of this resolution.
TrafficlessEntries
Create database entries even when there is no traffic during the entry's time
period. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
UpdateFileOwner
Enable or disable the update of file ownership during daemon process startup.
During daemon startup, only database, log and pid files will be modified if the
user or group change feature ( DaemonUser or DaemonGroup ) is enabled and the files
don't match the requested user or group. During manual database creation, this
option will cause file ownership to be inherited from the database directory if the
directory already exists. This option only has effect when the process is started
as root or via sudo.
UpdateInterval
How often in seconds the interface data is updated. Value range: PollInterval..300
UseLogging
Enable or disable logging. This option is ignored when the daemon is started with
-n, --nodaemon which results in all log output being shown in terminal the daemon
process is using. 0 = disabled, 1 = logfile and 2 = syslog.
UseUTC Enable or disable using UTC as timezone in the database for all entries. When
enabled, all entries added to the database will use UTC regardless of the
configured system timezone. When disabled, the configured system timezone will be
used. Changing this setting will not result in already existing data to be
modified. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
YearlyYears
Data retention duration for the one year resolution entries. The configuration
defines for how many past years entries will be stored. Set to -1 for unlimited
entries or to 0 to disable the data collection of this resolution.
IMAGE OUTPUT RELATED KEYWORDS
5MinuteGraphResultCount
Number of 5 minute periods to be included in the 5 minute resolution graph. The
value affects the width of the graph. Value range: 288..5MinuteHours*12
5MinuteGraphHeight
Height of 5 minute resolution graph in pixels. Value range: 150..2000
BarColumnShowsRate
The bar column represents traffic rate in list outputs when enabled. Requires also
that OutputStyle has been configured to show the traffic rate column by using the
value 3. Enabling this option will automatically cause EstimateStyle to have the
value 0. Visually this option affects only the color legend text and the last line
on the list if that line represents the currently ongoing time period. 1 = enabled,
0 = disabled.
CBackground
Background color.
CEdge Edge color, if visible.
CHeader
Header background color.
CHeaderTitle
Header title text color.
CHeaderDate
Header date text color.
CLine Line color.
CLineL Lighter version of line color. Set to '-' in order to use a calculated value based
on CLine.
CRx Color for received data.
CRxD Darker version of received data color. Set to '-' in order to use a calculated
value based on CRx.
CText Common text color.
CTx Color for transmitted data.
CTxD Darker version of transmitted data color. Set to '-' in order to use a calculated
value based on CTx.
EstimateStyle
Show a visual representation of the traffic estimation. 0 = not shown, 1 =
continuation of existing bar, 2 = separate bar.
HeaderFormat
Formatting of date in header. Uses the same format as date(1).
HourlyGraphMode
Select the output mode of the hourly graph. 0 = 24 hour sliding window, 1 = graph
begins from midnight.
HourlyRate
Show hours with rate instead of transferred amount. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
ImageScale
Scale output to given percent. Value range: 50..500
LargeFonts
Increase the size of used fonts. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
LineSpacingAdjustment
Adjust line spacing in list format outputs. Positive values increase the space
between lines while negative values reduce it. Value range: -5..10
SummaryGraph
Select which graph style output is shown next to the summary data in the horizontal
and vertical summary outputs. 0 = hours, 1 = 5 minutes.
SummaryRate
Show rate in summary output if available. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
TransparentBg
Set background color as transparent. 1 = enabled, 0 = disabled.
FILES
/etc/vnstat.conf
Config file that will be used unless $HOME/.vnstatrc exists or alternative value is
given as command line parameter.
RESTRICTIONS
Using long date output formats may cause misalignment in shown columns if the length of
the date exceeds the fixed size allocation.
AUTHOR
Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>
SEE ALSO
vnstat(1), vnstati(1), vnstatd(8), units(7)