Provided by: vnstat_2.10-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       vnstatd - daemon based database updating for vnStat

SYNOPSIS

       vnstatd  [-Ddnpstv?]  [--alwaysadd [mode]] [--config file] [--daemon] [--debug] [-g group]
       [--group group] [--help]  [--initdb]  [--noadd]  [--nodaemon]  [--pidfile  file]  [--sync]
       [--timestamp] [--u user] [--user user] [--version]

DESCRIPTION

       The  purpose  of vnstatd is to provide a flexible and robust way for updating the database
       that vnstat(1) uses. The availability of each interface  is  automatically  tracked  which
       removes  the  need  for  additional scripts to be implemented and called when an interface
       comes online or goes offline.

       vnstatd is the command for starting the daemon. The daemon can either fork itself  to  run
       as a background process or stay attached to the terminal.  It supports logging directly to
       terminal, to a user selectable file or using syslog.

       Once started, the daemon will read vnstat.conf(5) if available and then check if there  is
       a  database present in the database directory that has been specified in the configuration
       file. By default, if no database is found, a database will be created during startup  with
       entries  for  all  available interfaces excluding pseudo interfaces lo, lo0 and sit0. This
       automatic database entry creation behaviour can be  disabled  using  the  --noadd  option.
       Alternatively,  using  the  --alwaysadd option instructs the daemon to create new database
       entries whenever interfaces not currently in the databases become visible.

       The daemon will proceed to track the availability of  monitored  interfaces,  process  the
       interface  traffic  statistics  and  write  new  values  to  the  database at a configured
       interval. As a result, the daemon ends up spending  most  of  the  time  sleeping  between
       updates.

       When  the  UseUTC configuration option isn't enabled, data is stored in the database using
       local time based on the daemon's execution environment when the configuration option isn't
       enabled.  Any changes in the system clock or the system timezone configuration will result
       in data being inserted according to the new local time  without  any  recalculation  being
       done  for  already stored data. The daemon and the database in essence aren't aware of the
       used timezone or possible daylight saving time and cannot  be  configured  to  offset  the
       timestamps  to  any  direction.  If  a  system clock or system timezone change or daylight
       saving time observation ending results in an already seen time period to repeat  then  the
       existing database values get incremented with the new data.

OPTIONS

       --alwaysadd [mode]
              Enable  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.  Using the option without mode defined or with mode set to 1 will enable the
              feature. Setting mode to 0 will disable  the  feature.  This  command  line  option
              overrides the AlwaysAddNewInterfaces configuration option when used.

       --config file
              Use file as configuration file instead of using automatic configuration file search
              functionality.

       -d, --daemon
              Fork process to background and run as a daemon.

       -D, --debug
              Provide additional output for debug purposes. The process will stay attached to the
              terminal for output.

       -g, --group group
              Set  daemon process group to group during startup.  group can be either the name of
              the group or a numerical group id. This option can only be used when the process is
              started as root.

       --initdb
              Create  a  new  empty  database  without  interface  data and exit. If the database
              already exists then access to it is only verified. The daemon will not stay running
              when  this  option  is  used.  This  option  cannot be used in combination with -d,
              --daemon or -n, --nodaemon.

       --noadd
              Disable the automatic creation of new database entries for all available interfaces
              if  the  daemon  is  started  with no database found or with a database without any
              interfaces. The daemon will fail to start if this option is used when the  database
              contains  no  interfaces or doesn't exist. The daemon will create an empty database
              if one doesn't already exist.  Pseudo  interfaces  lo,  lo0  and  sit0  are  always
              excluded from getting added regardless of this option.

       -n, --nodaemon
              Stay in foreground attached to the current terminal and start the update process.

       -p, --pidfile file
              Write the process id to file and use it for locking so that another instance of the
              daemon cannot be started if the same file is specified. This option has  no  effect
              if used in combination with -n, --nodaemon.

       -s, --sync
              Synchronize  internal  counters  in  the  database  with interface counters for all
              available interfaces before starting traffic monitoring.  Use this  option  if  the
              traffic  between  the previous shutdown and the current startup of the daemon needs
              to be ignored. This option isn't required in normal use  because  the  daemon  will
              automatically  synchronize  the  internal counters after a system reboot, if enough
              time has passed since the daemon was previously running or if the internal counters
              are clearly out of sync.

       -t, --timestamp
              Add a timestamp to the beginning of every print from the daemon when the process is
              running in the foreground attached to a terminal after having been started with the
              -n, --nodaemon option.

       -u, --user user
              Set  daemon  process  user to user during startup.  user can be either the login of
              the user or a numerical user id. This option can only be used when the  process  is
              started as root.

       -v, --version
              Show current version of the daemon executable.

       -?, --help
              Show a command option summary.

CONFIGURATION

       The  behaviour  of  the  daemon  is  configured  mainly  using  the configuration keywords
       UpdateInterval, PollInterval and SaveInterval in the configuration file.

       UpdateInterval defines in seconds how often the interface data  is  fetched  and  updated.
       This  is  similar  to  the run interval for alternative cron based updating.  However, the
       difference is that the data doesn't directly get written to disk during updates.

       PollInterval defines in seconds how often the list of available interfaces is checked  for
       possible changes. The minimum value is 2 seconds and the maximum 60 seconds.  PollInterval
       also defines the resolution for other intervals.

       SaveInterval defines in minutes how often cached interface data is  written  to  disk.   A
       write can only occur during the updating of interface data. Therefore, the value should be
       a multiple of UpdateInterval with a maximum value of 60 minutes.

       The default values of UpdateInterval 30, SaveInterval 5 and  PollInterval  5  are  usually
       suitable  for most systems and provide a similar behaviour as cron based updating does but
       with a better resolution for interface changes and fast interfaces.

       For embedded and/or low power systems more tuned configurations  are  possible.   In  such
       cases  if  the  interfaces  are  mostly static the PollInterval can be increased to around
       10-30 seconds and UpdateInterval set to 60 seconds. Higher values up to  300  seconds  are
       possible  if  the  interface  speed is 10 Mbit or less.  SaveInterval can be increased for
       example to 15, 30 or even 60 minutes depending on how often the data needs to be viewed.

SIGNALS

       The daemon is listening to signals SIGHUP, SIGINT and SIGTERM.  Sending the SIGHUP  signal
       to  the  daemon  will  cause  cached  data to be written to disk, a rescan of the database
       directory and a reload of settings from the configuration  file.  However,  the  pid  file
       location will not be changed even if it's configuration setting has been modified.

       SIGTERM and SIGINT signals will cause the daemon to write all cached data to disk and then
       exit.

FILES

       /var/lib/vnstat/
              Default database directory.

       /etc/vnstat.conf
              Config file that will be used unless $HOME/.vnstatrc exists. See the  configuration
              chapter and vnstat.conf(5) for more information.

       /var/log/vnstat/vnstat.log
              Log  file  that  will  be  used  if  logging to file is enable and no other file is
              specified in the config file.

       /run/vnstat/vnstat.pid
              File used for storing the process id when running as a background process and if no
              other  file  is  specified  in  the  configuration  file  or using the command line
              parameter.

RESTRICTIONS

       Updates need to be executed at least as often as it  is  possible  for  the  interface  to
       generate enough traffic to overflow the kernel interface traffic counter. Otherwise, it is
       possible that some traffic won't be seen. With  32-bit  interface  traffic  counters,  the
       maximum  time  between  two  updates depends on how fast the interface can transfer 4 GiB.
       Note that there is no guarantee that a 64-bit kernel has 64-bit interface traffic counters
       for all interfaces. Calculated theoretical times are:

              10 Mbit:        54 minutes
              100 Mbit:        5 minutes
              1000 Mbit:      30 seconds
       Virtual  and  aliased  interfaces  cannot  be monitored because the kernel doesn't provide
       traffic information for that type of interfaces. Such interfaces are usually named eth0:0,
       eth0:1, eth0:2 etc. where eth0 is the actual interface being aliased.

AUTHOR

       Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>

SEE ALSO

       vnstat(1), vnstati(1), vnstat.conf(5), signal(7)