NAME

       cpipe - copy stdin to stdout while counting bytes and reporting progress

SYNOPSIS

       cpipe [-b bsize] [-vt] [-vr] [-vw] [-ngr] [-s speed]

OPTIONS

       -b     buffer size in kB,
              1 Int value between 1 and oo.
              Default: `128'

       -vt    show throughput.

       -vr    show read-times.

       -vw    show write-times.

       -ngr   non-greedy read. Don't enforce a full buffer on read before starting to write.

       -s     throughput speed limit in kB/s,
              1 Double value between 1 and oo.

DESCRIPTION

       Cpipe  copies  its standard input to its standard output while measuring the time it takes
       to read an input buffer and write an output buffer. If one or more of the -vx  options  is
       given,  statistics  of average throughput and the total amount of bytes copied are printed
       to the standard error output.

   Non Greedy Read
       Normally, cpipe does its best to totally fill its buffer  (option  -b)  before  it  starts
       writing. In some situations however, e.g. if you talk to an interactive program via cpipe,
       this deadlocks the communication: said program waits for input which it  will  never  see,
       because  the  input  is  stuck in cpipe's buffer. But cpipe itself will not see more input
       before the program does not respond.

       To get around this, try using -ngr.  When issuing a read call, cpipe is then satisfied  as
       soon  as  it  gets  at least one byte. Instead of filling the buffer, it stops reading and
       writes whatever it got to the output. Note, however, that the throughput measurements will
       be  less  exact  if  the number of bytes transferred in one read/write pair becomes small,
       because cpipe will spent relatively more time working on every byte.

   Limiting Throughput
       If a throughput limit is specified with  option  -s,  cpipe  calls  usleep(3)  in  between
       copying  buffers, thereby artificially extending the duration of a read/write-cycle. Since
       on most systems there is a certain  minimum  time  usleep()  sleeps,  e.g.  0.01s,  it  is
       impossible  to  reach  high  limits  with a small buffer size. In this case increasing the
       buffer size (option -b) might help. However, keep in mind that this limits the  throughput
       only on the average. Every single buffer is copied as fast as possible.

EXAMPLE

       The command
         tar cCf / - usr | cpipe -vr -vw -vt > /dev/null
       results in an output like
         ...
           in:  19.541ms at    6.4MB/s (   4.7MB/s avg)    2.0MB
          out:   0.004ms at   30.5GB/s (  27.1GB/s avg)    2.0MB
         thru:  19.865ms at    6.3MB/s (   4.6MB/s avg)    2.0MB
         ...
       The first column shows the times it takes to handle one buffer of data (128kB by default).
       The read-call took 19.541ms, the write-call to /dev/null took just 0.004ms  and  from  the
       start of the read to the end of write, it took 19.865ms.

       The  second  column shows the result of dividing the buffer size (128kB by default) by the
       times in the first column.

       The third column contains the average over all measured  values  from  the  start  of  the
       program.

       Finally,  the  last column shows the total number of bytes transferred, which is of course
       the same for reading and writing.

BUGS

       This program uses precious processor cycles.  Consequently  the  measured  times  will  be
       different from the transfer rates possible without it.

       Instead  of  just non-greedy reading, full non-blocking I/O and use of select(2) should be
       used to make sure that no deadlocks occur when communicating with interactive programs.

CREDITS

       Peter Astrand <astrand@lysator.liu.se> recommended the speed limit.

       Ivo De Decker <ivo@zeus.rug.ac.be> asked for deadlock  prevention,  which  is  (hopefully)
       sufficiently covered by the non-greedy read.

AUTHOR

       Bug reports, beer and postcards go to pifpafpuf@gmx.de.  New versions will show up on
       http://cpipe.berlios.de/.