Provided by: mbuffer_20110119-2_amd64 
NAME
mbuffer - measuring buffer
SYNTAX
mbuffer [options]
DESCRIPTION
mbuffer buffers I/O operations and displays the throughput rate. It is multi-threaded,
supports network connections, and offers more options than the standard buffer.
OPTIONS
-i <filename>
Use filename as input instead of the standard input (needs to be given for multi
volume support). If filename is -, input is read from standard input.
-I <port>
Use network port port as input instead of the standard input. If given a hostname
and a port in the form hostname:port, the first interface with the IP of hostname
will be used.
-o <filename>
Use filename as output instead of the standard output (needs to be given for multi
volume support, will enable use of sendfile if available). If filename is -, output
is written to standard output. The option -o can be passed multiple times to
specify multiple outputs.
-O <hostname:port>
Write output to hostname:port instead of the standard output (will enable use of
sendfile if available). This option can be used multiple times to send data to
multiple machines.
-b <num>
Use num blocks for buffer (default 256).
-s <size>
Use blocks of size bytes for buffer (default pagesize of system).
-m <size>
Use a total of size bytes for buffer (default 2MB) - size can be set with a
trailing character (b and B for Byte, k for kByte, M for MByte, G for Gigabyte, and
with % for a percentage of total physical memory).
-L Lock buffer in memory - this option is not available for file-based buffers and
requires mbuffer to be set-UID root (use with care).
-n <num>
num volumes in input device (requires use of option -i for input device
specification) [currently multi volume support is EXPERIMENTAL]
-t use a memory-mapped temporary file as buffer (use with huge buffers)
-T <file>
as -t but use file instead
-d use block-size of device for output (needed for some devices, slows output down)
-D <size>
assume an output volume of size bytes (default infinite) after which a volume
change will be initiated. Small values are useful for the timely testing of multi-
volume runs; accurate values if your device doesn't properly signal end of media.
Size can be set with a trailing character (b and B for Byte, k for kByte, M for
MByte, or G for Gigabyte)
-P <num>
start writing after the buffer has been filled to num% (default 0 - start at once)
-p <num>
start reading after the buffer has dropped below fill-ratio of num% (default 100 -
start at once)
-l <file>
log messages to file instead of standard error output
-u <num>
pause num microseconds after each write - might increase performance on some drives
with very low performance (< 1 MB/sec)
-r <rate>
Set the maximum read rate to <rate>. <rate> can be given in either Bytes, kBytes,
MBytes, or GBytes per second. To do so, use an appropriate suffix (i.e. k,M,G).
This option is useful if you have a tape that is capable of transferring data
faster than the host can handle it. In this case you can use this option to limit
the transfer rate and keep the tape running. Be aware that this is both good for
your tape drive, and enhances overall performance, by avoiding tape screwing.
-R <rate>
Same as above only for setting the transfer limit for the writer.
-A <cmd>
the device used is an autoloader which uses cmd to load the next volume
-a <time>
the device used is an autoloader which takes time seconds to load a new tape
-f overwrite output file if it exists already
-c write with synchronous data integrity support - This option forces all writes to
complete before continuing. This enables errors to be reported earlier and more
precisely, but might decrease performance. Especially systems with high level of
data integrity support suffer a huge performance hit. Others might seem to be
unaffected, but just neglect support for full synchronous data integrity.
-v <num>
set verbose level to num. Valid values are 0..6 (0 = none, 1 = errors, 2 =
warnings, 4 = information messages, 5 = debugging messages, 6 = I/O debugging).
Higher values include lower values messages.
-q quiet - do not display the status on the standard error output --direct Use
O_DIRECT to open file descriptors. This option is not available on all systems. It
tells the OS to bypass the page cache to improve performance when reading and
writing. On Solaris this is an auto-magic option that is enabled if it is supported
for the relevant file. Be aware that this option might lead to read/write failures,
if the buffer isn't properly aligned for direct I/O. Additionally, open might fail
with EINVAL (i.e. invalid argument) if the named file does not support O_DIRECT.
-6 Force IPv6 mode for the following network I/O options on command line. -4 Force
IPv4 mode for the following network I/O options on command line. -0 Choose
IPv4/IPv6 mode on demand.
-h, --help
Output help information and exit.
-H, --md5
Generate a MD5 hash of transferred data.
-V, --version
Output version information and exit.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
If TMPDIR is set, mbuffer allocates storage for file-based buffers in this directory. If
TMPDIR is unset, /var/tmp will be used.
FILES
/usr/bin/mbuffer
/var/tmp/mbuffer-*
EXAMPLES
To run this program with the default options just type:
mbuffer
Using mbuffer to do a backup with tar to the default tape device. Options for this
example: memory-mapped temporary file with a size of 10 Megabytes, start after 80% of the
buffer have been filled.
tar cf - mydirectory | gzip | mbuffer -t -m 10M -P 80 -f -o $TAPE
Using mbuffer with 3 tapes for input and extracting the contents in the current work
directory:
mbuffer -n 3 -i $TAPE | gzip -dc | tar xf -
Using mbuffer to write to multiple tape volumes:
tar cf - /usr | mbuffer -f -o $TAPE
Write to multiple tapes and erase every tape before writing:
tar cf - /usr | mbuffer -A "echo next tape; read a < /dev/tty; mt erase $TAPE" -f -o $TAPE
Making a backup via network:
tape server: mbuffer -I 8000 -f -o $TAPE
backup client: tar zcf - /home | mbuffer -O tapeserver:8000
Distributing a directory tree to multiple machines:
master: tar cf - /tree_to_clone | mbuffer -O clone0:8000 -O clone1:8000
clones: mbuffer -I master:8000 | tar xf -
EXITCODE
mbuffer return 0 upon success. Any kind of failure will yield a non-zero exit code.
AUTHORS
Thomas Maier-Komor <thomas@maier-komor.de>
DONATIONS
If you like this software, and use it for production purposes in your company, please
consider making a donation to support this work. You can donate directly via PayPal to
the author's e-mail address (thomas@maier-komor.de).
HOMEPAGE
http://www.maier-komor.de/mbuffer.html
LICENSE
This software is published under GNU General Public License V3. See file LICENSE for
details.
SEE ALSO
buffer(1)