vnstat - a console-based network traffic monitor
vnstat [
-5bDedhlmqrstvwy?] [
--add] [
--begin
date] [
--config file] [
--create] [
--days
[
count]] [
--delete] [
--dbdir [
directory]]
[
--debug] [
--end date] [
--fiveminutes
[
count]] [
--help] [
-hg] [
--hours [
count]]
[
--hoursgraph] [
-i interface] [
--iface
interface] [
--iflist] [
--json [
mode]
[
limit]] [
--live [
mode]] [
--locale locale]
[
--longhelp] [
--months [
count]] [
--oneline
[
mode]] [
--query] [
--rateunit [
mode]]
[
--remove] [
-ru [
mode]] [
--setalias alias]
[
--short] [
--showconfig] [
--style number]
[
--top [
count]] [
-tr [
time]] [
--traffic
[
time]] [
--version] [
--xml [
mode] [
limit]]
[
--years [
count]]
vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor. It keeps a log of 5
minute interval, hourly, daily, monthly and yearly network traffic for the
selected interface(s). However, it isn't a packet sniffer. The traffic
information is read from the
proc(5) or
sys filesystems
depending on availability. That way vnStat can be used even without root
permissions on most systems.
The implementation is divided into two commands. The purpose of the
vnstat command is to provide an interface for querying the traffic
information stored in the database whereas the daemon
vnstatd(1) is
responsible for data retrieval, caching and storage. Although the daemon
process is constantly running as a service, it is actually spending most of
its time sleeping between data updates.
- --add
- Create database entry for interface specified with -i or
--iface option.
- -b, --begin date
- Begin the list output with a specific date / time defined by date
instead of the begin being selected based on the number of entries to be
shown. If date isn't available in the database then the closest
later date will be used. date supports the following formats:
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM and YYYY-MM-DD. This option can only be used with
--json , --xml and list outputs.
- --config file
- Use file as configuration file instead of using normal
configuration file search functionality.
- -d, --days [count]
- Show traffic statistics on a daily basis for the last days. The length of
the list will default to 30 entries unless configured otherwise or unless
the optional count parameter is used. All entries stored in the
database will be shown if count is set to 0.
- --dbdir directory
- Use directory as database directory instead of using the directory
specified in the configuration file or the hardcoded default if no
configuration file is available.
- -D, --debug
- Show additional debug output.
- -e, --end date
- End the list output with a specific date / time defined by date
instead of the latest date / time in the database. If date isn't
available in the database then the closest earlier date will be used.
date supports the following formats: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM and
YYYY-MM-DD. This option can only be used with --json , --xml
and list outputs. The top list also requires --begin to be used at
the same time with this option.
- -5, --fiveminutes [count]
- Show traffic statistics on a 5 minute resolution for the last hours. The
length of the list will default to 24 entries unless configured otherwise
or unless the optional count parameter is used. All entries stored
in the database will be shown if count is set to 0.
- -h, --hours [count]
- Show traffic statistics on a hourly basis. The length of the list will
default to 24 entries unless configured otherwise or unless the optional
count parameter is used. All entries store in the database will be
shown if the count is set to 0.
- -hg, --hoursgraph
- Show traffic statistics on a hourly basis for the last 24 hours using a
bar graph followed by a table representing the numerical data.
- -i, --iface interface
- Select one specific interface and apply actions to only it. For
queries, it is possible to merge the information of two or more interfaces
using the interface1+interface2+... syntax.
- --iflist
- Show list of currently available interfaces.
- --json [mode] [limit]
- Show database content for selected interface or all interfaces in json
format. All traffic values in the output are in bytes. An optional
mode parameter can be used for limiting the output to only selected
information. Everything is shown by default. Setting mode to 'f'
will output only 5 minute resolution entries, 'h' hours, 'd' days, 'm'
months, 'y' years and 't' the top days. An optional limit parameter
can be used to limit the number results to a given number of most recent
entries. The --json option can be used in combination with -l,
--live and -tr options without mode having any effect to
the output.
- -l, --live [mode]
- Display current transfer rate for the selected interface in real time
until interrupted. Statistics will be shown after interruption if the
runtime was more than 10 seconds. An optional mode parameter can be
used to select between the displaying of packets per second (mode 0) and
transfer counters (mode 1) during execution. --style can also be
used to affect the layout of the output. The output will be in json format
if used in combination with --json option.
- --locale locale
- Use locale instead of using the locale setting specified in the
configuration file or the system default if no configuration file is
available.
- --longhelp
- Show complete options list.
- -m, --months [count]
- Show traffic statistics on a monthly basis for the last months. The length
of the list will default to 12 entries unless configured otherwise or
unless the optional count parameter is used. All entries stored in
the database will be shown if count is set to 0.
- --oneline [mode]
- Show traffic summary for selected interface using one line with a parsable
format. The output contains 15 fields with ; used as field delimiter. The
1st field contains the version information of the output that will be
changed in future versions of vnStat if the field structure changes. The
following fields in order 2) interface name, 3) timestamp for today, 4) rx
for today, 5) tx for today, 6) total for today, 7) average traffic rate
for today, 8) timestamp for current month, 9) rx for current month, 10) tx
for current month, 11) total for current month, 12) average traffic rate
for today, 13) all time total rx, 14) all time total tx, 15) all time
total traffic. An optional mode parameter can be used to force all
fields to output in bytes without the unit itself shown.
- -q, --query
- Force database query mode.
- --remove
- Delete the database entry for the interface specified with -i or
--iface and stop monitoring it.
- -ru, --rateunit [mode]
- Swap the configured rate unit. If rate has been configured to be shown in
bytes then rate will be shown in bits if this option is present. In the
same way, if rate has been configured to be shown in bits then rate will
be shown in bytes when this option is present. Alternatively, mode
with either 0 or 1 can be used as parameter for this option in order to
select between bytes (0) and bits (1) regardless of the configuration file
setting.
- --setalias alias
- Set the selected interface alias as an alias that will be displayed
in queries.
- -s, --short
- Use short output mode. This mode is also used when more than one interface
is available in the database and no specific interface is selected.
- --showconfig
- Show current configuration using the same format as the configuration file
itself uses.
- --style number
- Modify the content and style of outputs. Set number to 0 for a
narrower output, 1 for enabling bar column, 2 for same as previous but
with average traffic rate visible in summary output and 3 for enabling
average traffic rate in all outputs where it is supported. 4 disables the
use of terminal control characters in -l / --live mode.
- -t, --top [count]
- Show all time top traffic days. The length of the list will default to 10
entries unless configured otherwise or unless the optional count
parameter is used. All entries stored in the database will be shown if
count is set to 0. When used with --begin and optionally
with --end, the list will be generated using the daily data instead
of separate top entries. The availability of daily data defines the
boundaries the date specific query can access.
- -tr, --traffic [time]
- Calculate how much traffic goes through the selected interface during the
given time seconds. The time will be 5 seconds if a number
parameter isn't specified. The output will be in json format if used in
combination with --json option. However, in that case, the
countdown before results isn't shown.
- -v, --version
- Show current version.
- --xml [mode] [limit]
- Show database content for selected interface or all interfaces in xml
format. All traffic values in the output are in bytes. An optional
mode parameter can be used for limiting the output to only selected
information. Everything is shown by default. Setting mode to 'f'
will output only 5 minute resolution entries, 'h' hours, 'd' days, 'm'
months, 'y' years and 't' the top days. An optional limit parameter
can be used to limit the number results to a given number of most recent
entries.
- -y, --years [count]
- Show traffic statistics on a yearly basis for the last years. The list
will show all entries by default unless configured otherwise or unless the
optional count parameter is used. All entries stored in the
database will also be shown if count is set to 0.
- -?, --help
- Show a command option summary.
- /var/lib/vnstat/
- Default database directory.
- /etc/vnstat.conf
- Config file that will be used unless $HOME/.vnstatrc exists. See
vnstat.conf(5) for more information.
- vnstat
- Display traffic summary for the default interface or multiple interfaces
when more than one is monitored.
- vnstat -i eth2 --xml
- Output all information about interface eth2 in xml format.
- vnstat --json
- Output all information of all monitored interfaces in json format.
- vnstat -i eth0 --setalias local
- Give interface eth0 the alias "local". That information will be
later later visible as a label when eth0 is queried.
- vnstat -i eth2 --remove
- Delete database entries for interface eth2 and stop monitoring it.
Updates needs 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. This isn't
an issue for 64-bit kernels but at least one update every hour is always
required in order to provide proper input. With 32-bit kernels, the maximum
time between two updates depends on how fast the interface can transfer 4 GiB.
Calculated theoretical times are:
10 Mbit: 54 minutes |
|
100 Mbit: 5 minutes |
|
1000 Mbit: 30 seconds |
|
However, for 1000 Mbit interfaces updating once every minute is usually a usable
solution if faster updates can't be used.
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.
Using long date output formats may cause misalignment in shown columns if the
length of the date exceeds the fixed size allocation.
Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>
vnstatd(1),
vnstati(1),
vnstat.conf(5),
proc(5),
ifconfig(8),
units(7)