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/.