NAME
netperf - a network performance benchmark
SYNOPSIS
netperf [global options] -- [test specific options]
DESCRIPTION
Netperf is a benchmark that can be used to measure various aspects of
networking performance. Currently, its focus is on bulk data transfer
and request/response performance using either TCP or UDP, and the
Berkeley Sockets interface. In addition, tests for DLPI, and Unix
Domain Sockets, tests for IPv6 may be conditionally compiled-in.
GLOBAL OPTIONS
-4 Use AF_INET (aka IPv4) addressing for the control and possibly
data connections.
-6 Use AF_INET6 (aka IPv6) addressing for the control and possibly
data connections.
-a sizespec
Alter the send and receive buffer alignments on the local
system. This defaults to 8 bytes.
-A sizespec
As -a, but for the remote system.
-B brandstr
Add brandstr to the output of a test with banners disabled.
-c [rate]
Request CPU utilization and service demand calculations for the
local system. If the optional rate parameter is specified,
netperf will use that instead of calculating the rate itself.
-C [rate]
As -c, but for the remote system.
-d Increase the quantity of debugging output displayed during a
test (possibly at the expense of performance).
-D [secs,units] (*)
Display interim results at least every secs seconds uning units
as the initial guess for units per second. This is only
available when netperf has been configured with --enable-demo.
-f GMKgmk
Change the units of measure for *_STREAM tests. Capital letters
are powers of two, lowercase are powers of ten.
-F fill_file
Pre-fill the send buffers with data from the named file. This is
intended to provide a means for avoiding buffers that are filled
with data which is trivially easy to compress. A good choice for
a file that should be present on any system is this manpage -
netperf.man. Other files may be provided as part of the
distribution.
-h Display a usage string, and exit.
-H name|ip,family (*)
Set the hostname (or IP address) and address family to use to
establish the control connection to the remote system. Passing a
single name with no comma will only set remote_host and will
leave selection of address family for the control connection to
the stack or by a -4 -r -6 command line option.
-i max,min
Set the maximum and minimum number of iterations when trying to
reach certain confidence levels.
-I lvl,[,intvl]
Specify the confidence level (either 95 or 99 - 99 is the
default) and the width of the confidence interval as a
percentage (default 10)
-l testlen
Specify the length of the test (default 10 seconds). A negative
value sets the number of request/response transactions, or the
number of bytes for a stream test.
-L name|ip,fam (*)
Set the local name|IP and/or address family for the socket used
for the control connection to the remote netserver.
-n numcpus
Specify the number of CPU’s in the system on those systems for
which netperf has no way to find the number of CPU’s
programatically.
-N This option will tell netperf to not establish a control
connection to a remote netserver. Instead it will try to
establish a data connection directly, using only the information
supplied by the command line parameters and/or internal
defaults. Unless other ports are provided by the command line,
by default the data connection will be to the "discard" port for
a "STREAM" or "SENDFILE" test, the "echo" port for an "RR" test
or the "chargen" port for a "MAERTS" test.
-o sizespec
Set an offset from the alignment specified with -a.
-O sizespec
As -o, but for the remote system.
-p portnum,locport (*)
Direct the control connection to a netserver listening on the
specified port, rather than using a "netperf" entry in
/etc/services or the internal default (port 12865). If
",locport" is specified the control connection will be
established from that local port number. Specifying a single
port number with no comma will specify only the remote netserver
port number and will leave local port number selection to the
stack.
-P 0|1 Show (1) or suppress (0) the test banner.
-t testname
Specify the test to perform. Valid testnames include, but are
not limited to, nor always compiled-in:
TCP_STREAM
TCP_SENDFILE
TCP_MAERTS
TCP_RR
TCP_CRR
UDP_STREAM
UDP_RR
DLCO_STREAM
DLCO_RR
DLCL_STREAM
DLCL_RR
STREAM_STREAM
STREAM_RR
DG_STREAM
DG_RR
LOC_CPU
REM_CPU
-T lcpu,remcpu
Request that netperf be bound to CPU lcpu and/or netserver be
bound to CPU rcpu.
-v verbosity
Set the verbosity level for the test (only with -P).
TEST SPECIFIC OPTIONS
-h Display a usage string based on the test name set with -t, and
exit.
Please consult the netperf manual Netperf: A Network Performance
Benchmark (netperf.ps) for more information. Or you can join and
mail to netperf-talk@netperf.org.
NOTE
For those options taking two parms, at least one must be specified;
specifying one value without a comma will set both parms to that value,
specifying a value with a leading comma will set just the second parm,
a value with a trailing comma will set just the first. To set each parm
to unique values, specify both and separate them with a comma.
* For these options taking two parms, specifying one value with no
comma will only set the first parms and will leave the second at the
default value. To set the second value it must be preceded with a comma
or be a comma-separated pair. This is to retain previous netperf
behaviour.
BUGS
There are bound to be bugs. If you think you have found a bug, please
mention it in netperf-talk@netperf.org. List membership is required to
send email to the list. See http://www.netperf.org/cgi-
bin/mailman/listinfo/netperf-talk . If all else fails send email to
Rick Jones <raj@cup.hp.com>.
SEE ALSO
netserver(1)
Netperf: A Network Performance Benchmark
http://www.netperf.org/
AUTHORS
HP Information Networks Division - Networking Performance Team.
Rick Jones <raj@cup.hp.com>
Karen Choy HP IND
Dave Shield <daves@csc.liv.ac.uk> (man pages)
Others too numerous to mention here - see the ACKNWLDGMNTS file
netperf(1)