iptraf - Interactive Colorful IP LAN Monitor

iptraf { [ -f ] [ -q ] [ -u ] [ { -i iface | -g | -d iface | -s iface | -z iface | -l iface } [ -t timeout ] [ -B [ -L logfile ] ] ] | [ -h ] }

iptraf is an ncurses-based IP LAN monitor that generates various network statistics including TCP info, UDP counts, ICMP and OSPF information, Ethernet load info, node stats, IP checksum errors, and others.

If the command is issued without any command-line options, the program comes up in interactive mode, with the various facilities accessed through the main menu.

These options can also be supplied to the command:

-i iface

immediately start the IP traffic monitor on the specified interface, or all interfaces if "-i all" is specified

-g

immediately start the general interface statistics

-d iface

allows you to immediately start the detailed on the indicated interface (iface)

-s iface

allows you to immediately monitor TCP and UDP traffic on the specified interface (iface)

-z iface

shows packet counts by size on the specified interface

-l iface

start the LAN station monitor on the specified interface, or all LAN interfaces if "-l all" is specified

-t timeout

tells IPTraf to run the specified facility for only timeout minutes. This option is used only with one of the above parameters.

-B

redirect standard output to /dev/null, closes standard input, and forks the program into the background. Can be used only with one of the facility invocation parameters above. Send the backgrounded process a USR2 signal to terminate.

-L logfile

allows you to specify an alternate log file name. The default log file name is based on either the interface selected (detailed interface statistics, TCP/UDP service statistics, packet size breakdown), or the instance of the facility (IP traffic monitor, LAN station monitor). If a path is not specified, the log file is placed in /var/log/iptraf

-f

clears all locks and counters, causing this instance of IPTraf to think it's the first one running. This should only be used to recover from an abnormal termination or system crash.

-u

allow use of unsupported interfaces as ethernet devices. This is needed if you changed the name of an interface (ex: ip link set eth0 name foo0)

-q

no longer needed, maintained only for compatibility.

-h

shows a command summary

SIGUSR1 - rotates log files while program is running SIGUSR2 - terminates an IPTraf process running in the background.

/var/log/iptraf/*.log - log file /var/lib/iptraf/* - important IPTraf data files

Documentation/* - complete documentation written by the author

Gerard Paul Java (riker@mozcom.com)

Frederic Peters (fpeters@debian.org), using iptraf -h General manual page modifications by Gerard Paul Java (riker@mozcom.com)