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- <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
- <!DOCTYPE manualpage SYSTEM "../style/manualpage.dtd">
- <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="../style/manual.en.xsl"?>
- <manualpage metafile="ab.xml.meta">
- <parentdocument href="./">Programs</parentdocument>
-
- <title>ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool</title>
-
- <summary>
- <p><code>ab</code> is a tool for benchmarking your Apache Hypertext
- Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server. It is designed to give you an impression
- of how your current Apache installation performs. This especially shows
- you how many requests per second your Apache installation is capable of
- serving.</p>
- </summary>
- <seealso><a href="httpd.html">httpd</a></seealso>
-
- <section id="synopsis"><title>Synopsis</title>
- <p><code><strong>ab</strong>
- [ -<strong>A</strong> <var>auth-username</var>:<var>password</var> ]
- [ -<strong>c</strong> <var>concurrency</var> ]
- [ -<strong>C</strong> <var>cookie-name</var>=<var>value</var> ]
- [ -<strong>d</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>e</strong> <var>csv-file</var> ]
- [ -<strong>g</strong> <var>gnuplot-file</var> ]
- [ -<strong>h</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>H</strong> <var>custom-header</var> ]
- [ -<strong>i</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>k</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>n</strong> <var>requests</var> ]
- [ -<strong>p</strong> <var>POST-file</var> ]
- [ -<strong>P</strong> <var>proxy-auth-username</var>:<var>password</var> ]
- [ -<strong>q</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>s</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>S</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>t</strong> <var>timelimit</var> ]
- [ -<strong>T</strong> <var>content-type</var> ]
- [ -<strong>v</strong> <var>verbosity</var>]
- [ -<strong>V</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>w</strong> ]
- [ -<strong>x</strong> <var><table>-attributes</var> ]
- [ -<strong>X</strong> <var>proxy</var>[:<var>port</var>] ]
- [ -<strong>y</strong> <var><tr>-attributes</var> ]
- [ -<strong>z</strong> <var><td>-attributes</var> ]
- [http://]<var>hostname</var>[:<var>port</var>]/<var>path</var></code></p>
- </section>
-
- <section id="options"><title>Options</title>
- <dl>
- <dt><code>-A <var>auth-username</var>:<var>password</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to the server. The username and
- password are separated by a single <code>:</code> and sent on the wire
- base64 encoded. The string is sent regardless of whether the server needs
- it (<em>i.e.</em>, has sent an 401 authentication needed).</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-c <var>concurrency</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Number of multiple requests to perform at a time. Default is one
- request at a time.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-C <var>cookie-name</var>=<var>value</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Add a <code>Cookie:</code> line to the request. The argument is
- typically in the form of a <code><var>name</var>=<var>value</var></code>
- pair. This field is repeatable.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-d</code></dt>
- <dd>Do not display the "percentage served within XX [ms] table". (legacy
- support).</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-e <var>csv-file</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Write a Comma separated value (CSV) file which contains for each
- percentage (from 1% to 100%) the time (in milli seconds) it took to serve
- that percentage of the requests. This is usually more useful than the
- 'gnuplot' file; as the results are already 'binned'.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-g <var>gnuplot-file</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Write all measured values out as a 'gnuplot' or TSV (Tab separate
- values) file. This file can easily be imported into packages like Gnuplot,
- IDL, Mathematica, Igor or even Excell. The labels are on the first line of
- the file. </dd>
-
- <dt><code>-h</code></dt>
- <dd>Display usage information.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-H <var>custom-header</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Append extra headers to the request. The argument is typically in
- the form of a valid header line, containing a colon-separated field-value
- pair (<em>i.e.</em>, <code>"Accept-Encoding: zip/zop;8bit"</code>).</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-i</code></dt>
- <dd>Do <code>HEAD</code> requests instead of <code>GET</code>.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-k</code></dt>
- <dd>Enable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, <em>i.e.</em>, perform multiple
- requests within one HTTP session. Default is no KeepAlive.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-n <var>requests</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Number of requests to perform for the benchmarking session. The default
- is to just perform a single request which usually leads to
- non-representative benchmarking results.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-p <var>POST-file</var></code></dt>
- <dd>File containing data to POST.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-P <var>proxy-auth-username</var>:<var>password</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to a proxy en-route. The
- username and password are separated by a single <code>:</code> and sent on
- the wire base64 encoded. The string is sent regardless of whether the
- proxy needs it (<em>i.e.</em>, has sent an 407 proxy authentication
- needed).</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-q</code></dt>
- <dd>When processing more than 150 requests, <code>ab</code> outputs a
- progress count on <code>stderr</code> every 10% or 100 requests or so. The
- <code>-q</code> flag will suppress these messages.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-s</code></dt>
- <dd>When compiled in (<code>ab -h</code> will show you) use the SSL
- protected <code>https</code> rather than the <code>http</code> protocol.
- This feature is experimental and <em>very</em> rudimentary. You probably
- do not want to use it.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-S</code></dt>
- <dd>Do not display the median and standard deviation values, nor display
- the warning/error messages when the average and median are more than
- one or two times the standard deviation apart. And default to the
- min/avg/max values. (legacy support).</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-t <var>timelimit</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Maximum number of seconds to spend for benchmarking. This implies a
- <code>-n 50000</code> internally. Use this to benchmark the server within a
- fixed total amount of time. Per default there is no timelimit.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-T <var>content-type</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Content-type header to use for POST data.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-v <var>verbosity</var></code></dt>
- <dd>Set verbosity level - <code>4</code> and above prints information on
- headers, <code>3</code> and above prints response codes (404, 200, etc.),
- <code>2</code> and above prints warnings and info.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-V</code></dt>
- <dd>Display version number and exit.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-w</code></dt>
- <dd>Print out results in HTML tables. Default table is two columns wide,
- with a white background.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-x <var><table>-attributes</var></code></dt>
- <dd>String to use as attributes for <code><table></code>. Attributes
- are inserted <code><table <var>here</var> ></code>.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-X <var>proxy</var>[:<var>port</var>]</code></dt>
- <dd>Use a proxy server for the requests.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-y <var><tr>-attributes</var></code></dt>
- <dd>String to use as attributes for <code><tr></code>.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>-z <var><td>-attributes</var></code></dt>
- <dd>String to use as attributes for <code><td></code>.</dd>
- </dl>
- </section>
-
- <section id="bugs"><title>Bugs</title>
- <p>There are various statically declared buffers of fixed length. Combined
- with the lazy parsing of the command line arguments, the response headers
- from the server and other external inputs, this might bite you.</p>
-
- <p>It does not implement HTTP/1.x fully; only accepts some 'expected' forms
- of responses. The rather heavy use of <code>strstr(3)</code> shows up top
- in profile, which might indicate a performance problem; <em>i.e.</em>, you
- would measure the <code>ab</code> performance rather than the server's.</p>
- </section>
-
- </manualpage>
-