ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

ab

ab(1)                                                                    ab(1)



NAME
       ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

SYNOPSIS
       ab  [ -k ] [ -e ] [ -q ] [ -S ] [ -i ] [ + .B -s ] [ -n requests ] [ -t
       timelimit ] [ -c concurrency ] [ -p POST file  ]  [  -A  Authentication
       username:password  ] [ -P Proxy Authentication username:password ] [ -H
       Custom header ] [ -C Cookie name=value ] [ -T content-type ] [ -X proxy
       [ :port ] ] [ -v verbosity ] ] [ -w output HTML ] ] [ -g output GNUPLOT
       ] ] [ -e output CSV ]  ]  [  -x  <table>  attributes  ]  ]  [  -y  <tr>
       attributes ] ] [ -z <td> attributes ] [http[s]://]hostname[:port]/path

       ab [ -V ] [ -h ]


DESCRIPTION
       ab  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  serv-
       ing.


OPTIONS
       -k          Enable  the  HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e., perform multiple
                   requests within one HTTP session. Default is no  KeepAlive.

       -n requests Number of requests to perform for the benchmarking session.
                   The default is to just perform a single request which  usu-
                   ally leads to non-representative benchmarking results.

       -t timelimit
                   Maximum  number  of seconds to spend for benchmarking. This
                   implies -d Do not display the "percentage served within  XX
                   [ms] table". (legacy support).

       -S          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 devia-
                   tion apart. And default to the min/avg/max values.  (legacy
                   support).

       -s          When  compiled  in  (bb  -h will show you) use the SSL pro-
                   tected https rather than the http protocol. This feature is
                   experimental and very rudimentary. You propably do not want
                   to use it.

       -k          Enable the HTTP KeepAlive feature; that is, perform  multi-
                   ple  requests  within  one  HTTP  session.  Default  is  no
                   KeepAlive.  a -n 50000 internally. Use  this  to  benchmark
                   the  server  within  a  fixed  total  amount  of time.  Per
                   default there is no timelimit.

       -c concurrency
                   Number of multiple requests to perform at a time.   Default
                   is one request at a time.


       -p POST file
                   File containing data to POST.


       -A Authentication username:password
                   Supply  BASIC Authentication credentials to the server. The
                   username and password are separated by  a  single  ':'  and
                   sent  on the wire uuencoded.  The string is sent regardless
                   of whether the server needs it;  (i.e.,  has  sent  an  401
                   authentication needed).


       -X proxy[:port]
                   Route all requests through the proxy (at optional port).


       -P Proxy-Authentication username:password
                   Supply  BASIC  Authentication  credentials  to  a proxy en-
                   route. The username and password are separated by a  single
                   ':'  and  sent  on  the wire uuencoded.  The string is sent
                   regardless of whether the proxy needs it; (i.e.,  has  sent
                   an 407 proxy authentication needed).


       -C Cookie name=value
                   Add  a 'Cookie:' line to the request. The argument is typi-
                   cally in the form of a 'name=value'  pair.  This  field  is
                   repeatable.


       -p Header string
                   Append  extra headers to the request. The argument is typi-
                   cally in the form of a  valid  header  line,  containing  a
                   colon-separated field-value pair.  (i.e., 'Accept-Encoding:
                   zip/zop;8bit').


       -T content-type
                   Content-type header to use for POST data.


       -g gnuplot file
                   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.


       -q          When  processing  more  than  150  requsts;  ab  outputs  a
                   progress count on stderr every 10% or 100 requests  or  so.
                   The -q flag qill suppress these messages.


       -e CSV file Write a Comma separated value (CSV) file which contains for
                   each percentage (from 1% to 100%) the time (in  milli  sec-
                   onds)  it  took  to  serve that percentage of the requests.
                   This is usually more usefull than the  'gnuplot'  file;  as
                   the results are already


       -v          Set  verbosity  level  -  4 and above prints information on
                   headers, 3 and  above  prints  response  codes  (404,  200,
                   etc.), 2 and above prints warnings and info.


       -w          Print  out  results  in  HTML tables.  Default table is two
                   columns wide, with a white background.

       -x attributes
                   String to use as attributes for  <table>.   Attributes  are
                   inserted <table here >

       -y attributes
                   String to use as attributes for <tr>.

       -z attributes
                   String to use as attributes for <td>.

       -V          Display version number and exit.

       -h          Display usage information.

BUGS
       There are various statically declared buffers of fixed length. Combined
       with the lazy parsing of the command line arguments, the response head-
       ers from the server and other external inputs, this might bite you.

       It  does  not  implement  HTTP/1.x  fully; only accepts some 'expected'
       forms of responses. The rather heavy use of strstr(3) shows up  top  in
       profile,  which  might  indicate a performance problem; i.e., you would
       measure the ab performance rather than the server's.


SEE ALSO
       httpd(8)

       The HTML output is not as complete as the text output.

       Up to version 1.3d ab has propably reported values way to low for  most
       measurements;  as  a  single  timeout (which is usually in the order of
       seconds) will shift several thousands of milli-second  responses  by  a
       considerable  factor.  This was further componded by a serious interger
       overrun which would for realistic run's (i.e. those longer than  a  few
       minutes) produce believable but totally bogus results. Thanks to Sander
       Temme <sander@covalent.net> for solving this riddle.



                                  March 2000                             ab(1)