Ifstat is a software tool that enables reporting of network interface bandwidth, similar to how vmstat and iostat report other system counters.
Fortunately, ifstat supports a variety of operating systems, including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, IRIX, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Darwin, Digital Unix, Tru64, Aix, and HP-UX. Ifstat obtains performance data for each system by utilizing unique interface such as file (/proc/net/dev), ifmib(4), kstat (3K), SIOCGIFDATA ioctl, route(4) sysctl, kvm(3), legacy kmem, and DPLI streams interface.
In addition, if net-snmp or ucd-snmp library is available, ifstat can be used to monitor remote equipments such as hosts, routers or switches. A SNMP daemon on local host is also an option for SNMP monitoring capability.
Ifstat has functionalities such as a static application, and configuration is straightforward by passing --enable-library. This feature provides an alternative way to use ifstat.
The recent release has added Digital Unix (OSF/1) and Tru64 support, Aix support, HP-UX support with DLPI streams interface, and native Win32 support (or with Cygwin) with GetIfTable interface. Another improvement is the utilization of net-snmp-config to find out SNMP flags.
Overall, Ifstat is a highly useful software tool for network administrators to obtain interface performance data.
Version 1.1: N/A