bmon(1)
bmon is a portable bandwidth monitor and rate estimator that shows real-time network interface statistics.
Synopsis
bmon [OPTION]... [INTERFACE]...Description
bmon is a command-line tool that displays bandwidth usage and packet statistics for network interfaces in real-time. It provides both a simple text output mode and an interactive curses-based interface with graphs, making it useful for monitoring network activity on individual interfaces or across all interfaces simultaneously.
The tool can display incoming and outgoing traffic rates, packet counts, dropped packets, and errors for each interface. It supports multiple output formats and can be configured to refresh at custom intervals.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
-o, --output=FMT | Output format: curses (interactive UI), ascii (simple text), or details (verbose statistics) |
-i, --interval=TIME | Update interval in seconds (default: 1.0) |
-r, --read=FILE | Read statistics from tcpdump or pcap file instead of live interface |
-R, --read-history=FILE | Read historical statistics from saved data |
-w, --write-history=FILE | Write statistics to file for later analysis |
-b, --bytes | Display bytes instead of bits for traffic rates |
-a, --all | Show all interfaces including inactive and loopback |
-n, --numeric | Disable name resolution for IP addresses |
-h, --help | Display help message and exit |
Examples
Launch interactive curses interface showing all active network interfaces with live bandwidth graphs
bmonDisplay bandwidth statistics for eth0 in simple ASCII table format, updating continuously
bmon -o ascii eth0Show detailed statistics for wlan0 with 2-second update intervals
bmon -o details -i 2 wlan0Monitor all network interfaces including inactive ones in ASCII output mode
bmon -a -o asciiDisplay traffic in bytes (not bits) for eth0 and eth1, refreshing twice per second
bmon -b -i 0.5 eth0 eth1Monitor eth0 and save statistics to history.dat for later analysis
bmon -w history.dat eth0