ab(8apache2)

NAME

       ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool

SYNOPSIS

       ab  [  -A  auth-username:password  ]  [  -c  concurrency ] [ -C cookie-
       name=value ] [ -d ] [ -e csv-file ] [ -g gnuplot-file ] [  -h  ]  [  -H
       custom-header  ]  [  -i  ] [ -k ] [ -n requests ] [ -p POST-file ] [ -P
       proxy-auth-username:password ] [ -q ] [ -s ] [ -S ] [ -t timelimit ]  [
       -T content-type ] [ -v verbosity] [ -V ] [ -w ] [ -x <table>-attributes
       ] [ -X proxy[:port] ] [ -y <tr>-attributes ]  [  -z  <td>-attributes  ]
       [http://]hostname[:port]/path

SUMMARY

       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

       -A auth-username:password
              Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to the server. The user-
              name and password are separated by a single : and  sent  on  the
              wire  base64  encoded.  The string is sent regardless of whether
              the server needs  it  (i.e.,  has  sent  an  401  authentication
              needed).

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

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

       -d     Do  not  display  the  "percentage served within XX [ms] table".
              (legacy support).

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

       -g gnuplot-file
              Write all measured values out as a 'gnuplot' or TSV  (Tab  sepa-
              rate  values)  file. This file can easily be imported into pack-
              ages like Gnuplot, IDL, Mathematica, Igor  or  even  Excel.  The
              labels are on the first line of the file.

       -h     Display usage information.

       -H custom-header
              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 (i.e., "Accept-Encoding: zip/zop;8bit").

       -i     Do HEAD requests instead of GET.

       -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 usually leads
              to non-representative benchmarking results.

       -p POST-file
              File containing data to POST.

       -P proxy-auth-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 base64  encoded.  The  string  is  sent  regardless  of
              whether  the proxy needs it (i.e., has sent an 407 proxy authen-
              tication needed).

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

       -s     When compiled in (ab -h will show you)  use  the  SSL  protected
              https  rather than the http protocol. This feature is experimen-
              tal and very rudimentary. You probably do not want to use it.

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

       -t timelimit
              Maximum  number  of  seconds  to  spend  for  benchmarking. This
              implies a -n 50000 internally. Use this to benchmark the  server
              within  a  fixed  total  amount of time. Per default there is no
              timelimit.

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

       -v verbosity
              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.

       -V     Display version number and exit.

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

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

       -X proxy[:port]
              Use a proxy server for the requests.

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

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

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.

Apache HTTP Server                2004-11-14                             AB(8)