AB(8)

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AB(8)
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 serving.

OPTIONS
  -A auth-username:password
       Supply BASIC Authentication credentials to the server. The username
       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 separate
       values) file. This file can easily be imported into packages 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 authentication 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 experimental 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 headers
  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.
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