AB(8)				      ab				 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 -attributes
       ] [ -X proxy[:port] ] [ -y -attributes ]  [	-z  
-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 -attributes
	      String to use as attributes for . Attributes are inserted
	      .

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

       -y -attributes
	      String to use as attributes for .

       -z 
-attributes
	      String to use as attributes for 
.


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 servers.




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















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