ifstat

reports network interface bandwidth in a format similar to vmstat/iostat

TLDR

Display statistics for all interfaces, updating every second

$ ifstat

Display statistics every 5 seconds

$ ifstat [5]

Report bandwidth in kbits/sec instead of kbytes/sec

$ ifstat -b

Monitor only specific interfaces

$ ifstat -i [eth0],[wlan0]

Show total bandwidth across all interfaces

$ ifstat -T

Ignore history and show absolute counters

$ ifstat -a

SYNOPSIS

ifstat [options] [delay[/delay2] [count]]

ifstat reports network interface bandwidth just like vmstat/iostat do for other system counters. It keeps history between invocations and by default shows the difference since the last call.The positional argument delay sets the update interval in seconds (default 1). An optional count limits the number of updates. A second delay can be specified separated by a slash for alternating intervals.Note: Two different tools share the name ifstat. The standalone version (section 1) described here is the most common. The iproute2 version (section 8) has different options.

PARAMETERS

-a

Ignore the history file and show absolute counters since boot

-b

Report bandwidth in kbits/sec instead of kbytes/sec

-e

Show errors

-i IFACE

Monitor only the specified interfaces (comma-separated)

-l

Enable monitoring of loopback interfaces

-n

Turn off display of the header periodically

-r

Reset history

-S

Keep stats on the same line (no scrolling)

-T

Show total bandwidth for all monitored interfaces

-t

Add a timestamp at the beginning of each line

-w

Use fixed-width columns

-z

Hide interfaces with zero counters

CAVEATS

Statistics depend on kernel interface counters. Very high traffic rates may overflow 32-bit counters on older systems. The iproute2 ifstat(8) has different flags than the standalone ifstat(1).