bandwhich README

The project's README from github.com/imsnif/bandwhich. As one markdown file: README.md.

bandwhich

demo

This is a CLI utility for displaying current network utilization by process, connection and remote IP/hostname

Table of contents

Project status

This project is in passive maintenance. Critical issues will be addressed, but no new features are being worked on. However, this is due to a lack of funding and/or manpower more than anything else, so pull requests are more than welcome. In addition, if you are able and willing to contribute to this project long-term, we would like to invite you to apply for co-maintainership.

For more details, see The Future of Bandwhich #275.

How does it work?

bandwhich sniffs a given network interface and records IP packet size, cross referencing it with the /proc filesystem on linux, lsof on macOS, or using WinApi on windows. It is responsive to the terminal window size, displaying less info if there is no room for it. It will also attempt to resolve ips to their host name in the background using reverse DNS on a best effort basis.

Installation

Downstream packaging status

For detailed instructions for each platform, see INSTALL.md.

Packaging status

Download a prebuilt binary

We offer several generic binaries in releases for various OSes.

OSArchitectureSupportUsage
Androidaarch64Best effort

All modern Android devices.

Note that this is a pure binary file, not an APK suitable for general usage.
Linuxaarch64Full 64-bit ARMv8+ (servers, some modern routers, RPi-4+).
armv7hfBest effort32-bit ARMv7 (older routers, pre-RPi-4).
x64Full Most Linux desktops & servers.
MacOSaarch64Full Apple silicon Macs (2021+).
x64 Intel Macs (pre-2021).
Windowsx64Full Most Windows desktops & servers.

Building from source

git clone https://github.com/imsnif/bandwhich.git
cd bandwhich
cargo build --release

For the up-to-date minimum supported Rust version, please refer to the rust-version field in Cargo.toml.

Cross-compiling

Cross-compiling for alternate targets is supported via cross. Here's the rough procedure:

  1. Check the target architecture. If on Linux, you can use uname -m.
  2. Lookup rustc platform support for the corresponding target triple.
  3. Install cross.
  4. Run cross build --release --target <TARGET_TRIPLE>.

Android

Until cross-rs/cross#1222 is solved, use the latest HEAD:

cargo install --git https://github.com/cross-rs/cross.git cross
cross build --release --target aarch64-linux-android

Post install (Linux)

Since bandwhich sniffs network packets, it requires elevated privileges. On Linux, there are two main ways to accomplish this:

1. setcap

# assign capabilities
sudo setcap cap_sys_ptrace,cap_dac_read_search,cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+ep $(command -v bandwhich)
# run as unprivileged user
bandwhich

Capabilities explained

2. sudo (or alternative)

sudo bandwhich

Note that if your installation method installed bandwhich to somewhere in your home directory (you can check with command -v bandwhich), you may get a command not found error. This is because in many distributions, sudo by default does not keep your user's $PATH for safety concerns.

To overcome this, you can do any one of the following:

  1. make sudo preserve your $PATH environment variable;
  2. explicitly set $PATH while running bandwhich: sudo env "PATH=$PATH" bandwhich;
  3. pass the full path to sudo: sudo $(command -v bandwhich).

Post install (Windows)

You might need to first install npcap for capturing packets on Windows.

Usage

Usage: bandwhich [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -i, --interface <INTERFACE>      The network interface to listen on, eg. eth0
  -r, --raw                        Machine friendlier output
  -n, --no-resolve                 Do not attempt to resolve IPs to their hostnames
  -s, --show-dns                   Show DNS queries
  -d, --dns-server <DNS_SERVER>    A dns server ip to use instead of the system default
      --log-to <LOG_TO>            Enable debug logging to a file
  -v, --verbose...                 Increase logging verbosity
  -q, --quiet...                   Decrease logging verbosity
  -p, --processes                  Show processes table only
  -c, --connections                Show connections table only
  -a, --addresses                  Show remote addresses table only
  -u, --unit-family <UNIT_FAMILY>  Choose a specific family of units [default: bin-bytes] [possible values: bin-bytes, bin-bits, si-bytes, si-bits]
  -t, --total-utilization          Show total (cumulative) usages
  -h, --help                       Print help (see more with '--help')
  -V, --version                    Print version

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT

bandwhich (imsnif/bandwhich)

network-monitoring
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12K ·GitHub
Bandwhich
What is this?bandwhich is a CLI utility that shows current network bandwidth usage broken down by process, connection, and remote IP/hostname, right in your terminal.
Is this a GUI app or a terminal dashboard?It's a terminal (TUI) dashboard that redraws live in your terminal window and adapts the displayed columns to the window size.
How do I install and run it?Download a prebuilt binary from the Releases page for your OS/arch, or build from source with cargo using cross for cross-compiling; see INSTALL.md for platform-specific instructions.
Do I need anything extra to capture packets?On Linux it reads /proc and sniffs raw packets; on macOS it uses lsof; on Windows it relies on WinApi and you likely need to install npcap first.
Why do I need sudo or special permissions to run it?Packet sniffing requires elevated privileges, so on Linux you either grant the binary capabilities with setcap (capnetraw, capnetadmin, capsysptrace, capdacreadsearch) or run it with sudo every time.
Which platforms and architectures are supported?Full support for Linux x64/aarch64, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), and Windows x64; best-effort support for ARMv7 Linux and Android aarch64 (as a raw binary, not an APK).
Is this project actively getting new features?No, it is in passive maintenance: critical bugs are fixed, but no new features are being actively developed due to lack of funding/manpower, though PRs and co-maintainers are welcome.
How does bandwhich figure out which process owns which connection?It sniffs the given network interface for IP packet sizes and cross-references that with the /proc filesystem on Linux, lsof on macOS, or WinApi on Windows to map traffic back to processes.
Can it show hostnames instead of raw IPs?Yes, it attempts best-effort reverse DNS lookups in the background to resolve remote IPs to hostnames.
If I installed it in my home directory, why does sudo say command not found?Many distros' sudo doesn't preserve your user $PATH, so you need to either preserve $PATH for sudo, run it as sudo env PATH=$PATH bandwhich, or pass sudo the full path via sudo $(command -v bandwhich).
What are similar projects?bottom, gping, telegraf, lsoff, bpytop, goreplay, ctop, neofetch
Which topics is it in?network-monitoring, system-monitor, privacy-tools, sysadmin, dashboard, monitoring, command-line, networking, rust, command-line-tool, android, terminal
Creator
imsnif
Size
5.4 MB
Stars
12K
Updated
CommitMay 14Releasev0.23.1Oct 08
Age
7y
Commits · 90 Days