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AB(8) ab AB(8)
NAME
ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool
SYNOPSIS
ab [ -A auth-username:password ] [ -b windowsize ] [ -c concurrency ] [ -C cookie-name=value ] [ -d ] [ -e csv-file ] [
-f protocol ] [ -g gnuplot-file ] [ -h ] [ -H custom-header ] [ -i ] [ -k ] [ -n requests ] [ -p POST-file ] [ -P proxy-
auth-username:password ] [ -q ] [ -r ] [ -s ] [ -S ] [ -t timelimit ] [ -T content-type ] [ -u PUT-file ] [ -v verbosity]
[ -V ] [ -w ] [ -x <table>-attributes ] [ -X proxy[:port] ] [ -y <tr>-attributes ] [ -z <td>-attributes ] [ -Z cipher-
suite ] [http[s]://]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).
-b windowsize
Size of TCP send/receive buffer, in bytes.
-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 mil-
liseconds) it took to serve that percentage of the requests. This is usually more useful than the 'gnuplot' file;
as the results are already 'binned'.
-f protocol
Specify SSL/TLS protocol (SSL2, SSL3, TLS1, or ALL).
-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. Remember to also set -T.
-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.
-r Don't exit on socket receive errors.
-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/PUT data, eg. application/x-www-form-urlencoded. Default: text/plain.
-u PUT-file
File containing data to PUT. Remember to also set -T.
-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>.
-Z ciphersuite
Specify SSL/TLS cipher suite (See openssl ciphers).
BUGS
There are various statically declared buffers of fixed length. Combined with the lazy parsing of the command line argu-
ments, 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.
Apache HTTP Server 2009-09-14 AB(8)
