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Posted to cvs@httpd.apache.org by rs...@hyperreal.org on 1999/10/27 09:38:53 UTC
cvs commit: apache-1.3/src/support ab.8
rse 99/10/27 00:38:52
Modified: src CHANGES
src/support ab.8
Log:
Overhauled ApacheBench (ab) manpage ab.8.
Submitted by: Simon Baldwin <si...@sco.com>
Reviewed by: Ralf S. Engelschall
PR: 5139
Revision Changes Path
1.1439 +3 -0 apache-1.3/src/CHANGES
Index: CHANGES
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/cvs/apache-1.3/src/CHANGES,v
retrieving revision 1.1438
retrieving revision 1.1439
diff -u -r1.1438 -r1.1439
--- CHANGES 1999/10/27 07:12:40 1.1438
+++ CHANGES 1999/10/27 07:38:45 1.1439
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
Changes with Apache 1.3.10
+ *) Overhauled ApacheBench (ab) manpage ab.8.
+ [Simon Baldwin <si...@sco.com>] PR#5139
+
*) Made sure ApacheBench (ab) performs no more requests than
specified on command line (option -n).
[Jim Cox <jc...@superlink.net>] PR#4839
1.8 +50 -50 apache-1.3/src/support/ab.8
Index: ab.8
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/cvs/apache-1.3/src/support/ab.8,v
retrieving revision 1.7
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -u -r1.7 -r1.8
--- ab.8 1999/09/27 20:27:27 1.7
+++ ab.8 1999/10/27 07:38:51 1.8
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
-.TH ab 1 "March 1998"
-.\" $Id: ab.8,v 1.7 1999/09/27 20:27:27 dirkx Exp $
+.TH ab 1 "October 1999"
.\" Copyright (c) 1998-1999 The Apache Group. All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@@ -104,111 +103,112 @@
.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B ab
-is a tool for benchmarking your Apache HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
-server. It is designed to give you an impression on how performant is your
-current Apache installation. This especially shows you how much requests per
-time your Apache installation is capable to serve.
+is a tool for benchmarking the performance of your Apache HyperText Transfer
+Protocol (HTTP) server. It does this by giving you an indication of how
+many requests per second your Apache installation can serve.
.PP
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 12
.B \-k
-Enable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e. perform multiple requests within one
-HTTP session instead. Default is no KeepAlive.
+Enable the HTTP KeepAlive feature; that is, perform multiple requests
+within one HTTP session. Default is no KeepAlive.
.TP 12
.B \-i
Use an HTTP 'HEAD' instead of the GET method. Cannot be mixed with POST.
.TP 12
.BI \-n " requests"
-Number of requests to perform for the benchmarking session. The default is to
-just perform one single request which usually leads to not very representative
-benchmarking results.
+The number of requests to perform for the benchmarking session. The
+default is to perform just one single request, which will not give
+representative benchmarking results.
.TP 12
.BI \-t " timelimit"
-Seconds to max. spend for benchmarking. This implies
-a
-.B \-n
-.B 50000
-internally. Use this to benchmark the server within a fixed total amount of
-time. Per default there is no timelimit.
+The number of seconds to spend benchmarking. Using this option automatically
+set the number of requests for the benchmarking session to 50000.
+Use this to benchmark the server for a fixed period of time. By
+default, there is no timelimit.
.TP 12
.BI \-c " concurrency"
-Number of multiple requests per time to perform.
-Default is one request per time.
+The number of simultaneous requests to perform. The default is to
+perform one HTTP request at at time, that is, no concurrency.
.TP 12
.BI \-p " POST file"
-File containing data to POST.
+A file containing data that the program will send to the Apache server in
+any HTTP POST requests.
.TP 12
.BI \-A " Authorization username:password"
-Supply BASIC Authentification credentials to the server. The username
-and password are separated by a single ':' and send on the wire uuencoded.
-The string is send regardless of wether the server needs it; (i.e. has
-send an 401. Authentifcation needed).
+Supply Basic Authentication credentials to the server. The username
+and password are separated by a single ':', and sent as uuencoded data.
+The string is sent regardless of whether the server needs it; that is,
+has sent a 401 Authentication needed.
.TP 12
.BI \-p " Proxy-Authorization username:password"
-Supply BASIC Authentification credentials to a proxy en-route. The username
-and password are separated by a single ':' and send on the wire uuencoded.
-The string is send regardless of wether the proxy needs it; (i.e. has
-send an 407 Proxy authentifcation needed).
+Supply Basic Authentication credentials to a proxy en-route. The username
+and password are separated by a single ':', and sent as uuencoded data.
+The string is sent regardless of whether the proxy needs it; that is,
+has sent a 407 Proxy authentication needed.
.TP 12
.BI \-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.
+Add a 'Cookie:' line to the request. The argument is typically
+a 'name=value' pair. This option may be repeated.
.TP 12
.BI \-p " Header string"
-Postfix 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').
+Append extra headers to the request. The argument is typically in the form
+of a valid header line, usually a colon separated field value pair, for
+example, 'Accept-Encoding: zip/zop;8bit'.
.TP 12
.BI \-T " content-type"
-Content-type header to use for POST data.
+The content-type header to use for POST data.
.TP 12
.B \-v
-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.
+Sets the verbosity level. Level 4 and above prints information on headers,
+level 3 and above prints response codes (for example, 404, 200), and level 2
+and above prints warnings and informational messages.
.TP 12
.BI \-w
-Print out results in HTML tables. Default table is two columns wide,
+Print out results in HTML tables. The default table is two columns wide,
with a white background.
.TP 12
.BI \-x " attributes"
-String to use as attributes for <table>. Attributes are inserted
+The string to use as attributes for <table>. Attributes are inserted
<table
.B here
>
.TP 12
.BI \-y " attributes"
-String to use as attributes for <tr>.
+The string to use as attributes for <tr>.
.TP 12
.BI \-z " attributes"
-String to use as attributes for <td>.
+The string to use as attributes for <td>.
.TP 12
.B \-V
-Display version number and exit.
+Display the version number and exit.
.TP 12
.B \-h
Display usage information.
.PD
.SH 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.
+with inefficient parsing of the command line arguments, the response headers
+from the server, and other external inputs, these buffers might overflow.
.P
-It does not implement HTTP/1.x fully; only accepts some 'expected' forms
-of responses. The rather heavy use of
+.B Ab
+does not implement HTTP/1.x fully; instead, it only accepts
+some 'expected' forms of responses.
+.P
+The rather heavy use of
.BR strstr(3)
-shows up top in profile,
-which might indicate a performance problem; i.e. you would measure the
-.BR ab
-performance rather than the server's.
+by the program may skew performance results, since it uses significant
+CPU resources. Make sure that performance limits are not hit by
+.B ab
+before your server's limit is reached.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR httpd(8)