AFP_SPEEDTEST(1)

Okay bestie, this is the AFP_SPEEDTEST(1) 🎀 page from the Netatalk AFP Fileserver Manual 📖, and it's so good. Let's get into it 💅

✨ NAME ✨

afp_speedtest — Simple AFP file transfer benchmarking tool 🦋

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

afp_speedtest [-1234567acDeiLTVvy] [-h host] [-p port] [-s volume] [-P
path] [-S volume2] [-u user] [-w password] [-n iterations] [-W warmup]
[-t delay] [-d size] [-z sizes] [-q quantum] [-r requests] [-F file] [-f
test]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So afp_speedtest is an AFP benchmark testsuite for read, write, copy and server-side copy operations. It's giving full performance analysis energy 🔥 and it can run in two modes:

• AFP Mode (default): Tests AFP protocol performance over the network 🌐
• Local Mode (-L): Direct filesystem I/O baseline benchmarking using POSIX syscalls 🧚

The tool is literally packed with analysis features, like:

• Multiple iteration testing with warmup runs 🔁
• Statistical analysis (mean, median, standard deviation, percentiles) 📊
• File size sweeping to test performance across different file sizes 📏
• TCP network metrics tracking (AFP mode only) 🛰️
• CSV output format for data analysis 🍓

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -1 — Use AFP 2.1 protocol version 🌸
• -2 — Use AFP 2.2 protocol version 🌸
• -3 — Use AFP 3.0 protocol version 🌸
• -4 — Use AFP 3.1 protocol version 🌸
• -5 — Use AFP 3.2 protocol version 🌸
• -6 — Use AFP 3.3 protocol version 🌸
• -7 — Use AFP 3.4 protocol version. This one's the default, so it's the main character 👑
• -a — Don't flush to disk after write. No flushing for you 💀
• -c — CSV output mode. It automatically enables statistics and quiet mode 🍓
• -d size — File size in Mbytes. Default is 64 MB, or the default size sweep if you don't specify one 📏
• -D — Disable O_DIRECT in Local mode. It's auto-enabled by default for a realistic AFP comparison. Use this flag when you want to test buffered I/O performance with the kernel page cache. It's ignored in AFP mode, since O_DIRECT isn't applicable there 🙈
• -e — Use a sparse file ✨
• -f tests — Comma-separated list of tests to run: Read, Write, Copy, ServerCopy. Default is Write 🎯

Note: ServerCopy is automatically skipped in Local mode because it requires an AFP server. Tragic, but true 😭

• -F file — Read from an existing file in the volume root folder. Default is creating temporary files instead 📂
• -h host — Server hostname or IP address. Default is localhost, and it's ignored in Local mode 🏠
• -i — Interactive mode, which prompts you before each test. Used for debugging 🔍
• -L — Local mode: use POSIX calls for direct filesystem I/O instead of the AFP protocol. You must use it with -P to specify the directory path. It gives you baseline performance measurements without network/protocol overhead 🧁
• -n iterations — Number of test iterations to run. Default is 1. When it's greater than 1, statistics output gets automatically enabled 🔁
• -p port — Server port number. Default is 548, and it's ignored in Local mode 🔌
• -P path — Local directory path for Local mode testing. Required when using -L 📁
• -q size — Packet/buffer size in Kbytes. Default is the detected server quantum in AFP mode, or 1024 KB in Local mode 📦
• -r number — Number of outstanding pipelined requests for parallel I/O operations. Default is 1. Higher values allow multiple in-flight AFP requests, which can improve throughput on high-latency connections 🚀

Note: values greater than 1 need careful tuning and may not benefit all scenarios. Don't just crank it and pray 🙏

• -s volume — Volume name to mount for testing. AFP mode only, and ignored in Local mode 💾
• -S volume — Second volume name for cross-volume copy testing. AFP mode only 💾
• -t seconds — Delay in seconds between test iterations. Default is 0. Super useful for cooling down between iterations or simulating real-world usage patterns 🧊
• -T — Show statistics: mean, median, std dev, min, max, P95. It's automatically enabled when iterations are greater than 1 or when you're using a size sweep 📊
• -u user — Username for AFP server authentication. Default is the current uid, and it's ignored in Local mode 🧑
• -v — Verbose output 🗣️
• -V — Very verbose output 📢
• -w password — Password for AFP server authentication. Ignored in Local mode 🔐
• -W warmup — Number of warmup runs excluded from statistics. Default is 1. Warmup runs get marked with a [W#] prefix and never make it into the stats 🌡️
• -y — Use a new file for each run. Default is reusing the same filename ♻️
• -z sizes — File size sweep mode: a comma-separated list of sizes in MB. Example: -z 0.004,0.008,0.016,0.032,0.064,0.128,0.256,0.512,1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512. The minimum is 0.004 MB (4 KB) and the maximum is 1024 MB. If you specify neither -d nor -z, it uses the default 18-size sweep: 4KB,8KB,16KB,32KB,64KB,128KB,256KB,512KB,1MB,2MB,4MB,8MB,16MB,32MB,64MB,128MB,256MB,512MB 🎀

🔮 Configuration 🔮

The test runner AFP client only supports the ClearTxt UAM right now, so you'll need to set it up in netatalk's afp.conf:

[Global]
uam list = uams_clrtxt.so

🦄 Output Modes 🦄

✨ Text Mode (Default) ✨

This displays formatted tables with:

• Per-iteration timing results with throughput ⏱️
• Statistical summaries (when enabled) 📈
• Network/TCP metrics comparison tables (AFP mode only) 🛰️
• File size performance summary table (size sweep mode) 📏
• TCP metrics evolution table (AFP mode with size sweep) 🌊

🍓 CSV Mode (-c) 🍓

This generates three CSV tables for data analysis:

1. Test Data Table: Individual iteration results (test_name, iteration, file_size_mb, microseconds, throughput_mbs) 🧾
2. File Size Summary Table: Aggregated statistics per file size (mean, median, min, max throughput and timing) 🗂️
3. TCP Metrics Evolution Table (AFP mode only): Initial vs final TCP metrics across all tests 🌈

🎬 Examples 🎬

🌐 AFP Mode Examples 🌐

Run 5 iterations of all four benchmark tests over AFP:

afp_speedtest -h 10.0.0.10 -s speed1 -u myuser -w mypass -n 5 -f Read,Write,Copy,ServerCopy

Run a single 64 MB write test:

afp_speedtest -h 10.0.0.10 -s speed1 -u myuser -w mypass -d 64 -f Write

Run a file size sweep with 10 iterations per size and export to CSV:

afp_speedtest -h 10.0.0.10 -s speed1 -u myuser -w mypass -n 10 -c -f Read,Write > results.csv

🧚 Local Mode Examples 🧚

Baseline filesystem performance with 5 iterations:

afp_speedtest -L -P /mnt/fast_disk -n 5 -f Read,Write,Copy

Local mode with a custom file size sweep:

afp_speedtest -L -P /tmp/test -z 1,4,16,64,256 -n 3 -f Read,Write

Local mode with buffered I/O (O_DIRECT disabled) and CSV output:

afp_speedtest -L -D -P /mnt/nvme -c -n 10 -f Read,Write > nvme_buffered.csv

Local mode with O_DIRECT (default, for AFP comparison):

afp_speedtest -L -P /mnt/nvme -c -n 10 -f Read,Write > nvme_direct.csv

👀 Output Example 👀

Here's what a Local mode run looks like, so you know what you're getting into 🫣

              AFP Speedtest - Configuration
              ════════════════════════════════════════
               Mode:            Local (Direct Filesystem I/O)
               AFP Version:     N/A (Local)
               Directory:       /tmp/speedtest
               Tests:           Read,Write,Copy
               File Size:       64 MB
               Iterations:      5
               Warmup Runs:     1
               Statistics:      Enabled

              ===== Test Passes for Read =====
              Read quantum 1024 KB, size 64 MB
              Warmup: 1 runs, Measured: 5 runs
              run   microsec    MB/s
              [W1]        11739   5451.91
              1        9511   6729.05
              2        9700   6597.94
              3        9174   6976.24
              4        8949   7151.64
              5        9050   7071.82

              ===== Statistics for Read =====
              File Size:      64 MB
              Iterations:     5
              Mean:           9277 μs (6898.93 MB/s)
              Median:         9174 μs (6976.24 MB/s)
              Std Dev:        284 μs (3.06%)
              Min:            8949 μs (7151.64 MB/s)
              Max:            9700 μs (6597.94 MB/s)

🔗 See Also 🔗

afp_lantest(1), afpd(8) 💜

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That's the whole tea ☕ Go run your benchmarks and slay them 🔥 Netatalk 4.5.1 · AFP_SPEEDTEST(1) 🫶💅