fireqos(1)

💖 fireqos — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about traffic shaping and honestly? it's iconic. this is fireqos(1), version 3.1.8, and she is an easy to use but powerful traffic shaping tool. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

fireqos — an easy to use but powerful traffic shaping tool 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

fireqos CONFIGFILE [start | debug] [ – conf-arg ...  ]

fireqos { stop | clear_all_qos }

fireqos status [name [ dump [class]]]

fireqos { dump | tcpdump } name class [ tcpdump-arg ...  ]

fireqos { drops | overlimits | requeues } name

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

FireQOS is a program that helps you configure traffic shaping on Linux. she's the friend who shows up with a planner and color-coded sticky notes. 💅

if you run her with no arguments at all, fireqos will just present some help on usage. a little "hi bestie, here's how to use me." 🫶

when you hand her a CONFIGFILE, fireqos will use that named file instead of /etc/firehol/fireqos.conf as its configuration. so yeah, default is that path, but you can absolutely hand her your own.

the parameter name always refers to an interface name from the configuration file. the parameter class always refers to a named class within a named interface. like, interface first, class inside it, nesting energy, main character and her supporting cast. 💖

you can also pass arguments for use by the configuration file — just separate any conf-arg values from the rest of the arguments with --. those arguments are accessible in the configuration using standard bash(1) syntax, e.g. $1, $2, etc. iykyk. 🌈

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👑 COMMANDS 👑

• start; debug — activates traffic shaping on all interfaces, as given in the configuration file. when invoked as debug, FireQOS also prints all of the tc(8) commands it executes. not her being transparent about her process. we love that for us. 🔥
• stop — removes all traffic shaping applied by FireQOS. important: it does not touch QoS on other interfaces and IFBs used by other tools. she stays in her lane, respectfully. 💅
• clear_all_qos — removes all traffic shaping on all network interfaces and removes all IFB devices from the system, even those applied by other tools. she's not just cleaning her room, she's cleaning the whole house. 💀
• status — shows live utilisation for the specified interface. FireQOS will show you the rate of traffic on all classes, adding one line per second (similarly to vmstat, iostat, etc.). it's giving little ticking dashboard. ⭐

if dump is specified, it tcpdumps the traffic in the given class of the interface.

• tcpdump; dump — FireQOS temporarily mirrors the traffic of any leaf class to an IFB device. then it runs tcpdump(8) on this interface to dump the traffic to your console. peek-a-boo but for packets. 🙈

you may add any tcpdump(8) parameters you like to the command line, (to dump the traffic to a file, match a subset of the traffic, etc.), for example this:

fireqos tcpdump adsl-in voip -n

will start a tcpdump of all traffic on interface adsl-in, in class voip. the parameter -n is a tcpdump(8) parameter.

Note when FireQOS is running in tcpdump mode, it locks itself and will refuse to run in parallel with another FireQOS altering the QoS, or tcpdumping other traffic. this is because FireQOS reserves device ifb0 for monitoring. if two FireQOS processes were allowed to tcpdump in parallel, your dumps would be wrong. so it locks itself to prevent such a case. she said ONE of us at a time. 💖

• drops — shows packets dropped per second, per class, for the specified interface. 😭
• overlimits — shows packets delayed per second, per class, for the specified interface. ⏳
• requeues — shows packets requeued per second, per class, for the specified interface. 🌀

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/firehol/fireqos.conf

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• fireqos.conf(5) - FireQOS configuration file
• FireHOL Website
• FireQOS Online PDF Manual
• FireQOS Online Documentation
• tc(8) - show / manipulate traffic control settings
• tcpdump(8) - show / manipulate traffic control settings

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

FireHOL Team.

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and that's the whole vibe, bestie. go forth and shape that traffic. 🧚

FireQOS Reference — Built 13 Apr 2025. version 3.1.8. slay, periodt. 💅✨