FLOW-GEN(1)

💖 FLOW-GEN — the flow-gen manual page, but make it cute ✨

okay bestie, welcome to flow-gen(1) — she lives in section 1 of the manual, she generates test flows, and she is literally the moment. let's get into it 🫶

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🌸 NAME 🌸

flow-gen — generate test flows. that's it, that's the whole job description, and she does it flawlessly 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

flow-gen [ -h ] [ -b big|little ] [ -d debug_level ] [ -n count ]
         [ -V version ] [ -z z_level ]

yes she takes all of those. no, you don't have to use all of them. yes, she will still slay either way 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the flow-gen utility generates a test pattern of flows — in any of the currently supported export versions — and it's typically there for debugging purposes. it's giving "I made this for the devs but honestly everyone can hang." 🔥

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -b big|little — sets the byte order of the output. big-endian or little-endian, pick your fighter 👑
• -d debug_level — enables debugging. turn the volume up on what she's doing 🔍
• -h — displays help. the classic "bestie help me" flag, and she delivers 🫶
• -n count — generates count flows. the default is 1000, so if you say nothing she's making a thousand of them, no cap ✨
• -V version — generates version type exports. the supported versions are:

1    NetFlow version 1 (No sequence numbers, AS, or mask)
5    NetFlow version 5
6    NetFlow version 6 (5+ Encapsulation size)
7    NetFlow version 7 (Catalyst switches)
8.1  NetFlow AS Aggregation
8.2  NetFlow Proto Port Aggregation
8.3  NetFlow Source Prefix Aggregation
8.4  NetFlow Destination Prefix Aggregation
8.5  NetFlow Prefix Aggregation
8.6  NetFlow Destination (Catalyst switches)
8.7  NetFlow Source Destination (Catalyst switches)
8.8  NetFlow Full Flow (Catalyst switches)
8.9  NetFlow ToS AS Aggregation
8.10 NetFlow ToS Proto Port Aggregation
8.11 NetFlow ToS Source Prefix Aggregation
8.12 NetFlow ToS Destination Prefix Aggregation
8.13 NetFlow ToS Prefix Aggregation
8.14 NetFlow ToS Prefix Port Aggregation
1005 Flow-Tools tagged version 5

like... the range?? the versatility?? she contains multitudes 🌈

• -z z_level — configure compression level to z_level. 0 is disabled (no compression), 9 is highest compression. so 0 is "we're rawdogging the bytes" and 9 is "squeeze every last drop" 😭💀

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🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

generate a test pattern of 1000 version 5 flows and send them in the Cisco NetFlow packet format to 10.0.0.1 port 9500. iconic pipeline behaviour, truly:

flow-gen -V5 | flow-send 0/10.0.0.1/9500

look at her. one pipe, whole flow pipeline. ate and left no crumbs 🔥

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💀 BUGS 💀

the test pattern may change between releases. so like... don't build your entire life on the exact bytes, bestie, she's allowed to reinvent herself 🙈

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Mark Fullmer <maf@splintered.net> — thank you for your service king 👑

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• flow-tools(1) — go read her sister page, they're a package deal 🎀

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was flow-gen(1) from flow-tools, dated 26 Август 2010 — yes the date is in Russian, she's multilingual and mysterious like that 💅 go generate some flows, you absolute icon 🦋✨