NFPROFILE(1)

πŸ‘‘ NFPROFILE (1) β€” netflow profiler, but make it make sense

okay so bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual entry for nfprofile ✨ this is the netflow profiler program, and yes it lives in the big-girl commands section, so you know it means business πŸ’…


✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

nfprofile [-hVIZ] [-p profiledir] [-P statdir] [-r file] [-M dirlist]
          [-f filterfile] [-S num] [-t time] [-L facility]
          [-z=<compress>] [-j] [-y] [-i url]

that's the whole vibe right there, no cap 🫢


🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

nfprofile is the netflow profiler program for NfSen, periodt. it reads netflow data from files that nfcapd(1) stored, and then it creates the corresponding output files for every channel required by a profile configuration πŸ’–

so like β€” heads up β€” this program is normally run only by NfSen, not directly by users. it's giving backstage crew, not main character energy πŸ™ˆ

a profile is defined by a configuration file, and that file specifies channels, sources, and filters for the data to be extracted and summarized πŸŽ€

nfprofile processes the data according to the profile configuration, and then writes the output files to the specified directory so they can go on to further processing or visualization πŸ¦‹

the options are as follows, bestie β€” buckle up, there's a bunch:


πŸ’… OPTIONS πŸ’…

  • -h β€” print help text to stdout and exit. the classic "hi, what do you do" move ✨
  • -V β€” print the nfprofile version and exit. identity check πŸ’–
  • -I β€” read profile parameters from stdin, instead of being invoked with a single profile's parameters. multitasking icon πŸ‘‘
  • -Z β€” check filter syntax and exit. grammar police, but for filters πŸ’€
  • -p profiledir β€” specify the profile data directory. this is where the data lives 🏠
  • -P statdir β€” specify the profile stat directory. stats get their own lil room πŸ“Š
  • -S num β€” sub directory format. see nfcapd(1) for format. iykyk 🧚
  • -r file β€” read input from this single file. one file, one vibe πŸ“
  • -M dirlist β€” read input from multiple directories, ':' separated. the group chat of directories 🌈
  • -f filterfile β€” read the netflow filter to apply from this file. filter goes in, filter comes out πŸŽ€
  • -t time β€” time slot, passed through to the RRD update for this run. time is literally a construct (but the RRD needs it) ⭐
  • -L facility β€” set the syslog facility to log to. logging, but make it official πŸ“
  • -z=lzo β€” LZO compress flows in output file. tiny files, big slay πŸ’œ
  • -z=bz2 β€” BZIP2 compress flows in output file. the OGs of compression πŸ”₯
  • -z=lz4[:level] β€” LZ4 compress flows in output file. fast and fabulous, optional level added 🌸
  • -z=zstd[:level] β€” ZSTD compress flows in output file. also with an optional level πŸ¦‹
  • -j β€” legacy shorthand for -z=bz2. retro but valid πŸ’«
  • -y β€” legacy shorthand for -z=lz4. also retro, also valid πŸ’«
  • -i url β€” InfluxDB URL to write stats to, e.g. http://localhost:8086/write?db=mydb&u=user&p=pass . only available if built with InfluxDB support. note the "only if built with" part β€” check before you get your hopes up πŸ™ˆ

πŸ”₯ EXIT STATUS πŸ”₯

nfprofile returns 0 on success and 255 otherwise. that's it, that's the whole story β€” binary icon behaviour πŸ‘‘


πŸŽ€ NOTES πŸŽ€

this program is intended to be run by NfSen. direct invocation is not recommended unless you know exactly how to configure profiles and their directories. like, not "i skimmed the docs" know β€” actually know πŸ’€


πŸ¦‹ SEE ALSO πŸ¦‹

nfcapd(1), nfdump(1), nfreplay(1) β€” the rest of the friend group, go say hi πŸ’–


πŸ’€ BUGS πŸ’€

"No software without bugs!" β€” the author's own words, and honestly? realest thing ever said. please report any bugs back to me πŸ™


🫢 the cute sign-off 🫢

this lil page is from Debian, version-ed with $Mdocdate$, and filed under NFPROFILE(1) β€” that's the whole footer, but make it adorable. k thanks bye, go profile some netflow πŸ’œβœ¨πŸŒΈ

πŸ“¦ where this page comes from
  • epel 10: nfdump 1.7.10-1.el10_3 Β· BSD-3-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later
  • πŸ’– girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms