pipebench(1)

📦
version 0.40 · 2 versions
  • 0.40 · debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking (latest)
  • 0.40 · fedora 43, fedora 44
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 pipebench(1) — the group-chat guide 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to talk about the most underrated lil tool in your toolbox: pipebench. it lives in section 1 of the manual (the "user commands" section, iykyk) and it does exactly one thing and does it iconically — it measures how fast your data is vibing through stdin/stdout. that's it. that's the whole personality. and honestly? obsessed.

✨ NAME ✨

pipebench — shows speed of stdin/stdout communication 💫

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

pipebench [ -ehqQIoru ] [ -s file | -S file ] [ -b bufsize ]

look at her. short, sweet, all those lil single letters stacked together like a friendship bracelet. 🎀

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

it measures the speed of stdin/stdout communication. that's the entire description fr fr — she doesn't over-explain, she just benchmarks your pipes and lets the numbers speak for themselves. main character energy honestly. 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -h — shows a help message and then dips out. classic.
  • -e — if an error happens, it exits (which breaks the pipe between stdin and stdout 💀). by default it's way more chill: it just prints an error message to stderr and keeps going.
  • -q — only show the summary stats. quiet lil queen. 🤫
  • -Q — don't show the running speed or the summary stats. literally the same as -q -o stacked together. this one's for when you just wanna play around with buffer size and not be perceived. 🙈
  • -o — don't show the summary.
  • -b bufsize — use this buffer size, measured in bytes. you're the boss of the buffer now. 💅
  • -r — just show raw speed, no fancy stuff. and no summary either. raw. unfiltered. no filter, no edits, no makeup. 📸
  • -s file — write status to file instead of stderr.
  • -S file — write status to file instead of stderr. (yes, she has both. two sisters, same job. don't ask, just vibe. 🦋)
  • -I — use 1kB = 1000B, instead of the default 1024B. metric girlies rise up. 🌈
  • -u — don't convert to units (kilo, Mega, etc...). just give it to me in the raw numbers bestie, no glamour. ⭐

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

benchmark and show progress of your backup — this is THE use case, the moment, the slay:

# (cd /home/; tar cf - .) | pipebench | (cd /mnt/backup/; tar xf -)

a number to brag to your friends about — literally the whole point of benchmarking tbh:

$ dd if=/dev/zero bs=80k count=60k 2> /dev/null | pipebench -q > /dev/null

✨ BUGS ✨

no known bugs... yet. 😭

(the yet is doing so much heavy lifting there and i respect it)

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

dd(1), cat(1) — her two besties. the trio. the squad. 🫶

✨ AUTHOR ✨

pipebench was written by Thomas Habets <thomas@habets.pp.se> 🌸

okay that's the whole page, you're officially a pipebench girlie now, go benchmark something and feel something. this was pipebench from 18th Apr, 2003 — yeah she's vintage, she's an icon, she's been measuring pipes since before some of us were born and she still ate. periodt. 💖✨🎀🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from