FLOWCTL(8)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1

💅 FLOWCTL(8) — the ng_netflow(4) control utility, bestie edition 🦋

okay so real talk: this is a page from the System Manager's Manual and it's all about flowctl, the little utility that lets you boss around your ng_netflow(4) nodes. it's giving "tiny tool, big main character energy" ✨ let's get into it.

✨ NAME ✨

flowctl — the control utility for ng_netflow(4). yep, that's the whole vibe. 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

flowctl [-d level] path command

that's it. that's the whole shape of it. a path, a command, and maybe a debug level if you're feeling spicy. 🫶

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the flowctl utility is intended to control the ng_netflow(4) nodes. that's literally its whole job and honestly? it ate. 👑

it has a single option (yes, one, we love a minimalist icon):

  • -d level — sets the netgraph(3) debugging level to level. turn it up when things get weird, iykyk. 🔍

💅 COMMANDS 💅

currently, flowctl supports only one command. one! singular! a whole one command! (ngl it does it well tho 🌈)

  • show [ipv4|ipv6] [human|verbose] — bestie this is the command. it's the analog of the show ip cache flow command on a Cisco router, and what it does is dump the contents of the flow cache in Cisco-like format. 💾✨
    • if you specify either ipv4 or ipv6, it'll extract only IPv4 or IPv6 flows respectively — so you can vibe-check one address family at a time. 🌸
    • it's also got an optional parameter verbose, which is the analog of the show ip cache verbose flow command. more words, more detail, more everything. 🔥
    • additionally, the human parameter can be specified to show selected flows in human-readable format. because sometimes you just want it to make sense, fr fr. 🧚

😭 EXIT STATUS 😭

  • flowctl exits 0 on success 🎉
  • and >0 if an error occurs 💀

that's the whole drama. no in-between.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

go read those, they're the supporting cast. 🫶

🍓 AUTHORS 🍓

the flowctl utility was written by Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@FreeBSD.org>, based on ipacctctl written by Roman V. Palagin <romanp@unshadow.net>. absolute legends, both of them, we stan. 🌟

ok that's the whole page, no cap. go show your flows some love 💜

and that's a wrap bestie!! this page was brought to you by Debian, version-dated June 8, 2012 — yes the date is older than most of your playlists but the info still slays. mwah 💋🎀

📦 where this page comes from