You need to use the nethogs command. It is a small “net top” tool. A tool resembling top for network traffic. From the nethogs project home page:
Instead of breaking the traffic down per protocol or per subnet, like most such tools do, it groups bandwidth by process and does not rely on a special kernel module to be loaded. So if there’s suddenly a lot of network traffic, you can fire up NetHogs and immediately see which PID is causing this, and if it’s some kind of spinning process, kill it.
Please note that this tool only works under Linux operating systems.
Install nethogs on a Debian or Ubuntu Linux
Type the following apt-get command/apt-get command:
$ sudo apt-get install nethogs
Sample outputs:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: libavutil-extra-51 libggiwmh0-target-x libggi2 libgii1 libvo-aacenc0 libgii1-target-x mplayer-skin-blue libggiwmh0 libggi-target-x libvo-amrwbenc0 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following NEW packages will be installed: nethogs 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded. Need to get 0 B/28.2 kB of archives. After this operation, 115 kB of additional disk space will be used. Selecting previously deselected package nethogs. (Reading database ... 331881 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking nethogs (from .../nethogs_0.7.0-3_amd64.deb) ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Setting up nethogs (0.7.0-3) ...
Install nethogs on a RHEL or CentOS or Fedora Linux
First turn on EPEL repo and type the following yum command to install nethogs package:
# yum install nethogs
Sample outputs:
Loaded plugins: product-id, rhnplugin, security, subscription-manager This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register. This system is receiving updates from RHN Classic or RHN Satellite. rhel-x86_64-server-6 | 1.5 kB 00:00 rhel-x86_64-server-6/primary | 13 MB 00:01 rhel-x86_64-server-6 10127/10127 rhel-x86_64-server-6-debuginfo | 1.3 kB 00:00 rhel-x86_64-server-6-debuginfo/primary | 776 kB 00:00 rhel-x86_64-server-6-debuginfo 4240/4240 rhel-x86_64-server-optional-6 | 1.5 kB 00:00 rhel-x86_64-server-optional-6-debuginfo | 1.3 kB 00:00 rhel-x86_64-server-supplementary-6 | 1.5 kB 00:00 Setting up Install Process Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package nethogs.x86_64 0:0.8.0-1.el6 will be installed --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ===================================================================== Package Arch Version Repository Size ===================================================================== Installing: nethogs x86_64 0.8.0-1.el6 epel 28 k Transaction Summary ===================================================================== Install 1 Package(s) Total download size: 28 k Installed size: 53 k Is this ok [y/N]: y Downloading Packages: nethogs-0.8.0-1.el6.x86_64.rpm | 28 kB 00:00 Running rpm_check_debug Running Transaction Test Transaction Test Succeeded Running Transaction Installing : nethogs-0.8.0-1.el6.x86_64 1/1 Verifying : nethogs-0.8.0-1.el6.x86_64 1/1 Installed: nethogs.x86_64 0:0.8.0-1.el6 Complete! |
If you are using Fedora Linux, type:
$ sudo dnf install nethogs
Install nethogs on an Arch Linux
$ sudo pacman -S nethogs
Install nethogs on an OpenSuse Linux
# zypper install nethogs
How do I use the nethogs command?
The syntax is:
nethogs nethogs eth1 nethogs [option] eth0 eth1 nethogs [option] eth0 eth1 ppp0 sudo /usr/sbin/nethogs eth0 |
Sample outputs:
Another output from one of my personal RHEL server:
Keyboard shortcuts
Use the following interactive controls, when nethogs is running:
- m : Cycle between display modes (kb/s, kb, b, mb)
- r : Sort by received.
- s : Sort by sent.
- q : Quit and return to the shell prompt.
Other options
-d delay for refresh rate.
-h display available commands usage.
-p sniff in promiscious mode (not recommended).
-t tracemode.
-V prints Version info.
A note about error “creating socket failed while establishing local IP – are you root?”
If you get an error that read as follows:
creating socket failed while establishing local IP – are you root?
Make sure you are using the latest version of nethogs and run it as a root user:
$ sudo nethogs eth1
Check out related media
This tutorial is also available in a quick video format:
Video 01: Linux: Nethogs Tool Grouping Bandwidth Usage Per Process (PID)
See also
- Linux display bandwidth usage on network interface by host using iftop.
- man page – nethogs.
- Nethogs project home page.
13 comment
how better is it from old well known iftop?
It displays the actual process that is consuming the bandwidth (PID, command, and user).
Hi,
very nice and useful article..
thanks a lot
useful, thanks.
thanks,very usefull
It’s a nice tool but what’s the point if I can’t see the root process IDs and processes, even if I run it using sudo? I’m not a linux guru and just use ubuntu and I can see a bunch of root processes making connections, constantly, and I believe it’s causing lag in my gaming. So how can I figure out which processes these are?
It would also be nice if there was a logging option or batch mode. Sometimes it’s not practical to quickly switch to the console to see which process is popping up.
and of-course there is:
sudo pacman -S nethogs
It would be handy if there was a way to collapse processes up to their parent. I have hundreds of tor processes running and dozens of apache MPM processes, and I can’t see much of anything due to the way they’re displayed.
very usefull
A very useful tool, feeds my needs. Thanks for sharing!
I want to keep historical data on programs that push the most bytes on a network over time. Which is the best tool for this job?
Awesome! The tool I’ve been looking for, to tell me what program is responsible for unexpected internet traffic (and at least with Chromium, which web page out of the many tabs I have open), so I can kill the culprit.
Thanks for the good tutorial. It is very useful for me.