Linux See Bandwidth Usage Per Process With Nethogs Tool

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.

Linux See Bandwidth Usage Per Process With Nethogs

The nethogs tool only works under Linux operating systems. Let us see how to install and use Nethogs tool on Linux operating systems to see bandwidth usage per process.

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:

Fig.01: nethogs in action

Fig.02: Nethogs in action on my centos/rhel box

Keyboard shortcuts

Use the following interactive controls, when nethogs is running:

1. m : Cycle between display modes (kb/s, kb, b, mb)
2. r : Sort by received.
3. s : Sort by sent.
4. 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

nethogs-qt – Qt-based GUI

Not a fan of the CLI? Try using GUI tool. Here is how to install nethogs-qt on Ubuntu 16.04/18.04 LTS desktop:
$ sudo apt-get install g++ make qt5-default qt5-qmake git libpcap-dev
$ git clone https://github.com/qtproject/qtcharts.git
$ cd qtcharts
$ qmake
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ wget http://slist.lilotux.net/linux/nethogs-qt/nethogs-qt-0.0.4.tgz
$ tar zxvf nethogs-qt-0.0.4.tgz
$ cd nethogs-qt-0.0.4
$ qmake
$ make
$ sudo ./nethogs-qt
$ sudo ./nethogs-qt

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.