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:
| Tutorial details | |
|---|---|
| Difficulty level | Easy |
| Root privileges | Yes |
| Requirements | nethogs on RHEL/CentOS Debian/Ubuntu/Arch OpenSUSE/Apline Linux |
| Est. reading time | 4 minutes |
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 Command
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
[sudo] password for vivek: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: nethogs 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded. Need to get 29.9 kB of archives. After this operation, 86.0 kB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 nethogs amd64 0.8.5-2build2 [29.9 kB] Fetched 29.9 kB in 1s (36.4 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package nethogs. (Reading database ... 345956 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../nethogs_0.8.5-2build2_amd64.deb ... Unpacking nethogs (0.8.5-2build2) ... Setting up nethogs (0.8.5-2build2) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.1-1) ...
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
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!
Fedora Linux user can type the dnf command as follows:
$ sudo dnf install nethogs
How to install nethogs on an Arch Linux
Try the pacman command:
$ sudo pacman -S nethogs
Install nethogs on an OpenSuse Linux
We use the zypper command:
# zypper install nethogs
Installing nethogs on Alpine Linux
Type the apk command:
# apk add nethogs
How do I use the nethogs command on Linux to see bandwidth usage?
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:
- 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
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:
Summing up
You learned how to install and use nethogs on Linux operating systems to view bandwidth usage per process. See:
- Linux display bandwidth usage on network interface by host using iftop.
- man page – nethogs.
- Nethogs project home page.
🐧 13 comments so far... add one ↓
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| Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
|---|---|
| Disk space analyzers | df • ncdu • pydf |
| File Management | cat • tree |
| Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Network Utilities | NetHogs • dig • host • ip • nmap |
| OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Package Manager | apk • apt |
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| Searching | grep • whereis • which |
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| WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
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.