OS Manuals

/usr/bin/ab

Apache HTTP Server (utilities)

From apache2-utils 2.4.70-r0 (os), captured 2026-11-07 by running ab --help (exit 22). permalink

/usr/bin/ab: wrong number of arguments
Usage: /usr/bin/ab [options] [http[s]://]hostname[:port]/path
Options are:
    -n requests     Number of requests to perform
    -c concurrency  Number of multiple requests to make at a time
    -t timelimit    Seconds to max. to spend on benchmarking
                    This implies -n 50000
    -s timeout      Seconds to max. wait for each response
                    Default is 30 seconds
    -b windowsize   Size of TCP send/receive buffer, in bytes
    -B address      Address to bind to when making outgoing connections
    -p postfile     File containing data to POST. Remember also to set -T
    -u putfile      File containing data to PUT. Remember also to set -T
    -T content-type Content-type header to use for POST/PUT data, eg.
                    'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
                    Default is 'text/plain'
    -v verbosity    How much troubleshooting info to print
    -w              Print out results in HTML tables
    -i              Use HEAD instead of GET
    -x attributes   String to insert as table attributes
    -y attributes   String to insert as tr attributes
    -z attributes   String to insert as td or th attributes
    -C attribute    Add cookie, eg. 'Apache=1234'. (repeatable)
    -H attribute    Add Arbitrary header line, eg. 'Accept-Encoding: gzip'
                    Inserted after all normal header lines. (repeatable)
    -A attribute    Add Basic WWW Authentication, the attributes
                    are a colon separated username and password.
    -P attribute    Add Basic Proxy Authentication, the attributes
                    are a colon separated username and password.
    -X proxy:port   Proxyserver and port number to use
    -V              Print version number and exit
    -k              Use HTTP KeepAlive feature
    -d              Do not show percentiles served table.
    -S              Do not show confidence estimators and warnings.
    -q              Do not show progress when doing more than 150 requests
    -l              Accept variable document length (use this for dynamic pages)
    -g filename     Output collected data to gnuplot format file.
    -e filename     Output CSV file with percentages served
    -r              Don't exit on socket receive errors.
    -m method       Method name
    -h              Display usage information (this message)
    -I              Disable TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) extension
    -Z ciphersuite  Specify SSL/TLS cipher suite (See openssl ciphers)
    -f protocol     Specify SSL/TLS protocol
                    (SSL2, SSL3, TLS1, TLS1.1, TLS1.2, TLS1.3 or ALL)
    -E certfile     Specify optional client certificate chain and private key
Options (35)
OptionDescriptionSource
-n requestsNumber of requests to perform for the benchmarking session.help + man
-c concurrencyNumber of multiple requests to perform at a time.help + man
-t timelimitMaximum number of seconds to spend for benchmarking.help + man
-s timeoutMaximum number of seconds to wait before the socket times out.help + man
-b windowsizeSize of TCP send/receive buffer, in bytes.help + man
-B addressAddress to bind to when making outgoing connections.help + man
-p postfileFile containing data to POST.help + man
-u putfileFile containing data to PUT.help + man
-v verbositySet verbosity level - 4 and above prints information on headers, 3 and above prints response codes (404, 200, etc.), 2 and above prints warnings and info.help + man
-wPrint out results in HTML tables.help + man
-iDo HEAD requests instead of GET.help + man
-x attributesString to use as attributes for <table>.help + man
-y attributesString to use as attributes for <tr>.help + man
-z attributesString to insert as td or th attributeshelp + man
-C attributeAdd a Cookie: line to the request.help + man
-H attributeAppend extra headers to the request.help + man
-A attributeAdd Basic WWW Authentication, the attributes are a colon separated username and password.help + man
-P attributeAdd Basic Proxy Authentication, the attributes are a colon separated username and password.help + man
-X proxy:portProxyserver and port number to usehelp
-VDisplay version number and exit.help + man
-kEnable the HTTP KeepAlive feature, i.e., perform multiple requests within one HTTP session.help + man
-dDo not display the "percentage served within XX [ms] table".help + man
-SDo not display the median and standard deviation values, nor display the warning/error messages when the average and median are more than one or two times the standard deviation apart.help + man
-qWhen processing more than 150 requests, ab outputs a progress count on stderr every 10% or 100 requests or so.help + man
-lDo not report errors if the length of the responses is not constant.help + man
-g filenameWrite all measured values out as a 'gnuplot' or TSV (Tab separate values) file.help + man
-e filenameWrite a Comma separated value (CSV) file which contains for each percentage (from 1% to 100%) the time (in milliseconds) it took to serve that percentage of the requests.help + man
-rDon't exit on socket receive errors.help + man
-m methodCustom HTTP method for the requests.help + man
-hDisplay usage information (this message)help + man
-IDisable TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) extensionhelp
-Z ciphersuiteSpecify SSL/TLS cipher suite (See openssl ciphers)help + man
-f protocolSpecify SSL/TLS protocol (SSL2, SSL3, TLS1, TLS1.1, TLS1.2, TLS1.3 or ALL)help + man
-E certfileWhen connecting to an SSL website, use the provided client certificate in PEM format to authenticate with the server.help + man
-T content-typeContent-type header to use for POST/PUT data, eg. (in the manual page but not in --help)man

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.