/*--------------------------------------------------------------
 NetLoadD - Network Load Deamon                    Read The
 David Cutting (dcutting@purplepixie.org)       L I C E N C E
--------------------------------------------------------------*/

Read Me: Information on the Background and Basis of NetLoadD

NetLoadD - the Network Load Daemon - is a utility designed
to capture total throughput on a specified network device
over a specified interval. This data can then be used by
the daemon itself or ported to another analysis application.

Although the ifconfig command displays the total transfer 
on the device in bytes (taken from /proc/net/dev file)
there are two key problems with this. Firstly the data
does not include any indication of the timeframe of the
sample (making load average calculation impossible) and
secondly the count will wrap at Max Long (about 4.5 Gb)
back to 0.

Although a number of very flasy real-time analysis tools
exist, most are graphically based (in X or curses) and
unsuitable to be used for data collection intended for
later analysis.

NetLoadD in it's current form (1.5.1) is started by
the user for each device to be monitored with optional
arguments specifying settings and/or a configuration
file. Details of the day-to-day usage and initial
setup of NetLoadD can be found in the USAGE and CONFIG
documents supplied.

Written in C++, NetLoadD is designed to be portable
to any platform with a Linux-style (I believe
although are not sure that this is in fact BSD-style)
/proc/net/dev files of the format:

Two header lines.
A line per device with the fields as follows:
 interface:
 Receive:bytes
 Receive:packets
 Receive:errors
 Receive:drop
 Receive:fido
 Receive:frame
 Receive:compressed
 Receive:multicast
 Transmit:bytes
 Transmit:packets
 Transmit:errors
 Transmit:drop
 Transmit:fifo
 Transmit:colls
 Transmit:carrier
 Transmit:compressed


If you find NetLoadD useful, have constructive criticism
or a support query we'd be happy to hear from you by
email to netload at purplepixie.org.

See the INSTALL document to see how to compile then
install NetLoadD. Please read the LICENCE.