git://git.kernel.dk/fio.git
-The http protocol also works, path is the same.
+If you are inside a corporate firewall, git:// may not always work for
+you. In that case you can use the http protocol, path is the same:
+
+http://git.kernel.dk/fio.git
Snapshots are frequently generated and they include the git meta data as
well. You can download them here:
Building
--------
-Just type 'make' and 'make install'. If on BSD, for now you have to
-specify the BSD Makefile with -f and use gmake (not make), eg:
-
-$ gmake -f Makefile.FreeBSD && gmake -f Makefile.FreeBSD install
-
-Same goes for AIX:
-
-$ gmake -f Makefile.aix && gmake -f Makefile.aix install
+Just type 'make' and 'make install'.
-Likewise with OpenSolaris, use the Makefile.solaris to compile there.
-The OpenSolaris make should work fine. This might change in the
-future if I opt for an autoconf type setup.
+Note that GNU make is required. On BSD it's available from devel/gmake;
+on Solaris it's in the SUNWgmake package. On platforms where GNU make
+isn't the default, type 'gmake' instead of 'make'.
If your compile fails with an error like this:
based distros, it's typically called libaio-devel.
+Windows
+-------
+
+On Windows MinGW (http://www.mingw.org/) is required in order to
+build fio. To create an MSI installer package install WiX 3.6 from
+http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/ and run dobuild.cmd from the
+os/windows directory.
+
+
Command line
------------
$ fio
- --debug Enable some debugging options (see below)
- --output Write output to file
- --timeout Runtime in seconds
- --latency-log Generate per-job latency logs
- --bandwidth-log Generate per-job bandwidth logs
- --minimal Minimal (terse) output
- --version Print version info and exit
- --help Print this page
- --cmdhelp=cmd Print command help, "all" for all of them
- --showcmd Turn a job file into command line options
- --readonly Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing writes
- --eta=when When ETA estimate should be printed
- May be "always", "never" or "auto"
- --section=name Only run specified section in job file
- --alloc-size=kb Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024)
+ --debug Enable some debugging options (see below)
+ --output Write output to file
+ --runtime Runtime in seconds
+ --latency-log Generate per-job latency logs
+ --bandwidth-log Generate per-job bandwidth logs
+ --minimal Minimal (terse) output
+ --version Print version info and exit
+ --terse-version=type Terse version output format (default 3, or 2 or 4).
+ --help Print this page
+ --cmdhelp=cmd Print command help, "all" for all of them
+ --enghelp=engine Print ioengine help, or list available ioengines
+ --enghelp=engine,cmd Print help for an ioengine cmd
+ --showcmd Turn a job file into command line options
+ --readonly Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing
+ writes
+ --eta=when When ETA estimate should be printed
+ May be "always", "never" or "auto"
+ --section=name Only run specified section in job file.
+ Multiple sections can be specified.
+ --alloc-size=kb Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024)
+ --warnings-fatal Fio parser warnings are fatal
+ --max-jobs Maximum number of threads/processes to support
+ --server=args Start backend server. See Client/Server section.
+ --client=host Connect to specified backend.
Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files,
can be used to gauge hard drive speed over the entire
platter, without reading everything. Both x/y can
include k/m/g suffix.
- iolog=x Open and read io pattern from file 'x'. The file must
- contain one io action per line in the following format:
- rw, offset, length
- where with rw=0/1 for read/write, and the offset
- and length entries being in bytes.
+ read_iolog=x Open and read io pattern from file 'x'. The file format
+ is described in the HOWTO.
write_iolog=x Write an iolog to file 'x' in the same format as iolog.
The iolog options are exclusive, if both given the
read iolog will be performed. Specify a separate file
+Client/server
+------------
+
+Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
+where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
+run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
+have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
+be running, while controlling it from another machine.
+
+To start the server, you would do:
+
+fio --server=args
+
+on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
+are of the form 'type,hostname or IP,port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
+for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain socket.
+'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
+listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
+
+1) fio --server
+
+ Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
+
+2) fio --server=ip:hostname,4444
+
+ Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
+
+3) fio --server=ip6:::1,4444
+
+ Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
+
+4) fio --server=,4444
+
+ Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
+
+5) fio --server=1.2.3.4
+
+ Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
+
+6) fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
+
+ Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
+
+When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
+is run with:
+
+fio --local-args --client=server --remote-args <job file(s)>
+
+where --local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
+running, 'server' is the connect string, and --remote-args and <job file(s)>
+are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
+does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
+You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
+
+fio --client=server2 <job file(s)> --client=server2 <job file(s)>
+
+
Platforms
---------
-Fio works on (at least) Linux, Solaris, AIX, OSX, NetBSD, Windows and FreeBSD.
-Some features and/or options may only be available on some of the platforms,
-typically because those features only apply to that platform (like the
-solarisaio engine, or the splice engine on Linux).
+Fio works on (at least) Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OSX, NetBSD, Windows
+and FreeBSD. Some features and/or options may only be available on some of
+the platforms, typically because those features only apply to that platform
+(like the solarisaio engine, or the splice engine on Linux).
Some features are not available on FreeBSD/Solaris even if they could be
implemented, I'd be happy to take patches for that. An example of that is