man > TC(8)

TC(8)                                           Linux                                          TC(8)

NAME
       tc - show / manipulate traffic control settings

SYNOPSIS
       tc  [  OPTIONS ] qdisc [ add | change | replace | link | delete ] dev DEV [ parent qdisc-id |
       root ] [ handle qdisc-id ] [ ingress_block BLOCK_INDEX ] [ egress_block BLOCK_INDEX ] qdisc [
       qdisc specific parameters ]

       tc [ OPTIONS ] class [ add | change | replace | delete | show ] dev  DEV  parent  qdisc-id  [
       classid class-id ] qdisc [ qdisc specific parameters ]

       tc  [  OPTIONS ] filter [ add | change | replace | delete | get ] dev DEV [ parent qdisc-id |
       root ] [ handle filter-id ] protocol protocol prio priority filtertype [ filtertype  specific
       parameters ] flowid flow-id

       tc  [  OPTIONS  ] filter [ add | change | replace | delete | get ] block BLOCK_INDEX [ handle
       filter-id ] protocol protocol prio priority filtertype [  filtertype  specific  parameters  ]
       flowid flow-id

       tc  [  OPTIONS ] chain [ add | delete | get ] dev DEV [ parent qdisc-id | root ] filtertype [
       filtertype specific parameters ]

       tc [ OPTIONS ] chain [ add | delete | get ] block BLOCK_INDEX filtertype  [  filtertype  spe‐
       cific parameters ]


       tc [ OPTIONS ] [ FORMAT ] qdisc { show | list } [ dev DEV ] [ root | ingress | handle QHANDLE
       | parent CLASSID ] [ invisible ]

       tc [ OPTIONS ] [ FORMAT ] class show dev DEV

       tc [ OPTIONS ] filter show dev DEV

       tc [ OPTIONS ] filter show block BLOCK_INDEX

       tc [ OPTIONS ] chain show dev DEV

       tc [ OPTIONS ] chain show block BLOCK_INDEX


       tc [ OPTIONS ] monitor [ file FILENAME ]


        OPTIONS := { [ -force ] -b[atch] [ filename ] | [ -n[etns] name ] | [ -N[umeric] ] | [ -nm |
       -nam[es] ] | [ { -cf | -c[onf] } [ filename ] ] [ -t[imestamp] ] | [ -t[short] | [ -o[neline]
       ] }

        FORMAT := { -s[tatistics] | -d[etails] | -r[aw] | -i[ec] | -g[raph] | -j[json] | -p[retty] |
       -col[or] }


DESCRIPTION
       Tc  is used to configure Traffic Control in the Linux kernel. Traffic Control consists of the
       following:


       SHAPING
              When traffic is shaped, its rate of transmission is under control. Shaping may be more
              than lowering the available bandwidth - it is also used to smooth out bursts in  traf‐
              fic for better network behaviour. Shaping occurs on egress.


       SCHEDULING
              By  scheduling the transmission of packets it is possible to improve interactivity for
              traffic that needs it while still guaranteeing bandwidth to bulk transfers. Reordering
              is also called prioritizing, and happens only on egress.


       POLICING
              Whereas shaping deals with transmission of traffic, policing pertains to  traffic  ar‐
              riving. Policing thus occurs on ingress.


       DROPPING
              Traffic  exceeding  a set bandwidth may also be dropped forthwith, both on ingress and
              on egress.


       Processing of traffic is controlled by three kinds of objects: qdiscs, classes and filters.


QDISCS
       qdisc is short for 'queueing discipline' and it is elementary to understanding  traffic  con‐
       trol. Whenever the kernel needs to send a packet to an interface, it is enqueued to the qdisc
       configured  for that interface. Immediately afterwards, the kernel tries to get as many pack‐
       ets as possible from the qdisc, for giving them to the network adaptor driver.

       A simple QDISC is the 'pfifo' one, which does no processing at all and is a  pure  First  In,
       First Out queue. It does however store traffic when the network interface can't handle it mo‐
       mentarily.


CLASSES
       Some  qdiscs can contain classes, which contain further qdiscs - traffic may then be enqueued
       in any of the inner qdiscs, which are within the classes.  When the kernel tries to dequeue a
       packet from such a classful qdisc it can come from any of the classes. A qdisc may for  exam‐
       ple prioritize certain kinds of traffic by trying to dequeue from certain classes before oth‐
       ers.


FILTERS
       A  filter  is used by a classful qdisc to determine in which class a packet will be enqueued.
       Whenever traffic arrives at a class with subclasses, it needs to be classified. Various meth‐
       ods may be employed to do so, one of these are the filters. All filters attached to the class
       are called, until one of them returns with a verdict. If no verdict was made, other  criteria
       may be available. This differs per qdisc.

       It  is  important  to notice that filters reside within qdiscs - they are not masters of what
       happens.

       The available filters are:

       basic  Filter packets based on an ematch expression. See tc-ematch(8) for details.

       bpf    Filter packets using (e)BPF, see tc-bpf(8) for details.

       cgroup Filter packets based on the control group of their process. See tc-cgroup(8)  for  de‐
              tails.

       flow, flower
              Flow-based  classifiers,  filtering  packets based on their flow (identified by selec‐
              table keys). See tc-flow(8) and tc-flower(8) for details.

       fw     Filter based on fwmark. Directly maps fwmark value to traffic class. See tc-fw(8).

       route  Filter packets based on routing table. See tc-route(8) for details.

       rsvp   Match Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP) packets.

       tcindex
              Filter packets based on traffic control index. See tc-tcindex(8).

       u32    Generic filtering on arbitrary packet data, assisted by syntax to abstract common  op‐
              erations. See tc-u32(8) for details.

       matchall
              Traffic control filter that matches every packet. See tc-matchall(8) for details.


QEVENTS
       Qdiscs  may  invoke user-configured actions when certain interesting events take place in the
       qdisc. Each qevent can either be unused, or can have a block attached to it.  To  this  block
       are  then  attached filters using the "tc block BLOCK_IDX" syntax. The block is executed when
       the qevent associated with the attachment point takes place. For  example,  packet  could  be
       dropped, or delayed, etc., depending on the qdisc and the qevent in question.

       For example:

              tc qdisc add dev eth0 root handle 1: red limit 500K avpkt 1K \
                 qevent early_drop block 10
              tc filter add block 10 matchall action mirred egress mirror dev eth1


CLASSLESS QDISCS
       The classless qdiscs are:

       choke  CHOKe  (CHOose  and Keep for responsive flows, CHOose and Kill for unresponsive flows)
              is a classless qdisc designed to both identify and penalize flows that monopolize  the
              queue. CHOKe is a variation of RED, and the configuration is similar to RED.

       codel  CoDel  (pronounced  "coddle")  is an adaptive "no-knobs" active queue management algo‐
              rithm (AQM) scheme that was developed to address the shortcomings of RED and its vari‐
              ants.

       [p|b]fifo
              Simplest usable qdisc, pure First In, First Out behaviour. Limited in  packets  or  in
              bytes.

       fq     Fair  Queue  Scheduler  realises TCP pacing and scales to millions of concurrent flows
              per qdisc.

       fq_codel
              Fair Queuing Controlled Delay is queuing discipline that combines  Fair  Queuing  with
              the  CoDel  AQM  scheme. FQ_Codel uses a stochastic model to classify incoming packets
              into different flows and is used to provide a fair share of the bandwidth to  all  the
              flows  using the queue. Each such flow is managed by the CoDel queuing discipline. Re‐
              ordering within a flow is avoided since Codel internally uses a FIFO queue.

       fq_pie FQ-PIE (Flow Queuing with Proportional Integral controller Enhanced) is a queuing dis‐
              cipline that combines Flow Queuing with the PIE AQM scheme. FQ-PIE uses a Jenkins hash
              function to classify incoming packets into different flows and is used  to  provide  a
              fair  share  of the bandwidth to all the flows using the qdisc. Each such flow is man‐
              aged by the PIE algorithm.

       gred   Generalized Random Early Detection combines multiple RED queues in  order  to  achieve
              multiple drop priorities. This is required to realize Assured Forwarding (RFC 2597).

       hhf    Heavy-Hitter  Filter  differentiates  between small flows and the opposite, heavy-hit‐
              ters. The goal is to catch the heavy-hitters and move them to a  separate  queue  with
              less priority so that bulk traffic does not affect the latency of critical traffic.

       ingress
              This  is  a  special qdisc as it applies to incoming traffic on an interface, allowing
              for it to be filtered and policed.

       mqprio The Multiqueue Priority Qdisc is a simple queuing discipline that allows mapping traf‐
              fic flows to hardware queue ranges using priorities and  a  configurable  priority  to
              traffic  class  mapping.  A traffic class in this context is a set of contiguous qdisc
              classes which map 1:1 to a set of hardware exposed queues.

       multiq Multiqueue is a qdisc optimized for devices with multiple Tx queues. It has been added
              for hardware that wishes to avoid head-of-line blocking.  It  will  cycle  though  the
              bands and verify that the hardware queue associated with the band is not stopped prior
              to dequeuing a packet.

       netem  Network  Emulator is an enhancement of the Linux traffic control facilities that allow
              one to add delay, packet loss, duplication and more other characteristics  to  packets
              outgoing from a selected network interface.

       pfifo_fast
              Standard  qdisc  for 'Advanced Router' enabled kernels. Consists of a three-band queue
              which honors Type of Service flags, as well as the priority that may be assigned to  a
              packet.

       pie    Proportional  Integral  controller-Enhanced  (PIE) is a control theoretic active queue
              management scheme. It is based on the proportional integral  controller  but  aims  to
              control delay.

       red    Random Early Detection simulates physical congestion by randomly dropping packets when
              nearing  configured bandwidth allocation. Well suited to very large bandwidth applica‐
              tions.

       rr     Round-Robin qdisc with support for multiqueue  network  devices.  Removed  from  Linux
              since kernel version 2.6.27.

       sfb    Stochastic  Fair  Blue  is a classless qdisc to manage congestion based on packet loss
              and link utilization history while trying to prevent non-responsive flows (i.e.  flows
              that do not react to congestion marking or dropped packets) from impacting performance
              of  responsive flows.  Unlike RED, where the marking probability has to be configured,
              BLUE tries to determine the ideal marking probability automatically.

       sfq    Stochastic Fairness Queueing reorders queued traffic so each 'session' gets to send  a
              packet in turn.

       tbf    The  Token  Bucket Filter is suited for slowing traffic down to a precisely configured
              rate. Scales well to large bandwidths.

CONFIGURING CLASSLESS QDISCS
       In the absence of classful qdiscs, classless qdiscs can only be attached at the root of a de‐
       vice. Full syntax:

       tc qdisc add dev DEV root QDISC QDISC-PARAMETERS

       To remove, issue

       tc qdisc del dev DEV root

       The pfifo_fast qdisc is the automatic default in the absence of a configured qdisc.


CLASSFUL QDISCS
       The classful qdiscs are:

       ATM    Map flows to virtual circuits of an underlying asynchronous transfer mode device.

       CBQ    Class Based Queueing implements a rich linksharing hierarchy of classes.  It  contains
              shaping elements as well as prioritizing capabilities. Shaping is performed using link
              idle time calculations based on average packet size and underlying link bandwidth. The
              latter may be ill-defined for some interfaces.

       DRR    The  Deficit Round Robin Scheduler is a more flexible replacement for Stochastic Fair‐
              ness Queuing. Unlike SFQ, there are no built-in queues -- you need to add classes  and
              then  set up filters to classify packets accordingly.  This can be useful e.g. for us‐
              ing RED qdiscs with different settings for particular traffic.  There  is  no  default
              class -- if a packet cannot be classified, it is dropped.

       DSMARK Classify  packets based on TOS field, change TOS field of packets based on classifica‐
              tion.

       ETS    The ETS qdisc is a queuing discipline that merges functionality of PRIO and DRR qdiscs
              in one scheduler. ETS makes it easy to configure a set of strict and bandwidth-sharing
              bands to implement the transmission selection described in 802.1Qaz.

       HFSC   Hierarchical Fair Service Curve guarantees precise bandwidth and delay allocation  for
              leaf classes and allocates excess bandwidth fairly. Unlike HTB, it makes use of packet
              dropping to achieve low delays which interactive sessions benefit from.

       HTB    The  Hierarchy Token Bucket implements a rich linksharing hierarchy of classes with an
              emphasis on conforming to existing practices. HTB facilitates  guaranteeing  bandwidth
              to  classes, while also allowing specification of upper limits to inter-class sharing.
              It contains shaping elements, based on TBF and can prioritize classes.

       PRIO   The PRIO qdisc is a non-shaping container for a configurable number of  classes  which
              are  dequeued  in  order.  This allows for easy prioritization of traffic, where lower
              classes are only able to send if higher ones have no packets available. To  facilitate
              configuration, Type Of Service bits are honored by default.

       QFQ    Quick Fair Queueing is an O(1) scheduler that provides near-optimal guarantees, and is
              the first to achieve that goal with a constant cost also with respect to the number of
              groups and the packet length. The QFQ algorithm has no loops, and uses very simple in‐
              structions  and data structures that lend themselves very well to a hardware implemen‐
              tation.

THEORY OF OPERATION
       Classes form a tree, where each class has a single parent.  A class may have  multiple  chil‐
       dren.  Some  qdiscs  allow for runtime addition of classes (CBQ, HTB) while others (PRIO) are
       created with a static number of children.

       Qdiscs which allow dynamic addition of classes can have zero  or  more  subclasses  to  which
       traffic may be enqueued.

       Furthermore,  each class contains a leaf qdisc which by default has pfifo behaviour, although
       another qdisc can be attached in place. This qdisc may again contain classes, but each  class
       can have only one leaf qdisc.

       When  a  packet  enters  a  classful qdisc it can be classified to one of the classes within.
       Three criteria are available, although not all qdiscs will use all three:

       tc filters
              If tc filters are attached to a class, they are consulted first for relevant  instruc‐
              tions.  Filters can match on all fields of a packet header, as well as on the firewall
              mark applied by iptables.

       Type of Service
              Some qdiscs have built in rules for classifying packets based on the TOS field.

       skb->priority
              Userspace programs can encode a  class-id  in  the  'skb->priority'  field  using  the
              SO_PRIORITY option.

       Each  node  within  the tree can have its own filters but higher level filters may also point
       directly to lower classes.

       If classification did not succeed, packets are enqueued to the leaf qdisc  attached  to  that
       class. Check qdisc specific manpages for details, however.


NAMING
       All  qdiscs,  classes and filters have IDs, which can either be specified or be automatically
       assigned.

       IDs consist of a major number and a minor number, separated by a colon -  major:minor.   Both
       major  and  minor  are  hexadecimal numbers and are limited to 16 bits. There are two special
       values: root is signified by major and minor of all ones, and unspecified is all zeros.


       QDISCS A qdisc, which potentially can have children, gets assigned a major number,  called  a
              'handle',  leaving the minor number namespace available for classes. The handle is ex‐
              pressed as '10:'.  It is customary to explicitly assign a handle to qdiscs expected to
              have children.


       CLASSES
              Classes residing under a qdisc share their qdisc major number, but each have  a  sepa‐
              rate  minor  number  called  a 'classid' that has no relation to their parent classes,
              only to their parent qdisc. The same naming custom as for qdiscs applies.


       FILTERS
              Filters have a three part ID, which is only needed when using a hashed filter  hierar‐
              chy.


PARAMETERS
       The  following  parameters are widely used in TC. For other parameters, see the man pages for
       individual qdiscs.


       RATES  Bandwidths or rates.  These parameters accept a floating point number,  possibly  fol‐
              lowed by either a unit (both SI and IEC units supported), or a float followed by a '%'
              character  to specify the rate as a percentage of the device's speed (e.g. 5%, 99.5%).
              Warning: specifying the rate as a percentage means a fraction of the current speed; if
              the speed changes, the value will not be recalculated.

              bit or a bare number
                     Bits per second

              kbit   Kilobits per second

              mbit   Megabits per second

              gbit   Gigabits per second

              tbit   Terabits per second

              bps    Bytes per second

              kbps   Kilobytes per second

              mbps   Megabytes per second

              gbps   Gigabytes per second

              tbps   Terabytes per second


              To specify in IEC units, replace the SI prefix (k-, m-, g-, t-) with IEC prefix  (ki-,
              mi-, gi- and ti-) respectively.


              TC store rates as a 32-bit unsigned integer in bps internally, so we can specify a max
              rate of 4294967295 bps.


       TIMES  Length  of  time.  Can be specified as a floating point number followed by an optional
              unit:

              s, sec or secs
                     Whole seconds

              ms, msec or msecs
                     Milliseconds

              us, usec, usecs or a bare number
                     Microseconds.


              TC defined its own time unit (equal to microsecond) and stores time values  as  32-bit
              unsigned integer, thus we can specify a max time value of 4294967295 usecs.


       SIZES  Amounts  of  data. Can be specified as a floating point number followed by an optional
              unit:

              b or a bare number
                     Bytes.

              kbit   Kilobits

              kb or k
                     Kilobytes

              mbit   Megabits

              mb or m
                     Megabytes

              gbit   Gigabits

              gb or g
                     Gigabytes


              TC stores sizes internally as 32-bit unsigned integer in byte, so we can specify a max
              size of 4294967295 bytes.


       VALUES Other values without a unit.  These parameters are interpreted as decimal by  default,
              but  you can indicate TC to interpret them as octal and hexadecimal by adding a '0' or
              '0x' prefix respectively.


TC COMMANDS
       The following commands are available for qdiscs, classes and filter:

       add    Add a qdisc, class or filter to a node. For all entities, a parent must be passed, ei‐
              ther by passing its ID or by attaching directly to the root of a device.  When  creat‐
              ing  a  qdisc or a filter, it can be named with the handle parameter. A class is named
              with the classid parameter.


       delete A qdisc can be deleted by specifying its handle, which may also be  'root'.  All  sub‐
              classes  and  their  leaf qdiscs are automatically deleted, as well as any filters at‐
              tached to them.


       change Some entities can be modified 'in place'. Shares the syntax of 'add', with the  excep‐
              tion  that  the  handle  cannot be changed and neither can the parent. In other words,
              change cannot move a node.


       replace
              Performs a nearly atomic remove/add on an existing node id. If the node does not exist
              yet it is created.


       get    Displays a single filter given the interface DEV,  qdisc-id,  priority,  protocol  and
              filter-id.


       show   Displays  all  filters  attached  to  the  given  interface. A valid parent ID must be
              passed.


       link   Only available for qdiscs and performs a replace where the node must exist already.


MONITOR
       The tc utility can monitor events generated by the kernel  such  as  adding/deleting  qdiscs,
       filters or actions, or modifying existing ones.

       The following command is available for monitor :

       file   If  the  file  option is given, the tc does not listen to kernel events, but opens the
              given file and dumps its contents. The file has to be in  binary  format  and  contain
              netlink messages.


OPTIONS
       -b, -b filename, -batch, -batch filename
              read  commands  from  provided  file or standard input and invoke them.  First failure
              will cause termination of tc.


       -force don't terminate tc on errors in batch mode.  If there were any errors during execution
              of the commands, the application return code will be non zero.


       -o, -oneline
              output each record on a single line, replacing line feeds with the '\' character. This
              is convenient when you want to count records with wc(1) or to grep(1) the output.


       -n, -net, -netns <NETNS>
              switches tc to the specified network namespace NETNS.  Actually it just simplifies ex‐
              ecuting of:

              ip netns exec NETNS tc [ OPTIONS ] OBJECT { COMMAND | help }

              to

              tc -n[etns] NETNS [ OPTIONS ] OBJECT { COMMAND | help }


       -N, -Numeric
              Print the number of protocol, scope, dsfield, etc directly instead of converting it to
              human readable name.


       -cf, -conf <FILENAME>
              specifies path to the config file. This option is used in conjunction with  other  op‐
              tions (e.g.  -nm).


       -t, -timestamp
              When tc monitor runs, print timestamp before the event message in format:
                 Timestamp: <Day> <Month> <DD> <hh:mm:ss> <YYYY> <usecs> usec


       -ts, -tshort
              When tc monitor runs, prints short timestamp before the event message in format:
                 [<YYYY>-<MM>-<DD>T<hh:mm:ss>.<ms>]


FORMAT
       The show command has additional formatting options:


       -s, -stats, -statistics
              output more statistics about packet usage.


       -d, -details
              output more detailed information about rates and cell sizes.


       -r, -raw
              output raw hex values for handles.


       -p, -pretty
              for  u32  filter, decode offset and mask values to equivalent filter commands based on
              TCP/IP.  In JSON output, add whitespace to improve readability.


       -iec   print rates in IEC units (ie. 1K = 1024).


       -g, -graph
              shows classes as ASCII graph. Prints generic stats info under each class if -s  option
              was specified. Classes can be filtered only by dev option.


       -c[color][={always|auto|never}
              Configure color output. If parameter is omitted or always, color output is enabled re‐
              gardless of stdout state. If parameter is auto, stdout is checked to be a terminal be‐
              fore enabling color output. If parameter is never, color output is disabled. If speci‐
              fied  multiple  times, the last one takes precedence. This flag is ignored if -json is
              also given.


       -j, -json
              Display results in JSON format.


       -nm, -name
              resolve class name from /etc/iproute2/tc_cls file or from file specified  by  -cf  op‐
              tion. This file is just a mapping of classid to class name:

                 # Here is comment
                 1:40   voip # Here is another comment
                 1:50   web
                 1:60   ftp
                 1:2    home

              tc will not fail if -nm was specified without -cf option but /etc/iproute2/tc_cls file
              does not exist, which makes it possible to pass -nm option for creating tc alias.


       -br, -brief
              Print  only  essential  data needed to identify the filter and action (handle, cookie,
              etc.) and stats. This option is currently only supported by tc filter show and tc  ac‐
              tions ls commands.


EXAMPLES
       tc -g class show dev eth0
           Shows classes as ASCII graph on eth0 interface.

       tc -g -s class show dev eth0
           Shows classes as ASCII graph with stats info under each class.


HISTORY
       tc was written by Alexey N. Kuznetsov and added in Linux 2.2.

SEE ALSO
       tc-basic(8),  tc-bfifo(8),  tc-bpf(8),  tc-cake(8), tc-cbq(8), tc-cgroup(8), tc-choke(8), tc-
       codel(8),  tc-drr(8),  tc-ematch(8),  tc-ets(8),  tc-flow(8),  tc-flower(8),  tc-fq(8),   tc-
       fq_codel(8),  tc-fq_pie(8),  tc-fw(8),  tc-hfsc(7),  tc-hfsc(8), tc-htb(8), tc-mqprio(8), tc-
       pfifo(8), tc-pfifo_fast(8), tc-pie(8),  tc-red(8),  tc-route(8),  tc-sfb(8),  tc-sfq(8),  tc-
       stab(8), tc-tbf(8), tc-tcindex(8), tc-u32(8),
       User  documentation  at http://lartc.org/, but please direct bugreports and patches to: <net‐
       dev AT vger.org>


AUTHOR
       Manpage maintained by bert hubert (ahu AT ds9a.nl)

iproute2                                  16 December 2001                                     TC(8)
TC(8)
NAME SYNOPSIS
-nam[es] ] | [ { -cf | -c[onf] } [ filename ] ] [ -t[imestamp] ] | [ -t[short] | [ -o[neline] -col[or] }
DESCRIPTION QDISCS CLASSES FILTERS QEVENTS CLASSLESS QDISCS CONFIGURING CLASSLESS QDISCS CLASSFUL QDISCS THEORY OF OPERATION NAMING PARAMETERS TC COMMANDS MONITOR OPTIONS
-b, -b filename, -batch, -batch filename -force don't terminate tc on errors in batch mode. If there were any errors during execution -o, -oneline -n, -net, -netns -N, -Numeric -cf, -conf -t, -timestamp -ts, -tshort
FORMAT
-s, -stats, -statistics -d, -details -r, -raw -p, -pretty -iec print rates in IEC units (ie. 1K = 1024). -g, -graph -c[color][={always|auto|never} -j, -json -nm, -name -br, -brief
EXAMPLES HISTORY SEE ALSO
dev AT vger.org>
AUTHOR

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