bmon

What bmon is

bmon is a bandwidth monitor and rate estimator for capturing network statistics and viewing them for monitoring and debugging. It runs on Linux and macOS, with an interactive curses interface as well as programmable text output for use in scripts. Its 5.0 release notes describe graphs rendered with Braille cells, JSON output, filters for traffic control ingress and egress, and IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in additional information. Installation guidance covers Fedora and CentOS 7 packages, building on Debian/Ubuntu and CentOS 6, and macOS installation through Homebrew or compiling from source. The release notes also mention continuous-integration builds for Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, and fixes for FreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, and OpenBSD builds. The repository contains MIT and BSD license files. bmon is free, with a listed plan at no cost. It does not provide application monitoring, user monitoring, SNMP monitoring, or bandwidth alerts.

Who it suits

bmon suits people who need to inspect network statistics on Linux or macOS, especially those who want either a terminal interface or output for scripts. Its listed capabilities focus on bandwidth and traffic monitoring rather than application, user, or SNMP monitoring.

Getting started

1. Open the bmon project page on GitHub.
2. Choose the documented installation route for your system.
3. On macOS, use Homebrew or compile from source.
4. On Fedora or CentOS 7, follow the package installation instructions.
5. On Debian/Ubuntu or CentOS 6, follow the build instructions.

Verdict

bmon offers bandwidth monitoring and rate estimation through an interactive interface or script-friendly output. Its listed scope does not include application, user, or SNMP monitoring, or bandwidth alerts.