Use bps instead of Bps in network monitoring

Hmm, really?

wget, curl, rsync all show bytes-per-second by default.

I'm quite happy with bytes-per-second.

Would you like a configuration parameter to switch everything to bits? If so, what all would you want to see in bits?

A configurable parameters will be fine. But I want to argue the
Bps/bps as following:

wget/curl/rsync shows bytes make sense because they mainly deal with
"Files" which usually save on disk that being present in bytes.

How ever, monitoring network traffic is usually represent by bps. For
example an adsl line have 2Mbps limitation, your shared vps have
200Gbps traffic quota, and when you shaping your traffic using TC, it
still in bps. All network monitoring tools report in bps.

So here you can see, Bps/bps usually serve different purpose and
believe it will be more nature to see them in bps.

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 2:58 PM, Dustin Kirkland
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Hmm, really?
>
> wget, curl, rsync all show bytes-per-second  by default.
>
> I'm quite happy with bytes-per-second.
>
> Would you like a configuration parameter to switch everything to bits?
> If so, what all would you want to see in bits?
>
> ** Changed in: byobu
>       Status: New => Invalid
>
> --
> Use bps instead of Bps in network monitoring
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/578377
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in byobu: Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> The network monitoring should use bps (bit per second) by default, althrough it needs the value to be mutiply by 8.
>
> It's a lot of userful to see it in bps since almost all network restrictions come in bps not byte-per-second value.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/byobu/+bug/578377/+subscribe
>

Okay, I'll add a configuration variable, NETWORK_UNITS=bits|bytes in ~/.byobu/status.

I don't think I'm going to change the default, though, as I'm simply matching the output of other popular tools, such as curl, wget, rsync, apt-get, etc.

This bug was fixed in the package byobu - 3.2-0ubuntu1

---------------
byobu (3.2-0ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * usr/share/byobu/keybindings/f-keys: resize the screen as part of the
    F5/refresh, LP: #619899
  * usr/bin/byobu-launcher: don't launch if in a dumb terminal, LP: #612886
  * usr/lib/byobu/network, usr/share/man/man1/byobu.1: allow for
    configuration of network traffic in [kM]ps, LP: #578377
  * configure.ac: POSIX sed doesn't include -i option, LP: #619328, #622640
  * usr/bin/byobu-janitor: improve dash replacement in status config,
    LP: #598488
  * usr/bin/byobu-janitor: fix upgrades where one's window list might have
    motd+shell, LP: #589715
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:34:33 -0400

FWIW, I also found the default to be a questionable choice, as well as the justification for it - ie the tools mentioned aren't really equivalent to this one - they're tools for transferring files, not for monitoring network bandwidth.

However, I did a quick search for 'bandwidth monitoring tools' and turned up this page:

https://www.binarytides.com/linux-commands-monitor-network/

which listed these tools:

1. Overall bandwidth - nload, bmon, slurm, bwm-ng, cbm, speedometer, netload

They all seemed to be equivalent to this one so I figured I'd see what they use by default.

bits: nload, bmon
bytes: slurm, bwm-ng, cbm, speedometer, netload

I would imagine that the use of bytes is more due to ifconfig output also using bytes:

        TX packets 161117 bytes 34768685 (34.7 MB)

or they use the same source.

Anyway, while not the result I was hoping for, it seems there is more precedent for bytes than bits :(
At least we can change it, so it matches what our ISPs quote :)