These are the Release Notes for Revision 2.4.0 of netperf:

Things changed in this release:

*) Netperf has been converted to use a configure script.  Yes boys and
   girls, after 12 years of distributing netperf with just a makefile
   I have finally bitten the bullet and cast my fate to autoconf,
   automake, etc.  To get the most basic netperf built all you should
   need to do is:

   cd to the netperf directory
   ./configure
   make
   and perhaps
   make install

   (Note, I've not done much with make install - I'm hemming and
   hawing over what the default installation location should be)

   Please keep in mind that this is the first time I've tried to use
   autoconf et al. I am sure there are things that should be done
   differently and would welcome any and all constructive criticisms.

   I suspect there are several places where I've not fully
   demonstrated being of the autoconf body - particulary as pertains
   to include files being in "#if mumble #endif" blocks.  Fixes would
   be most welcome.

*) Speaking of becomming one with various GNU tools, work on a new
   netperf manual has begun, with the source being a texinfo document
   that is converted to "all" the other formats.  This resides in doc/
   .

*) The platform-specific parts of CPU utilization measurement have
   been broken-out into separate .c files and selected at configure
   time a la the pcap_mumble files of tcpdump.  This makes
   src/netlib.c _much_ easier to read and the addition of new CPU
   utilization mechanisms much easier.

*) New HP-UX 11.23 and Solaris 10 CPU utilization measurement
   mechanisms (called pstatnew and kstat10 respectively) need no
   calibration step.  Both have variations on microstate accounting.
   HP-UX 11.23 still identifies the method in the headers as 'P' for
   pstat.  The kstat10 method is identified as 'M' for Microstate.

   Scripts which make calibration runs with LOC_CPU and REM_CPU may
   continue to do so, they will just run forty to eighty seconds
   faster on platforms with the calibration-free CPU util mechanisms.

*) Automatic detection of CPU utilization mechanism for HP-UX, Linux,
   AIX, *BSD and Solaris.  If you do not like what the configure
   script selects, you can use --enable-cpuutil=<foo> .

*) The "times" (aka 'T') CPU utilization mechanism has been removed.
   It was never very accurate at all, only showing CPU time charged to
   the process, and with interrupts and other network processing it is
   rarely chaged to a or the correct process.  It and other methods
   may remain in the format_cpu_method() routine of src/netlib.c for
   historical purposes only.

*) CAVEAT - the "kstat" mechanism is KNOWN TO BE BOGUS for Solaris.
   It does not include time spent processing interrupts, and
   networking benchmarks will generate at least a few of those...
   This affects _ALL_ versions of Solaris with kstat.

   So, do NOT trust any CPU util figures where netperf says the method
   was 'K' for kstat - unless perhaps it reports 100% CPU util.

   Solaris 10 takes a step in the right direction adding microstate
   accounting similar to what netperf uses on HP-UX 11.23.  HOWEVER,
   Solaris 10's accounting for user/kernel/idle is done in _parallel_
   with interrupt, which means they overlap. Doubleplusungood. Netperf
   attempts to compensate for that with some handwaving
   (src/netcpu_kstat10.c)

*) Initial support for SCTP has been added with the SCTP_STREAM and
   SCTP_RR tests.  These tests use the libsctp mechanisms for
   increased portability.  It has been explained that libsctp should
   not impart all that much overhead and it does make things rather
   simpler.

*) Netperf now uses getaddrinfo() to resolve hostnames and IP
   addresses. A replacement getaddrinfo() is provided for those
   platforms where the configure script cannot tell that getaddrinfo
   is present.   

   There are cases where a host's getaddrinfo call may return results
   that ignore the hints for protocol.  Netperf catches these and
   reports a warning so you can pester your OS source for fixes.

   Solaris getaddrinfo() seems to return results with SCTP procotol
   cleared.

   Mac OS X getaddrinfo botches when the service/port is specified as
   "0" so one must specify a port number on the netperf command line.

   AIX 5.something getaddrinfo has a different but similar problem
   with "0" as a port/service name as well.

   Linux 2.6 and HP-UX 11i getaddrinfo seem to be fine - at least as
   far as netperf goes :)

*) A "Demo Mode" has been added to the main BSD Sockets/TCP/UDP tests:
   TCP_STREAM, TCP_MAERTS, TCP_SENDFILE, TCP_RR, TCP_CC, TCP_CRR and
   UDP_RR. It has not been added to UDP_STREAM.  This mode is enabled
   with --enable-demo when configuring netperf, which activates a
   global "-D" option.  By default, -D will cause interim results
   (throughput or transactions/s only, not CPU util) from the
   netperf's perspective to be emitted no sooner than once per second.
   An optional parameter can specify another interval in units
   (floating point) of seconds:

      -D 1.5

   will make the reporting interval at least 1.5 seconds.

   This mode makes no use of explicit interval timers since that can
   be so, well fun on different platforms.  Instead, an initial guess
   of how many units of work must be done to consume the desired
   reporting interval is made, and that guess is refined throughout
   the entire test.  If something happens to dramatically slow-down
   the test, the reproting interval may become must larger for a few
   intervals.  When things speed-up it is detected very quickly.  As
   with the --enable-historgram support, if gethrtime() is available
   on the platform, it will be used in lieu of gettimeofday().  In any
   case, the number of calls to gettimeofday()/gethrtime() is much,
   Much, MUCH smaller than for --enable-histogram so while there may
   be a measurable effect on the results, it should be rather small.

*) The global -H option has been enhanced to take an optional address
   family specification for the control connection:

   -H <remote>,<family>

   Unlike other comma-separated options, where specifying only one
   thing will set both, here specifying only one thing will be
   ass-u-me-d to be the <remote> and will leave <family> defaulted
   (AF_UNSPEC).   Family can be specified as "4" or "inet" for
   AF_INET, "6" or "inet6" for AF_INET6.

*) A new global -L option has been added to specify the local name/IP
   and/or address family for the control connection:

   -L <local>,<family>

   Unlike other comma-separated options, where specifying only one
   thing will set both, here specifying only one thing will be
   ass-u-me-d to be the <local> and will leave <family> defaulted
   (AF_UNSPEC).  Family can be specified as "4" or "inet" for
   AF_INET, "6" or "inet6" for AF_INET6.

*) Test-specific -H and -L options are present for the TCP, UDP and
   SCTP tests, which are now (intended to be) IP protocol version
   agnostic.

*) Global -4 and -6 options will set the both the local and remote
   address family to either AF_INET or AF_INET6 respectively.

*) Test-specific -4 and -6 options have been added for TCP, UDP and
   SCTP tests.

*) Since the basic TCP UDP and SCTP tests are no longer IPv4-only, the
   nettest_ipv6.[ch] files are only included in the source
   distribution for historical interest.

*) The main test banners for the TCP, UDP and SCTP tests have been
   enhanced to give both local and remote addressing information for
   the data connection.

*) Compilation under Windows is likely FUBAR at this point.  I _hope_
   to start trying to do builds under the DDK soon, but am not sure
   when I'll be able to start.  Any and all assistance you can give
   there would be most welcome.

*) Various and sundry fixes.  TCP_RR should no longer go into an
   infinite loop when you abort netperf.  I'm sure there are others.

*) Unix domain socket tests are compiled-in with --enable-unix=yes at
   configure time.

*) DLPI tests are compiled-in with --enable-dlpi=yes at configure
   time.

*) XTI tests are compiled-in with --enable-xti=yes at configure time. 

Things not changed in this release:

*) Seems like everything has changed :)

These are the Release Notes for Revision 2.3pl2 of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) One can bind netperf or netserver to specific CPUs with the -T
   option. This is a generalization of some HP-UX and netserver specific
   work from 2.3pl1.

*) Extend the kludge to workaround the Linux setsockopt/getsockopt
   bizzarreness to the socket buffer sizes for the remote side in
   addition to the local side.

*) Fix the lack of initialization of times_up in recv_tcp_maerts()
   that caused confidence intervals to fail miserably.

*) Other misc fixes - than you to all of you who sent them.

These are the Release Notes for revision 2.3pl1 of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) The bind() call in create_data_socket() in the file nettest_bsd.c
   is no longer conditional on the user's specifying an IP address or
   port number to which the data socket should be bound.  This fixes
   the "connection refused" errors in the UDP tests.

*) Some experimental code to allow one to specify a CPU to which the
   remote netserver should be bound.  This is intended to allow one to
   get greater certainty (as in confidence intervals) on SMP
   systems. At present the functionality is HP-UX specific.
   Submittals of changes for a more general approach are welcomed.

These are the Release Notes for revision 2.3 of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) The user can now specify local and/or remote port numbers for the
   data connection using the -P test-specific option.  This is to
   support those folks who want to run netperf through those evil,
   end-to-end-breaking things known as firewalls... :)  This changes
   the format of some of the control messages, hence the bump in the
   update number in the VUF. While it may be possible to mix 2.3 and
   pre-2.3 netperf and netserver, it is not supported.

*) The user can now specify local and/or remote IP addresses for the
   data connection using the -I test-specific option.  This is to
   support those folks who want to run netperf through those evil,
   end-to-end-breaking things known as firewalls... :) This changes
   the format of some of the control messages, hence the bump in the
   update number in the VUF. While it may be possible to mix 2.3 and
   pre-2.3 netperf and netserver, it is not supported.

*) Set DL_mumble  message priorities in the DLPI tests

*) Fix error return check for getaddrinfo()

*) Those systems with gethrtime() can define -DHAVE_GETHRTIME to use
   gethrtime() instead of gettimeofday() and reduce the measurement
   overhead when enabling the -DHISTOGRAM functionality.

*) The default for -DHISTOGRAM compilation now adds a UNIT_USEC and
   TEN_USEC row and renames TENTH_MSEC to HUNDRED_USEC.  If you want
   the old behaviour add -DOLD_HISTOGRAM to CFLAGS.

*) Add missing '!' in the recv_udp*_stream so we recognize the end of 
   a timed test correctly.

*) Replace "||" with "&&" to fix an infinite loop in
   recv_tcp_conn_rr() most likely introduced in 2.2pl5. 

*) Code has been added to kludge around the bug in Linux getsockopt()
   where it almost always returns twice the value for which one
   asks unlike virtually every other stack on the face of the
   planet. This was doing some unpleasant things to tests in which
   confidence intervals were requested. 

Things not changed in this release

*) Lots :)

These are the Release Notes for revision 2.2pl5 of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) Improved (perhaps even usable :) support for Windows, including
compilation and run on Win64.

*) Fixes for MacOS X and FreeBSD

Things not changed in this release

*) Specifying the port number(s) for the data connection

These are the Release Notes for Revision 2.2pl4 of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) USE_SYSCTL available on suitable FreeBSD releases to measure CPU
   utilization without having to resort to -DUSE_LOOPER.

*) Include Solaris 9 with the Linux sendfile path under -DHAVE_SENDFILE

This still outstanding in this release

*) Knowing why signals are not interrupting socket calls under
   OpenVMS.  A quick try to use threads for timing a la Win32 worked,
   but also cut performance in half.  Any and all assistance in this
   area would be most welcome.

These are the Release Notes for revisoin 2.2pl3 of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) I started practicing what I preach and will set SO_REUSEADDR before
   netserver tries to bind to its well-known port.

*) Initial port to OpenVMS.  This includes support for the OVMS
   Auxilliary server (inetd replacement).  See README.ovms for more
   details on what is involved in compiling and running netperf under
   OpenVMS.

*) Testname comparisons are now case insensitive.  This is a side
   effect of OpenVMS downshifting commandlines to lowercase.  I made
   the change and decided it was OK to keep it that way, even though
   for OpenVMS one _has_ to set the right defines to disable that
   downshifting or the command-line options will not work. For example
   "-H" will become "-h" which isn't quite the same thing...

*) Misc fixes for nettest_ipv6.c.

*) Support for sendfile() under Linux

Thins I would like to have changed but did not know how or didn't have
time:

*) Allow netserver to run as a standalone daemon under OpenVMS
*) Allow netserver to run as a standalone daemon under Windows
*) Rediscover an inetd-like facility for Windows
*) Figure-out how to get low-overhead, accurate, per-CPU utilization
   figures under OpenVMS
*) Get the UDP_RR and UDP_STREAM tests to work under OpenVMS, and get
   the TCP_RR test to work based on time rather than transaction
   count.  There is some bug (possibly in OpenVMS?) where the SIGALRM
   fires, but a socket call will not return an EINTR.

Things that changed prior to this release:

*) Addition of the TCP_MAERTS test - this is a TCP_STREAM test where
   the data flows from the netserver to the netperf rather than from
   the netperf to the netserver.  This can be useful in those
   situations where netperf (netserver) is installed on a remote
   system, but the tester has no shell access and wishes to get
   performance data for the path from netserver to netperf.

These are the Release Notes for the 2.2 revision of netperf:

Things changed in this release

*) Various and sundry bugs fixed (in theory) for platforms such as
   FreeBSD and Linux. If I left-out your bug fix, it was purely
   accidental - my mind has a very small cache, and sometimes I will
   "lose" email in the shuffle.

*) Initial support for sendfile() on HP-UX. This test will use the
   sendfile() call instead of send() to send data to the
   remote. Netperf "lies" to netserver and calls it a TCP_STREAM test
   since what netserver needs to do is exactly the same. A future
   patch may change that and simply have netserver call the same
   routine for both test types. Kudos to Charles Harris for the
   initial prototype.

*) The Fore ATM API and HiPPI tests have been dropped from the
   distribution. 

Things I would have liked to have changed, but did not have time for:

*) Conversion of the source and makefile to use the GNU configure/autoconf 
   utility to make it easier for folks to build by not having to edit
   makefiles... You will notice that I have started to switch from
   "DO_MUMBLE" to "HAVE_MUMBLE"

as always - happy benchmarking,

rick jones <raj@cup.hp.com>

---------------------------------------------------------------------

These are the Release Notes for the 2.1pl3 revision of netperf:

*) An OBOB (Off By One Bug) in netlib.c that was causing a core dump
   on Irix should be fixed.

*) Irix systems should now be able to determine the number of CPU's
   present automagically (code from outside, not tested yet because I
   have no MP Irix systems at my disposal)

*) An alpha version of a TCP_CC test has been added - this is a
   TCP_CRR test with out the "RR."

*) The -Ae has been removed from the default makefile. If someone has
   a nice way to automagically generate the correct makefile for
   different platforms I would like to learn how.

happy benchmarking,

rick jones <raj@cup.hp.com>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

These are the Release Notes for the 2.1 revision of netperf:

Things Changed in this release:

*) The XTI (Version 2 of the spec) tests are now documented in the
   manual. 

*) The TCP_CRR (Connect Request/Response) test is now documented in
   the manual, including a description of how it mimics the behaviour
   of http (the protocol underlying the WWW).

*) Support for for Windows NT 3.51 OS in the BSD Sockets tests (ok, so
   they are really Winsock in that case :). Other test suites may be
   ported as required/desired/appropriate. 

*) Tests for TCP and UDP, using the IPv6 extensions to BSD sockets are
   included in this release. They are included by adding -DUSE_IPv6 to
   the makefile and recompiling.

*) Support for a "long long" datatype should only be required for
   -DUSE_PSTAT compilation which is an HP-UX only thing. The
   *unbundled* HP compilers from at least "HP92453-01 A.09.61 HP C
   Compiler" and later should have the required support. The bundled
   compiler may not. GCC should work - check the archives listed in
   the comp.sys.hp.hpux FAQ for copies. The FAQ is archived on
   rtfm.mit.edu under the path pub/usenet/comp.sys.hp.hpux.

*) A "proper" fix for double data type alignment has been included.

*) A new script is included with this release which can be used to
   measure aggregate TCP_RR performance (multiple, concurrent
   instances of the TCP_RR test). A related use of this script would
   be measuring MP scaling. A single-byte TCP_RR test is good for this
   purpose for two reasons:

      1) it excercises the control/protocol paths heavily without
         using much in the way of data copies which may be easier to
         scale.
      2) most systems can easily saturate cards with bandwidth, but
         not so easily with request/response

   Of course, feedback on this is most welcome.

*) When measuring CPU utilization, the units for service demand have
   been changed from milliseconds (designated ms) of CPU per unit (KB
   or Transaction) to microseconds (desginated us).

*) For accurate reporting of service demand, netperf needs to know the
   number of CPU's present on a system. On some systems (HP-UX), this
   is automatic. For others (All), it is necessary to add a global "-n
   <numcpu>" option to both netperf and netserver.

   !! IF THIS IS LEFT-OUT CPU UTILIZATION AND SERVICE DEMAND FOR !!
	     !! MULTI-PROCESSOR SYSTEMS WILL BE WRONG. !!

   If you know of ways to programatically determine the number of
   active CPUs on a system, please let the author Rick Jones
   <raj@cup.hp.com> know.

*) other things I've probably forgotten :)

Things Not Changed in this release:

*) The ancillary test suites are essentially unchanged - DLPI,
   HiPPI/LLA, Unix Domain, and Fore ATM API. Unless there is much
   interest expressed in these tests, 2.1 may be the last release in
   which they are included. The order of retirement would likely be
   Unix Domain, HiPPI/LLA, Fore ATM API, and then DLPI.

Miscelaneous Comments:

*) The -DUSE_LOOPER CPU utilization _seems_ to be nice and low-impact
   on HP-UX, Digital Unix, and IRIX. It does not yet seem to be
   low-impact on Solaris (I need an example of priocntl usage), AIX
   (setpri only works if you are root), and NT (not sure of the
   reason). Help with those problems would be most appreciated.
