The sys admin's daily grind: socket statistics
Short Cut
Most sys admins use netstat to find out about the status of network sockets, but Charly knows a good shortcut.
A bunch of parameters control the behavior of netstat. Administrators can also happily combine options so that some netstat calls look like an armadillo has rolled across the keyboard. With ss (like socket statistics), there is an even more specific tool for this purpose. It comes from the iproute2 package [1] – just like its siblings bridge, rtacct, rtmon, tc, ctstat, lnstat, nstat, routef, routel, rtstat, and ip.
Because a running Linux uses several hundred or more ports, ss comes with plenty of filters. I mostly need the -t and -u parameters, which restrict the results to TCP or UDP sockets. Other parameters limit the list to raw, Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP), package, and Unix domain sockets.
Caution: The tool only displays TCP sockets for existing connections by default (established or close_wait). If I also want to see sockets in the lists status – as I usually do – I have to type ss -ta. If I only want the tool to pay attention to listening TCP sockets and suppress all others, I use ss -lt. If I add -p here, I can also see which process opened the socket. I need to use root privileges for this; otherwise, -p has no effect.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.