The sys admin's daily grind – httpstat
My Point of View

Httpstat is a special stopwatch you can use to discover how long web servers take to serve up a static or dynamic HTML page. Visible performance lags indicate optimization potential for the server.
Httpstat is a Python script that wraps itself around cURL. Apart from Python 2 or 3 and cURL, it has no other dependencies. You can retrieve it from the GitHub repository and call it using:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/reorx/httpstat/master/httpstat.py python httpstat.py <URL>
If the Python installer pip
is present on your system, you also can pick up the script and call it with:
pip install httpstat httpstat <URL>
Although you can leave an http://
out of the URL, you cannot omit https://
for web pages secured with TLS.
Figure 1 shows httpstat measuring an unencrypted call. Four milliseconds for a DNS reply is a really good value, but I cheated: The name of the site is cached on my local Dnsmasq. As soon as my computer has to turn to my provider's DNS, the value rises to 80-200ms. The TCP handshake is 22ms, which is about par for the course.

The time the server needs to create the page (Server Processing) shows whether the web server has some tuning potential that I have not tapped. My example is not representative, because instead of HTML, the server simply outputs 301 Moved Permanently, which means I should have called the page using HTTPS. A browser would do that independently, but not cURL.
Figure 2 requests the same page using HTTPS. The lookup and TCP values remain the same, but the TLS Handshake takes forever for this static page. The value can go up to several seconds for a big site with a large volume of dynamic content and advertising banners.
Httpstat is not controllable using command-line parameters because they would be fielded by cURL; however, you can influence the tool with environment variables. The line
export HTTPSTAT_SHOW_SPEED=true
tells httpstat to show how quickly the web page is delivered (e.g., speed_download: 219.6 KiB/s, speed_upload: 0.0 KiB/s). The httpstat website [1] explains all of the variables and has links to the httpstat implementation in Go, Bash, and PHP.
Infos
- httpstat: https://github.com/reorx/httpstat
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Direct Download
Read full article as PDF:
Price $2.95
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
Kubuntu Focus Announces XE Gen 2 Linux Laptop
Another Kubuntu-based laptop has arrived to be your next ultra-portable powerhouse with a Linux heart.
-
MNT Seeks Financial Backing for New Seven-Inch Linux Laptop
MNT Pocket Reform is a tiny laptop that is modular, upgradable, recyclable, reusable, and ships with Debian Linux.
-
Ubuntu Flatpak Remix Adds Flatpak Support Preinstalled
If you're looking for a version of Ubuntu that includes Flatpak support out of the box, there's one clear option.
-
Gnome 44 Release Candidate Now Available
The Gnome 44 release candidate has officially arrived and adds a few changes into the mix.
-
Flathub Vying to Become the Standard Linux App Store
If the Flathub team has any say in the matter, their product will become the default tool for installing Linux apps in 2023.
-
Debian 12 to Ship with KDE Plasma 5.27
The Debian development team has shifted to the latest version of KDE for their testing branch.
-
Planet Computers Launches ARM-based Linux Desktop PCs
The firm that originally released a line of mobile keyboards has taken a different direction and has developed a new line of out-of-the-box mini Linux desktop computers.
-
Ubuntu No Longer Shipping with Flatpak
In a move that probably won’t come as a shock to many, Ubuntu and all of its official spins will no longer ship with Flatpak installed.
-
openSUSE Leap 15.5 Beta Now Available
The final version of the Leap 15 series of openSUSE is available for beta testing and offers only new software versions.
-
Linux Kernel 6.2 Released with New Hardware Support
Find out what's new in the most recent release from Linus Torvalds and the Linux kernel team.