(Updated 8.3.2003 based on version 1.3)
What is vnStat
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In short, vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor that uses the /proc -filesystem to get the needed information. This means that vnStat wont actually be sniffing any traffic. See the webpage for few 'screenshots'.
Getting started
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First you should install vnStat. See the INSTALL file, it contains all needed information for the installing process. Users of version 1.0 should see the UPGRADE file first.
Available options
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A list of commonly used options is available with 'vnstat --help'. The complete list can be accessed with 'vnstat --longhelp'. See the man(1) page for option explanations.
Usage tips
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vnStat has few settings that can be changed before compiling by editing vnstat.h that's included in the src directory. There's comments included so see the file with some plain text editor and recompile (and reinstall) after any changes.
However, it's likely that someone will ask anyway how to change the date format so here's a short howto about that. First go to the src directory and open vnstat.h. Search lines 21-23, those should look like these:
#define DFORMAT "%d.%m."
#define MFORMAT "%b '%y"
#define TFORMAT "%d.%m.%y"
In order to get the date format to look like what's used for example in the US change those lines to:
#define DFORMAT "%m/%d"
#define MFORMAT "%b '%y"
#define TFORMAT "%m/%d/%y"
and run 'make' (or 'make single') after that in that same src directory or continue with the install procedure if you were wise enough to read this file before installing. :)
Next, copy the binary over the old one
cp vnstat /usr/bin/vnstat
or some other path that you've used. Changing the date format wont affect the database in any way.
Contacting the author
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email: Teemu Toivola <tst at iki dot fi>
irc: Vergo (IRCNet)
forum: http://forums.humdi.net/
The current version of vnStat is always available from http://humdi.net/vnstat/