Re: resetting /proc/net/dev && ifconfig shows lots of dropped and errors

[Jesse Molina <jesse@opendreams.net>]

This is a great question that I came across recently and didn't have an 
answer for.  How do you clear ifconfig and netstat counters under GNU/Linux?

I remember Solaris having a netstat flag that will clear some counters, 
but I don't know of anything for Linux.

It's very valuable to be able to clear your counters while 
troubleshooting a problem.  However, I can also see this being a problem 
since many tools might depend upon those counters not being reset.



Dan MacNeil wrote:
> man ifconfig implies that statistics below are got from
>
>     /proc/net/dev
>
> Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:04:75:B3:FD:34
> inet addr:129.63.96.185  Bcast:129.63.96.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
> UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
> RX packets:1743226972 errors:8 dropped:650282 overruns:0 frame:13
> TX packets:2264314 errors:1922321 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:3835827
>           collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
>           RX bytes:2228010437 (2.0 GiB)  TX bytes:1226777797 (1.1 GiB)
>           Interrupt:11 Base address:0xdc00
>
> ...short of rebooting is there a way to reset /proc/net/dev ?
>
> Do the errors and drops seem high?
>
> dropped/recieved is .3%
> errors/transmitted is 84%  !??!!
>
> We haven't noticed any application errors on this machine (dedicated to 
> mailman)
>
> "carrier" means what?
>
> Snooty pointers to the fine manual would be A-OK as well.

--
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