@(#)How to read the output of netstat -k 14 AUG 2000 Rob Thomas robt@cymru.com
How to read the output of netstat -k

One of the most powerful, yet least utilized options for netstat is the
-k flag.  The "k" stands for kstat, a facility for perusing the kernel
statistics.

Early releases of Solaris (< 2.6) did not allow you to specify the inter-
face.  However, with Solaris 2.6 and higher, you may specifiy the inter-
face on the command line.  Below is a sample, as well as an explanation
of each variable in the output.  I have expanded the description provided
by Sun when I felt it was less than self-explanatory.

example: netstat -k hme0

hme0:
ipackets 85402 ierrors 0 opackets 470 oerrors 0 collisions 1 
defer 0 framing 0 crc 0 sqe 0 code_violations 0 len_errors 0 
drop 0 buff 0 oflo 0 uflo 0 missed 0 tx_late_collisions 0 
retry_error 0 first_collisions 0 nocarrier 0 inits 7 nocanput 0 
allocbfail 0 runt 0 jabber 0 babble 0 tmd_error 0 tx_late_error 0 
rx_late_error 0 slv_parity_error 0 tx_parity_error 0 rx_parity_error 0 
slv_error_ack 0 tx_error_ack 0 rx_error_ack 0 tx_tag_error 0 
rx_tag_error 0 eop_error 0 no_tmds 0 no_tbufs 0 no_rbufs 0 
rx_late_collisions 0 


ipackets           packets received 
ierrors            malformed packets received 
opackets           packets sent  
oerrors            output errors 
collisions         transmit collisions for a given packet  
defer		   deferred output transmissions ( but still sent )
framing            packets seen with framing or alignment errors
crc                packets received with CRC (checksum) errors
sqe                SQE test  errors 
code_violations    code violation errors 
len_errors         rx len errors (packet too large)
buff               buffer errors recv packet sizes > buffer size
drop               recv packets dropped
oflo               number of recv overflow due to a busy backplane
uflo               number of xmit underflow due to a busy backplane
missed             input packets recv missed
tx_late_collisions late collisions recv
retry_error        number xmit retry failures (for Ethernet, this is > 16
                   retries)
first_collisions   first collisions 
nocarrier          carrier (link) lost since system boot
inits              hardware has been initialized by an ioctl call
nocanput           errors trying to send packets upstream, canput() failed
allocbfail         times driver ran out of transmit buffers, allocb() failed
runt               recv runt (packet size < 64 bytes) packets, often the pro-
                   duct of collisions
jabber             jabber (improper electrical signal) errors
babble             babble (host transmitting beyond the time limit) errors
tmd_error          chained tx desc. errors
tx_late_error      SBUS tx late error
rx_late_error      SBUS rx late error
slv_parity_error   slave parity errors
tx_parity_error    tx parity errors 
rx_parity_error    rx parity errors 
slv_error_ack      slave error acks
tx_error_ack       tx error acks
rx_error_ack       rx error acks
tx_tag_error       tx tag error
rx_tag_error       rx tag error
eop_error          eop error
no_tmds            out of tmds
no_tbufs           out of xmit buffers
no_rbufs           out of recv buffers
rx_late_collisions recv late collisions, generally caused by exceeding the
                   maximum cable length dictates or faulty hardware

Rob Thomas, robt@cymru.com
http://www.enteract.com/~robt