Install bonnie++ with Homebrew, Nix, zypper, apt, dnf, pacman

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• bon_csv2html
• bon_csv2txt
• bonnie++
• generate_randfile
• getc_putc
• getc_putc_helper
• zcav

Project history

The original Bonnie was a small Unix filesystem benchmark by Tim Bray. Bonnie++ reused that lineage but expanded the test model: large-file database-like I/O, small-file creation/read/delete workloads, CSV and HTML result tooling, and zcav for measuring performance across disk zones.

Russell Coker's official Bonnie++ page, copyright 2001, states that Bonnie++ is based on Tim Bray's Bonnie and explains why it reports several measurements rather than a single number. The same page tracks the classic 1.0x release line, including portability fixes, direct I/O support, zcav improvements, and reporting changes.

Coker's later project page documents the 1.90 through 2.00a era. That stream added threading, latency reporting, per-character I/O test changes, better CSV and HTML handling, large directory fixes, GCC compatibility fixes, direct I/O, NVMe-oriented random seek options, and an attempted 2.x rewrite away from the old fork-based model.

Adoption history

Bonnie++ became a standard Unix storage-benchmark package because it is simple, scriptable, and old enough to have been used across multiple storage generations: spinning disks, RAID arrays, SSDs, and NVMe devices. The input package metadata lists Homebrew, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Nix, Pacman, and zypper coverage, showing broad distribution adoption.

Its adoption is strongest among system administrators, filesystem developers, and distribution users who need a packaged benchmark that can run on real filesystems without a large harness. The related zcav tool is especially tied to older disk behavior because it can expose zone-dependent throughput across a drive.

How it is used

Bonnie++ is used to run repeatable filesystem tests that separate sequential I/O, random seeks, metadata-heavy small-file operations, and reporting. Its output is often captured as CSV and converted by companion tools such as bon_csv2html or bon_csv2txt for comparison across machines and filesystems.

The maintainer explicitly warns against a single overall score, which is part of the tool's culture: users are expected to decide which metric matters for their workload, such as maildir-like small files, database-like large files, or disk-zone variation.

Why package nerds care

Bonnie++ is package-nerd gold because it is one of the old, durable benchmark utilities that distributions keep carrying long after newer benchmark suites appear. It exposes how Unix packaging preserves small specialist tools that remain useful because they are portable, scriptable, and familiar.

It also represents a practical packaging challenge from the pre-modern-build-system era: multiple helper executables, aging C++ code, portability fixes for compilers and operating systems, and release tarballs maintained from a personal upstream site rather than a public forge. That combination makes it historically interesting to maintainers even when the command-line surface is simple.

Timeline

• 2001: Russell Coker's Bonnie++ page is copyrighted and describes Bonnie++ as based on Tim Bray's Bonnie.
• 2002-era 1.03 releases: GCC 3.2 compatibility and zcav write support appear in the classic release list.
• 1.04: Release adds larger I/O tests, more file-creation test coverage, and Solaris direct I/O support.
• 1.90a: The later release stream adds basic threading and changes CSV format.
• 1.93: Adds a per-character I/O test program for linux-kernel mailing-list users.
• 1.95: Adds direct I/O support and drops NT and OS/2 build support.
• 1.98: Adds NVMe-oriented random seek controls and KiB/MiB/GiB reporting.
• 2.00a: Starts a rewrite toward a threaded Bonnie++ 2.x design.

Related projects

• Bonnie by Tim Bray is the direct predecessor.
• zcav began as a separate package and is included as a disk-zone benchmark companion.
• Postal, another Russell Coker benchmark, is linked from the Bonnie++ page as a mail-server benchmark and related hard-drive test.

Sources

• https://doc.coker.com.au/projects/bonnie
• https://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++
• source_facts.package-manager