install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install flowgrind

provider-native install command

overview

Package summary

TCP measurement tool, similar to iperf or netperf

Project links

Commands and aliases

flowgrind
flowgrind-stop
flowgrindd

history

Project history and usage

Flowgrind is an advanced TCP traffic generator and measurement tool for benchmarking TCP/IP stacks on Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS.

Project history

The project's NEWS file records an initial 0.1 release in November 2006. Its README positions Flowgrind as a distributed TCP measurement tool, similar in broad purpose to iperf and netperf but with a controller and daemon architecture.

Through the 2010s, official release notes added traffic-generation features, libpcap dumping, FreeBSD support, IPv6 support, GPLv3 licensing, Mac OS X support, UUID-based daemon identification, and compatibility fixes. The project later moved its website to flowgrind.github.io.

Adoption history

Flowgrind has been packaged as a niche but durable network-measurement utility for operators and researchers who need controlled TCP experiments across multiple endpoints. Its official README emphasizes third-party tests, parallel flows, transport-layer metrics, and optional separation of control and test traffic.

How it is used

A normal test starts flowgrindd on endpoint machines and runs flowgrind from a controller host with source and destination hosts passed through -H. The controller can schedule multiple flows, collect periodic results, and display measurements from the daemons.

Flowgrind measures throughput, interarrival time, round-trip time, block counts, transactions per second, and, where supported by the OS, TCP stack details such as congestion window and slow-start threshold.

Why package nerds care

Flowgrind is package-interesting because it sits beside iperf and netperf but exposes a more distributed RPC-style model. Packaging it means shipping both the controller and daemon binaries plus native dependencies such as xmlrpc-c, uuid, libpcap, and GSL.

Timeline

2006: Flowgrind 0.1 initial release.
2010: Flowgrind 0.5 adds libpcap support and advanced traffic-generation dependencies.
2013: Flowgrind 0.6 adds full IPv6 support for control and test connections.
2014: Flowgrind 0.7.1 changes license to GPLv3; 0.7.5 re-adds Mac OS X support.
2016: Flowgrind 0.8.0 introduces UUID daemon identification and many bug fixes.
2021: Flowgrind 0.8.1 moves the website to flowgrind.github.io; 0.8.2 updates packaging and version fixes.

Related projects

The official README explicitly names iperf3 and netperf as related TCP measurement tools.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`flowgrind`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`flowgrind-stop`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`flowgrindd`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-08-03

manager version0.8.2

manager updated

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:flowgrind
Version	0.8.2
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://flowgrind.github.io
Repository	https://github.com/flowgrind/flowgrind
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/flowgrind.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
curated package history
pkgdb category and tag curation

Install flowgrind with Homebrew