SYNOPSIS

       pv [OPTION] [FILE]...
       pv [-h|-l|-V]

DESCRIPTION

       pv  allows  a  user  to see the progress of data through a pipeline, by
       giving information such as time  elapsed,  percentage  completed  (with
       progress  bar),  current  throughput  rate, total data transferred, and
       ETA.

       To use it, insert it in a pipeline  between  two  processes,  with  the
       appropriate  options.  Its standard input will be passed through to its
       standard output and progress will be shown on standard error.

       pv will copy each supplied FILE in turn to  standard  output  (-  means
       standard  input),  or  if no FILEs are specified just standard input is
       copied. This is the same behaviour as cat(1).

       A simple example to watch how  quickly  a  file  is  transferred  using
       nc(1):

              pv file | nc -w 1 somewhere.com 3000

       A similar example, transferring a file from another process and passing
       the expected size to pv:

              cat file | pv -s 12345 | nc -w 1 somewhere.com 3000

       A more complicated example using numeric output to feed into  the  dia-
       log(1) program for a full-screen progress display:

              (tar cf - . \
               | pv -n -s `du -sb . | awk '{print $1}'` \
               | gzip -9 > out.tgz) 2>&1 \
              | dialog --gauge 'Progress' 7 70

       Frequent  use of this third form is not recommended as it may cause the
       programmer to overheat.

OPTIONS

       pv takes many options, which are divided into display switches,  output
       modifiers, and general options.

DISPLAY SWITCHES

       If  no display switches are specified, pv behaves as if -p, -t, -e, -r,
       and -b had been given (i.e. everything is switched on). Otherwise, only
              previous transfer rates and the total data  size,  how  long  it
              will  be  before completion.  This option will have no effect if
              the total data size cannot be determined.

       -r, --rate
              Turn the rate counter on.  This will display the current rate of
              data transfer.

       -b, --bytes
              Turn  the  total  byte  counter on.  This will display the total
              amount of data transferred so far.

       -n, --numeric
              Numeric output.   Instead  of  giving  a  visual  indication  of
              progress,  pv  will give an integer percentage, one per line, on
              standard error, suitable for piping (via convoluted redirection)
              into  dialog(1).   Note  that  -f is not required if -n is being
              used.

       -q, --quiet
              No output.  Useful if the -L option is being used on its own  to
              just limit the transfer rate of a pipe.

OUTPUT MODIFIERS

       -L RATE, --rate-limit RATE
              Limit  the  transfer  to  a maximum of RATE bytes per second.  A
              suffix of "k", "m", "g", or "t" can be added to denote kilobytes
              (*1024), megabytes, and so on.

       -W, --wait
              Wait  until  the  first byte has been transferred before showing
              any progress information or calculating any ETAs.  Useful if the
              program  you  are  piping  to or from requires extra information
              before it starts, eg piping data into gpg(1) or mcrypt(1)  which
              require a passphrase before data can be processed.

       -s SIZE, --size SIZE
              Assume  the total amount of data to be transferred is SIZE bytes
              when calculating percentages and ETAs.   The  same  suffixes  of
              "k", "m" etc can be used as with -L.

       -i SEC, --interval SEC
              Wait  SEC  seconds  between  updates.   The default is to update
              every second.  Note that this can be a decimal such as 0.1.

       -w WIDTH, --width WIDTH
              Assume the terminal is WIDTH characters wide, instead of  trying
              to work it out (or assuming 80 if it cannot be guessed).

       -H HEIGHT, --height HEIGHT
              Use cursor positioning escape sequences instead  of  just  using
              carriage  returns.  This is useful in conjunction with -N (name)
              if you are using multiple pv  invocations  in  a  single,  long,
              pipeline.

GENERAL OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print  a usage message on standard output and exit successfully.

       -l, --license
              Print details of the program's license on  standard  output  and
              exit successfully.

       -V, --version
              Print  version  information on standard output and exit success-
              fully.

AUTHORS

       Andrew Wood <andrew.wood@ivarch.com>
       http://www.ivarch.com/

       Cedric Delfosse <cedric@debian.org>
       (Debian package maintainer)

       Eduardo Aguiar <eduardo.oliveira@sondabrasil.com.br>
       (provided Portuguese [Brazilian] translation)

       Stephane Lacasse <tecknojunky@tecknojunky.com>
       (provided French translation)
       http://www.tecknojunky.com/

       Marcos Kreinacke <public@kreinacke.com>
       (provided German translation)

       Bartosz Fenski <fenio@o2.pl>
       (provided Polish translation, along with Krystian Zubel)
       http://skawina.eu.org/

       Joshua Jensen
       (reported RPM installation bug)

       Boris Folgmann
       (reported cursor handling bug)
       http://www.folgmann.com/en/

       Mathias Gumz
       (reported NLS bug)

SEE ALSO

       cat(1), dialog(1)

       The  documentation  for  pv is also maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If
       the info and pv programs are properly installed at your site, the  com-
       mand

              info pv

       should give you access to the Texinfo manual.

LICENSE

       This is free software, distributed under the ARTISTIC license.



Linux                            February 2006                           PV(1)