.TH nfexpire 1 2006-05-20 "" ""
.SH NAME
nfexpire \- data expiry program
.SH SYNOPSIS
.HP 5
.B nfexpire [options]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B nfexpire
is used to manage the expiration of old netflow data files, created
by nfcapd(1) or other data collectors such as sfcapd(1). Data expiration
is done either by nfcapd(1) in auto expiry mode, or by nfexpire which
can by run at any time or any desired time interval by cron. nfexpire
can also be savely run while nfcapd auto expires files, for cleaning up
full disks etc. nfexpire is sub directory hierarchy aware, and handles
any format automatically. For a fast and efficient expiration, nfexpire
creates and maintains a stat file named \fB.nfstat\fR in the data directory.
Any \fIdirectory\fR supplied with the options below corresponds to the
data directory supplied to nfcapd(1) using option -l.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP 3
.B -l \fIdirectory
List current data statistics in directory \fIdatadir\fR.
.TP 3
.B -r \fIdirectory
Rescan the specified directory to update the statfile. To be used only
when explicit update is required. Usually nfexpire takes care itself about
rescanning, when needed.
.TP 3
.B -e \fIdatadir
Expire files in the specified \fIdirectory\fR. Expire limits are taken from
statfile ( see -u ) or from supplied options -s -t and -w. Command line options
overwrite stat file values, however the statfile limits are not changed.
.TP 3
.B -s \fImaxsize
Set size limit for the directory. The specified \fIlimit\fR accepts values such
as 100M, 100MB 1G 1.5G etc. Accpeted size factors are K, KB, M, MB, G, GB and T, TB.
If no factor is supplied bytes (B) is assumed. A value of 0 disables the max size limit.
.TP 3
.B -t \fImaxlife_time
Sets the max life time for files in the directory. The supplied \fImaxlife_time\fR
accepts values such as 31d, 240H 1.5d etc. Accpeted time scales are w (weeks) d (days)
H (hours). A value of 0 disables the max lifetime limit. If no scale is given, H (hours)
are assumed.
.TP 3
.B -u \fIdatadir
Updates the max size and lifetime limits, specified by -s -t and -w and stores them
in the statfile as default values. A running nfcapd(1) processs doing auto expiry
will take these new values starting with the next expiry cycle. Running nfexpire
next time doing file expiration will take these new limits unless -s -t or -w are
specified.
.TP 3
.B -w \fIwatermark
Set the water mark in % for expiring data. If a limit is hit, files get expired
down to this level in % of that limit. If not set, the default is 95%.
.TP 3
.B -h
Print help text on stdout with all options and exit.
.TP 3
.B -p
Directories specified by -e, -l and -r are interpreted as profile directories. Only NfSen will need this option.
.TP 3
.B -Y
Print result in parseable format. Only NfSen will need this option.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Returns
.PD 0
.RS 4
0 No error. \fn
.P
255 Initialization failed.
.P
250 Internal error.
.RE
.PD
.SH NOTES
There are two ways to expire files: nfcapd in auto-expire mode ( option -e ) and
nfexpire running by hand or periodically as cron job. Both ways synchronize access
to the files, therefore both ways can be run in parallel if required.
.TP 0
.B Expiring by nfcapd in auto-expire mode: option -e
If nfcapd is started with option -e, the auto-expire mode is enabled. After each
cycle ( typically 5min ) nfcapd expires files according to the limits set with nfexpire
using options -u -s -t and -w. If initially no limits are set, no files get expired.
.TP 0
.B Expiring by nfexpire
nfexpire can be run at any time to expire files. It automatically syncs up with the
files created by nfcapd in the mean time since the last expire run, if a nfcapd
collector process is running for that directory in question and expires the files
according the limits set.
.TP 0
.B Limits
Files are expired according to two limits: maximum disk space used by all files
in the directory and maximum lifetime of data files, whatever limit is reached first.
If one of the limit is hit the expire process will delete files down to the watermark
of that limit.
.P
.SH "SEE ALSO"
nfcapd(1)
.SH BUGS