# Wireblast

> Wireblast is a fast, easy-to-use AF_XDP traffic generator for Linux. The iPerf of packet generators.

## Docs

- [Hardware and drivers](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/concepts/hardware.md): Native versus generic XDP, zero-copy versus copy, and how to tell which one you actually got.
- [How it works](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/concepts/how-it-works.md): Where AF_XDP sits, why it goes fast, and why the link drops for a few seconds the first time.
- [Reading the numbers](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/concepts/numbers.md): Two bit rates, three conventions, and why your monitoring tool disagrees with both.
- [Performance](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/concepts/performance.md): What Wireblast does on real hardware: 100G line rate at every frame size, measured.
- [Transmit and receive](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/concepts/receive.md): Why Wireblast only transmits by default, and how to turn receiving on without cutting off your own SSH session.
- [Finding your max rate](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/guides/max-rate.md): Ramp until something gives, then work out whether it was the box, the NIC or the wire.
- [Try it with no spare NIC](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/guides/namespace-lab.md): A veth pair and a network namespace give you a sender and a receiver on one machine.
- [Scripting and automation](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/guides/scripting.md): Run Wireblast unattended, get parseable output, and get past confirmations deliberately.
- [Troubleshooting](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/guides/troubleshooting.md): Symptom, cause, fix, for the errors you are actually likely to hit.
- [Two-box test](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/guides/two-box.md): Sender on one machine, receiver on the other, and how to tell the two ends agree.
- [VLAN-tagged traffic](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/guides/vlan.md): Send 802.1Q tagged frames, and why the minimum frame size becomes 68.
- [Wireblast](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/index.md): A fast, easy-to-use AF_XDP traffic generator for Linux. The iPerf of packet generators.
- [Install](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/install.md): Get the binary, check the handful of requirements, and fix the one setting that trips up first runs.
- [Flows and addressing](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/patterns/flows.md): How Wireblast generates flows, why they are deterministic, and how it works out the next-hop MAC.
- [Choosing a pattern](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/patterns/overview.md): UDP, TCP SYN, IMIX, raw Ethernet, PCAP and receive-only. What each one emits and which flags apply.
- [PCAP replay](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/patterns/pcap.md): Put a real capture back on the wire, at its original timing or at a rate you choose.
- [Quickstart](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/quickstart.md): Traffic on the wire in about a minute. No spare NIC needed.
- [Common tasks](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/recipes.md): Copy-paste recipes for the things people actually use Wireblast for.
- [All the flags](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/reference/cli.md): Every command-line flag, its default, and what it does.
- [FAQ](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/reference/faq.md): Short answers to the things people ask first.
- [Keys and saved settings](https://wireblast.mintlify.app/reference/keys-and-files.md): Every hotkey, and what Wireblast keeps in ~/.wireblast between runs.