
Compiling the binaries
::::::::::::::::::::::

 This source package contains the required source files for vnStat including
 the daemon (vnstatd) and image output (vnstati). Executing

     ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc && make

 will compile 'vnstat' and 'vnstatd' without requiring additional libraries.
 The optional image output capable binary 'vnstati' will also be compiled if
 the required additional libgd2 library is found to be available. The name
 of the libgd2 package depends on the used distribution and its release. The
 development package for the library is also needed. Some common package
 names are

     gd
     gd-devel
     libgd3
     libgd-dev
     libgd2
     libgd2-dev
     libgd2-noxpm
     libgd2-noxpm-dev

 An example cgi ('vnstat.cgi') to be used with http server with the image
 output support has been provided in the 'examples' directory. Configuration
 options for the cgi are in the beginning of the file. Additional examples
 for using the json output are also available in the same directory.


Installing as root
::::::::::::::::::

 Login as root and run the following command:

     make install

 If there were no errors, vnStat binaries, man pages and a config file
 should now be installed. The configuration file will be upgraded
 using previously configured values if it is found already to exist.

 The configuration file /etc/vnstat.conf should be checked at this point.
 See the vnstat.conf man page for documentation about available options.

 Finally, make vnStat monitor available interfaces. Configure init scripts
 so that the following command is executed once during system startup:

     vnstatd -d

 The 'examples' directory contains suitable files for most commonly used
 service managers:

   systemd:
     cp -v examples/systemd/vnstat.service /etc/systemd/system/
     systemctl enable vnstat
     systemctl start vnstat

   upstart:
     cp -v examples/upstart/vnstat.conf /etc/init/
     initctl start vnstat

   init.d:
     Debian:
       cp -v examples/init.d/debian/vnstat /etc/init.d/
       update-rc.d vnstat defaults
       service vnstat start
     Red Hat / CentOS:
       cp -v examples/init.d/redhat/vnstat /etc/init.d/
       chkconfig vnstat on
       service vnstat start

 An alternative method is to add the command to an already existing
 script that gets executed during system startup. In many distributions
 /etc/rc.local can be used if nothing else suitable can be found. Note
 that the full path to the executable may need to be included instead of
 only the command itself.

 During first startup, the daemon (vnstatd) should list and add all
 available interfaces for monitoring. Depending on configuration, it may
 take some minutes for the 'vnstat' command to begin showing results.
 Monitoring of unwanted interfaces can be stopped with:

     vnstat --delete -i ethunwanted


Installing without root access
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 Copy all needed binaries to some directory included in your PATH
 (~/bin/ is an example) and create the database directory.

     cp -v vnstat vnstatd vnstati ~/bin/
     cp -v cfg/vnstat.conf ~/.vnstatrc
     mkdir ~/.vnstat

 Check that the binaries got installed to a suitable location and are of the
 correct version:

     vnstat --version

 If this gives an 'command not found' error or a different than expected
 version then check then content of the PATH variable and try again.

 Next open the config file ~/.vnstatrc with your favorite text editor and
 locate the following line:

     DatabaseDir "/var/lib/vnstat"

 and replace it with

     DatabaseDir "/pathtomyhomedir/.vnstat"

 and save the file. If you are unsure about your home directory path, execute

     cd ; pwd

 The ouput should tell your home directory.

 Now it's time to add a crontab entry for vnStat in order to get the daemon
 running automatically after a system startup. Do that by executing the
 command 'crontab -e' and add the following line (without leading spaces,
 remember to change the path):

     @reboot ~/bin/vnstatd -d

 If you found yourself using a strange editor then 'man vi' may help.

 Make sure the configuration file (~/.vnstatrc) has the log option either
 disabled or set to a file that is located in a place where you have write
 permissions, such as your home dir. Then try starting the daemon with

     vnstatd -d

 After that wait for (or generate) at least 1024 bytes of network traffic
 (and 5 min for the next database file save).

     vnstat

 Now you should get some stats about your network usage. See the config
 file ~/.vnstatrc for interface and other settings.


Appendix: Running the test suite
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 This step isn't mandatory for using vnStat.

 The source package includes a test suite for validating at least some of the
 functionalities provided by the executables. The test suite requires the
 Check unit testing framework ( https://libcheck.github.io/check/ ) to be
 installed and available. Depending on the used distribution, the necessary
 package to be installed is usually called 'check' and may also require
 'check-devel' to be installed if available. After the configure script has
 been executed the test suite can be executed with:

     make check

 The output should show a non-zero number of tests executed if all the
 necessary packages were available.
