netshow: Interactive Network Connection Monitor for Your Terminal

Introduction

netshow is an interactive, process-aware network monitoring tool built for your terminal. It offers a lightweight and performant way to observe TCP connections, providing friendly service names for common applications like Docker, Plex, and VS Code, rather than cryptic binaries. Designed for macOS and Linux, netshow gives users deep insights into network activity, including process details, real-time metrics, and advanced filtering capabilities, all within a modern Textual UI.

Installation

Getting started with netshow is straightforward. The easiest method is using uvx, or you can clone the repository for a local build.

Using uvx (recommended):

uvx netshow

Local Build:

git clone https://github.com/taylorwilsdon/netshow.git
cd netshow
uv run netshow

Note: If run without root or sudo privileges, netshow will automatically switch to lsof for most connection data, still providing valuable insights.

Examples

Once installed, you can run netshow with default settings or customize its behavior.

Basic Usage:

netshow

Custom Refresh Interval:

netshow --interval 1.0

Keybindings for Interaction:
netshow offers a rich set of keybindings for navigation and control:

• ? / ?: Move cursor
• ? / Click: Open detail view for a connection
• Esc / ?: Return to the main list
• q: Quit netshow
• f or /: Toggle filter input for advanced search
• s: Sort by connection status
• p: Sort by process name
• i: Cycle network interface for bandwidth monitoring

Why Use It

netshow stands out as a powerful network monitoring solution due to several key features:

• Human-Friendly Names: It translates complex process IDs and ports into recognizable application names, simplifying network analysis.
• Deep Process Drill-Down: Gain comprehensive details about each connection's associated process, including path, PID, command line, CPU usage, memory, and open files.
• Real-time Metrics: Monitor live connection counts and bandwidth usage, with the ability to select specific network interfaces.
• Advanced Filtering: Utilize regex-powered search across all connection fields for precise data isolation.
• Modern UI: Enjoy a smooth, interactive terminal experience powered by Textual, featuring dark theme support and optimized rendering for large datasets.
• Flexible Operation: Runs effectively both with root privileges for full fidelity via psutil and as a regular user using lsof.

Links

For more information, to contribute, or to report issues, please visit the official GitHub repository:

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/taylorwilsdon/netshow