# luigirizzo/netmap

Automatically exported from code.google.com/p/netmap

Repository: https://github.com/luigirizzo/netmap
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/netmap
Language: C
License: BSD-2-Clause
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-08T13:25:06+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 96, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4174, "days_push": 25, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1974, forks 551 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:01.166291+00:00)

## What it is
Netmap is a framework for extremely fast packet I/O from userspace, implemented as a kernel module for FreeBSD, Linux, and Windows. It includes VALE, an equally fast in-kernel L2 software switch, and sample applications like pkt-gen for traffic generation.

## Use cases
- build high-speed traffic generators and packet sinks
- implement software switches and routers in userspace
- capture and monitor packets at 10G/40G line rate
- interconnect virtual machines with fast virtual network ports
- run libpcap applications at much higher speeds
- benchmark network drivers and middleboxes

## When to choose
- you need to process tens of millions of packets per second from userspace
- you are building traffic generators, monitors, or software middleboxes
- you need fast packet I/O on FreeBSD or Linux with a mature, well-documented API
- you want to interconnect VMs at high speed via QEMU or bhyve

## When to avoid
- you need accelerated TCP/IP stack functionality out of the box
- your application works fine with standard sockets or libpcap performance
- you need a portable solution across many operating systems beyond FreeBSD/Linux/Windows
- you are unwilling to work with kernel modules and memory-mapped ring buffers

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: stable
- function: networking, developer-tools, benchmarking
- domain: networking, developer-tools, performance, operating-systems
- platform: bsd, windows, c
- tags: packet-io, high-performance, kernel-module, vale-switch, traffic-generation, zero-copy, network-virtualization, linux

## Member repositories
- luigirizzo/netmap (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:01.166291+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:04:56.018329+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/luigirizzo/netmap (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:01.166291+00:00, sha 3bdb701ea170)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.