Use wcs stream meter created by Arno Wagner to display count and rate statistics for data read on standard input.

This utility is not available directly in Debian software repository, so you need to download source code and compile it.

Installation

Download wcs source code.

$  wget --no-verbose --directory-prefix /tmp https://www.tansi.org/tools/wcs.c
2019-01-20 21:08:47 URL:https://www.tansi.org/tools/wcs.c [3001/3001] -> "/tmp/wcs.c" [1]

Compile downloaded source code.

$ gcc /tmp/wcs.c -o /tmp/wcs

Copy it to /usr/local/bin/.

$ sudo cp /tmp/wcs /usr/local/bin/wcs

Usage

Display usage information.

$ wcs --help
  Prints out running count and rate statistics about the data
  read on stdin to stderr. Does use cursor positioning, which
  should work on most terminals (vt100 or later).
  stdin is copied through to stdout, much like in tee.
  This program does not support any commandline arguments.
  (c) Arno Wagner <arno@wagner.name> 2012, 2014.
  Distributed under the GNU public license v2 or later at your choice.
  Version 1.2.3

Perform simple disk read benchmark.

$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb status=none | wcs 1>/dev/null
 read:  26.274 GB [  26273560064 B]    avg: 273.683 MB/sec [    96 sec]

Perform simple copy operation between disks benchmark.

$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb status=none | wcs | dd of=/tmp/sda.backup status=none
 read:   2.522 GB [   2521747968 B]    avg: 100.870 MB/sec [    25 sec]

Perform simple network speed benchmark.

$ cat debian-buster-DI-alpha4-amd64-netinst.iso | wcs | ssh sleeplessbeastie.eu "cat > debian-buster-DI-alpha4-amd64-netinst.iso"
 read: 334.496 MB [    334495744 B]    avg:   6.194 MB/sec [    54 sec]

I like it!