iftop:tldr:6c405

The command "sudo iftop -P" is used to launch the iftop tool with administrative privileges. The command has two main components, "sudo" and "iftop", along with an optional flag "-P".

1. "sudo": It is a command that allows a user to execute a command with root or administrative privileges. By using "sudo" before a command, the user can run it as the superuser, which provides access to system-wide settings and operations.

2. "iftop": It is a command-line tool used for real-time network monitoring. It displays information about network traffic by analyzing the network interface and presenting statistics on bandwidth usage, active connections, and data transfer rates for different hosts and protocols.

3. "-P" (optional): It is a flag in the iftop command that instructs iftop to display port numbers instead of service names in the output. By default, iftop shows the service names associated with the network connections, but with the "-P" flag, it will present the corresponding port numbers instead. This can be useful for precise monitoring and troubleshooting purposes.

Therefore, the "sudo iftop -P" command combines the administrative privilege elevation ("sudo") and network monitoring functionality ("iftop") with an option to display port numbers ("-P").