TCPSHOW(1)

NAME
tcpshow - decode a tcpdump savefile

SYNOPSIS
tcpshow [ -b ] [ -sb ] [ -w width ] [ -noLink ] [ -noIp ]
[ -noHostNames ] [ -fqdn ] [ -noEtherNames ]
[ -noPortNames ] [ -noData ] [ -minHdrDecode ]
[ -track ] [ -terse ] [ -verbose ] [ -cooked ]
[ -pp ] [ -s ] [ -h ] [ expression ]

DESCRIPTION

tcpshow reads a tcpdump(1) savefile and provides a reasonably complete decode of Ethernet, ARP, RARP, IP, ICMP, UDP and TCP headers, in packets that match the boolean expression. The data belonging to these packets is displayed in ASCII.

Currently, protocol data is not decoded. This is not considered a serious problem for applications that use ASCII data streams.

Also, IP and TCP options are not decoded.

The input file must be in the format produced by tcpdump -enx. This file can be generated from
1. a prior run of tcpdump -w file
2. a live run of tcpdump (without -w)
3. any other program that produces a correctly formatted
   trace
See under EXAMPLES for each of these different methods, plus a description of the format the input file needs to be in.

Except when -cooked is used, tcpdump(1) is required to be on your PATH, to process the raw savefile.

OPTIONS
The following options can be used in just about any sane combination.

-b  Do not break long lines. If this option is off (the default), then lines are wrapped at column 60. The column at which wrapping occurs may be changed with the -w flag. If this option is on, then wrapping does not occur.

    Leaving this flag off produces a neater, more readable display of the application data in most cases.

-sb show line breaks

    When -b is not used, it may be useful to see exactly where tcpshow wrapped each line, in its display of application data. This option causes the string ``<br>'' to be displayed at the end of each wrapped line. (Lines which were not wrapped, but terminated before the page width, are not so marked.)

-w width
    set pagewidth to width columns

    This determines where tcpshow will fold long lines, when the -b switch is not used. The default is at column 60.

-noLink
    don't decode the link header

    The data link header (Ethernet header) is not decoded and displayed.

-noIp
    don't decode the IP header

    The IP header is not decoded and displayed.

-noHostNames
    don't map IP addresses into host names

    Normally, host names are displayed if they can be resolved; otherwise, the IP address is displayed. This flag prevents the attempt to resolve the name. (See -fqdn.)

-fqdn
    show host names as fully-qualified

    Normally, short host names are displayed, i.e. the domain part is omitted. If the name can't be resolved, the IP address is displayed.

-noEtherNames
    don't map Ethernet addresses into host names

    Normally, host Ethernet names are displayed if they can be resolved; otherwise, the Ethernet address is displayed. This flag prevents the attempt to resolve the name.

-noPortNames
    don't map port numbers into port names

    Normally, protocol port names are displayed if they can be resolved; otherwise, the port number is displayed. This flag prevents the attempt to resolve the name.

-noData
    don't show the data

    The protocol data is not displayed (a count of data bytes is shown).

-minHdrDecode
    display only a minimal decode of the protocol headers.

    Essentially, the header decode shows only the hostnames and ports involved.

-track
    track TCP sequence numbers

    An additional field is produced in the output which shows the TCP acknowledgement number which this side of the connection should receive once the current packet has been received by its peer.

-terse
    show the header decode in compact format

    This option, which is on by default, produces a display of the decoded headers in a compact format, allowing more information to be assimilated with less eye movement.

-verbose
    show the header decode in expanded format

    With this option, the display of the decoded headers is verbose, occupying a lot of display-space real-estate. This is meant for users not entirely familiar with the fields in the various headers.

-cooked
    don't run tcpdump(1) to pre-process the input

    If the input file is already in the expected format, this option must be used. See EXAMPLES below of where this flag is appropriate.

-pp point-to-point link

    If the input file was collected from data travelling over a point-to-point link (one which doesn't make an Ethernet header available), this option needs to be used.

-s  also display a hex dump of spurious data at packet-end

    For a reason unknown to the author, tcpdump(1) output sometimes contains data at the end of packets which don't belong to those packets. This spurious data is suppressed from the output, except when this option is used.

-h  display a help summary

    This list of options is displayed, with one-liner descriptions.

expression
    filter the input file using a tcpdump(1) expression

    If the -cooked option is not used, then tcpdump(1) is required to be on your PATH. It is used to read the raw savefile, producing output in the format tcpshow expects. The expression should be a valid tcpdump(1) expression. It is not parsed or interpreted by tcpshow, but passed on to tcpdump(1) for its consumption.

EXAMPLES
In the following examples, where tcpdump(1) is used, the flag -s 1518 is used to be sure of saving the complete Ethernet frame.

Also, where tcpdump(1) expressions are used, these could equally have been given to tcpdump(1) directly, if it was known at this time what data you're interested in.

Capture a raw savefile and decode it later.

    # tcpdump -s 1518 -w savefile
    # tcpshow < savefile

Decode the data as quickly as tcpdump(1) gives it to us.

    # tcpdump -s 1518 -lenx | tcpshow -cooked

Display headers only.

    # tcpshow -noData < savefile

Display data only (minimal header decode).

    # tcpshow -minHdrDecode

Display a decode of Telnet traffic only, omitting the link and IP headers.

    # tcpdump -s 1518 -w savefile
    # tcpshow -noLink -noIp tcp port telnet < savefile

Give a verbose display of the headers, and a full display of the data, for all packets going into or coming from the host "sam" -- this host is on a LAN accessible through a PPP link (interface "ppp0").

    # tcpdump -i ppp0 -s 1518 -w savefile
    # tcpshow -pp -verbose host sam < savefile

Show all SMTP mail transfers, omitting the headers (you're not supposed to do this).

    # tcpdump -s 1518 -w savefile
    # tcpshow -minHdrDecode port smtp < savefile

To display a decode of data not captured via tcpdump(1), you would typically use the application that captured the trace to dump that trace into a file in ASCII-hex format. You feed that file into a Perl/sh/awk script (that you write), which produces a file in the format tcpshow expects. Such scripts are easy to write. For example, if your application is "capture" and your script is "convert", then tcpshow might be used as follows.

    # capture -hexoutput | convert | tcpshow -cooked

Note that -cooked is required, to prevent tcpdump(1) from being spawned.

A loose definition of the format tcpshow expects is:

    The 1st line of each packet must begin in column 1 and contains the following whitespace-separated fields: timestamp, Ethernet source address, Ethernet destination address, Ethernet type. The Ethernet addresses must be in the form aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff. If -pp is used, only the timestamp is required. The format of the timestamp is hh:mm:ss:fff... where hh=hourOfDay, mm=minOfHour, ss=secOfMin and the 'f' digits are the fraction of a second at which the packet arrived (resolution varies from machine to machine). If timestamp information isn't available, any text string will do (no embedded whitespace and it shouldn't look like a valid timestamp). The Ethernet type field is an ASCII-hex string; for example, "0800" means an IP packet is encapsulated.

    The 2nd and subsequent lines of each packet must begin with a TAB. They consist of an ASCII-hex dump of the Ethernet data field. The hex bytes can be separated from each other by any amount of whitespace, including none.

FILES
tcpshow reads from standard input and writes to standard output.

SEE ALSO
tcpdump(1), nit(4P), bpf(4)

AUTHOR
Mike Ryan <mike@NetworX.ie>

RESTRICTIONS
This program and its source code are freely available. See the Conditions governing their use in the source code.

BUGS
It should decode IP and TCP options.

It should decode data from application protocols that don't send their data in ASCII (e.g. DNS/BIND).

It should not depend on tcpdump(1) as much as it does. It should be modified to use pcap(3) directly.