selects which packets will be dumped. If no expression is given, all packets on the net will be dumped. Otherwise, only packets for which expression is `true' will be dumped.

For the expression syntax, see \%pcap-filter (@MAN_MISC_INFO@).

The expression argument can be passed to tcpdump as either a single Shell argument, or as multiple Shell arguments, whichever is more convenient. Generally, if the expression contains Shell metacharacters, such as backslashes used to escape protocol names, it is easier to pass it as a single, quoted argument rather than to escape the Shell metacharacters. Multiple arguments are concatenated with spaces before being parsed.

To print all packets arriving at or departing from sundown:

tcpdump host sundown

To print traffic between helios and either hot or ace:

tcpdump host helios and \\( hot or ace \\)

To print all IP packets between ace and any host except helios:

tcpdump ip host ace and not helios

To print all traffic between local hosts and hosts at Berkeley:

 tcpdump net ucb-ether

To print all ftp traffic through internet gateway snup: (note that the expression is quoted to prevent the shell from (mis-)interpreting the parentheses):

 tcpdump 'gateway snup and (port ftp or ftp-data)'

To print traffic neither sourced from nor destined for local hosts (if you gateway to one other net, this stuff should never make it onto your local net).

 tcpdump ip and not net localnet

To print the start and end packets (the SYN and FIN packets) of each TCP conversation that involves a non-local host.

 tcpdump 'tcp[tcpflags] & (tcp-syn|tcp-fin) != 0 and not src and dst net localnet'

To print the TCP packets with flags RST and ACK both set. (i.e. select only the RST and ACK flags in the flags field, and if the result is "RST and ACK both set", match)

 tcpdump 'tcp[tcpflags] & (tcp-rst|tcp-ack) == (tcp-rst|tcp-ack)'

To print all IPv4 HTTP packets to and from port 80, i.e. print only packets that contain data, not, for example, SYN and FIN packets and ACK-only packets. (IPv6 is left as an exercise for the reader.)

 tcpdump 'tcp port 80 and (((ip[2:2] - ((ip[0]&0xf)<<2)) - ((tcp[12]&0xf0)>>2)) != 0)'

To print IP packets longer than 576 bytes sent through gateway snup:

 tcpdump 'gateway snup and ip[2:2] > 576'

To print IP broadcast or multicast packets that were not sent via Ethernet broadcast or multicast:

 tcpdump 'ether[0] & 1 = 0 and ip[16] >= 224'

To print all ICMP packets that are not echo requests/replies (i.e., not ping packets):

 tcpdump 'icmp[icmptype] != icmp-echo and icmp[icmptype] != icmp-echoreply'

The output of tcpdump is protocol dependent. The following gives a brief description and examples of most of the formats. ..

By default, all output lines are preceded by a timestamp. The timestamp is the current clock time in the form

hh:mm:ss.frac

When the any interface is selected on capture or when a link-type LINUX_SLL2 capture file is read the interface name is printed after the timestamp. This is followed by the packet type with In and Out denoting a packet destined for this host or originating from this host respectively. Other possible values are B for broadcast packets, M for multicast packets, and P for packets destined for other hosts.

If the '-e' option is given, the link level header is printed out. On Ethernets, the source and destination addresses, protocol, and packet length are printed.

On FDDI networks, the '-e' option causes tcpdump to print the `frame control' field, the source and destination addresses, and the packet length. (The `frame control' field governs the interpretation of the rest of the packet. Normal packets (such as those containing IP datagrams) are `async' packets, with a priority value between 0 and 7; for example, `async4'. Such packets are assumed to contain an 802.2 Logical Link Control (LLC) packet; the LLC header is printed if it is not an ISO datagram or a so-called SNAP packet.

On Token Ring networks, the '-e' option causes tcpdump to print the `access control' and `frame control' fields, the source and destination addresses, and the packet length. As on FDDI networks, packets are assumed to contain an LLC packet. Regardless of whether the '-e' option is specified or not, the source routing information is printed for source-routed packets.

On 802.11 networks, the '-e' option causes tcpdump to print the `frame control' fields, all of the addresses in the 802.11 header, and the packet length. As on FDDI networks, packets are assumed to contain an LLC packet.

(N.B.: The following description assumes familiarity with the SLIP compression algorithm described in RFC 1144.)

On SLIP links, a direction indicator (``I'' for inbound, ``O'' for outbound), packet type, and compression information are printed out. The packet type is printed first. The three types are ip, utcp, and ctcp. No further link information is printed for ip packets. For TCP packets, the connection identifier is printed following the type. If the packet is compressed, its encoded header is printed out. The special cases are printed out as *S+n and *SA+n, where n is the amount by which the sequence number (or sequence number and ack) has changed. If it is not a special case, zero or more changes are printed. A change is indicated by U (urgent pointer), W (window), A (ack), S (sequence number), and I (packet ID), followed by a delta (+n or -n), or a new value (=n). Finally, the amount of data in the packet and compressed header length are printed.

For example, the following line shows an outbound compressed TCP packet, with an implicit connection identifier; the ack has changed by 6, the sequence number by 49, and the packet ID by 6; there are 3 bytes of data and 6 bytes of compressed header:

O ctcp * A+6 S+49 I+6 3 (6)

ARP/RARP output shows the type of request and its arguments. The format is intended to be self explanatory. Here is a short sample taken from the start of an `rlogin' from host rtsg to host csam:

arp who-has csam tell rtsg
arp reply csam is-at CSAM

This would look less redundant if we had done tcpdump -n:

arp who-has 128.3.254.6 tell 128.3.254.68
arp reply 128.3.254.6 is-at 02:07:01:00:01:c4

If we had done tcpdump -e, the fact that the first packet is broadcast and the second is point-to-point would be visible:

RTSG Broadcast 0806 64: arp who-has csam tell rtsg
CSAM RTSG 0806 64: arp reply csam is-at CSAM

If the link-layer header is not being printed, for IPv4 packets, IP is printed after the time stamp.

If the -v flag is specified, information from the IPv4 header is shown in parentheses after the IP or the link-layer header. The general format of this information is:

tos tos, ttl ttl, id id, offset offset, flags [flags], proto proto, length length, options (options)

Next, for TCP and UDP packets, the source and destination IP addresses and TCP or UDP ports, with a dot between each IP address and its corresponding port, will be printed, with a > separating the source and destination. For other protocols, the addresses will be printed, with a > separating the source and destination. Higher level protocol information, if any, will be printed after that.

For fragmented IP datagrams, the first fragment contains the higher level protocol header; fragments after the first contain no higher level protocol header. Fragmentation information will be printed only with the -v flag, in the IP header information, as described above.

(N.B.:The following description assumes familiarity with the TCP protocol described in RFC 793. If you are not familiar with the protocol, this description will not be of much use to you.)

The general format of a TCP protocol line is:

src > dst: Flags [tcpflags], seq data-seqno, ack ackno, win window, urg urgent, options [opts], length len

Iptype, Src, dst, and flags are always present. The other fields depend on the contents of the packet's TCP protocol header and are output only if appropriate.

Here is the opening portion of an rlogin from host rtsg to host csam.

IP rtsg.1023 > csam.login: Flags [S], seq 768512:768512, win 4096, opts [mss 1024]
IP csam.login > rtsg.1023: Flags [S.], seq, 947648:947648, ack 768513, win 4096, opts [mss 1024]
IP rtsg.1023 > csam.login: Flags [.], ack 1, win 4096
IP rtsg.1023 > csam.login: Flags [P.], seq 1:2, ack 1, win 4096, length 1
IP csam.login > rtsg.1023: Flags [.], ack 2, win 4096
IP rtsg.1023 > csam.login: Flags [P.], seq 2:21, ack 1, win 4096, length 19
IP csam.login > rtsg.1023: Flags [P.], seq 1:2, ack 21, win 4077, length 1
IP csam.login > rtsg.1023: Flags [P.], seq 2:3, ack 21, win 4077, urg 1, length 1
IP csam.login > rtsg.1023: Flags [P.], seq 3:4, ack 21, win 4077, urg 1, length 1

Csam replies with a similar packet except it includes a piggy-backed ACK for rtsg's SYN. Rtsg then ACKs csam's SYN. The `.' means the ACK flag was set. The packet contained no data so there is no data sequence number or length. Note that the ACK sequence number is a small integer (1). The first time tcpdump sees a TCP `conversation', it prints the sequence number from the packet. On subsequent packets of the conversation, the difference between the current packet's sequence number and this initial sequence number is printed. This means that sequence numbers after the first can be interpreted as relative byte positions in the conversation's data stream (with the first data byte each direction being `1'). `-S' will override this feature, causing the original sequence numbers to be output.

On the 6th line, rtsg sends csam 19 bytes of data (bytes 2 through 20 in the rtsg \(-> csam side of the conversation). The PSH flag is set in the packet. On the 7th line, csam says it's received data sent by rtsg up to but not including byte 21. Most of this data is apparently sitting in the socket buffer since csam's receive window has gotten 19 bytes smaller. Csam also sends one byte of data to rtsg in this packet. On the 8th and 9th lines, csam sends two bytes of urgent, pushed data to rtsg.

If the snapshot was small enough that tcpdump didn't capture the full TCP header, it interprets as much of the header as it can and then reports ``[|tcp]'' to indicate the remainder could not be interpreted. If the header contains a bogus option (one with a length that's either too small or beyond the end of the header), tcpdump reports it as ``[bad opt]'' and does not interpret any further options (since it's impossible to tell where they start). If the header length indicates options are present but the IP datagram length is not long enough for the options to actually be there, tcpdump reports it as ``[bad hdr length]''.

There are 8 bits in the control bits section of the TCP header:

Let's assume that we want to watch packets used in establishing a TCP connection. Recall that TCP uses a 3-way handshake protocol when it initializes a new connection; the connection sequence with regard to the TCP control bits is

Now we're interested in capturing packets that have only the SYN bit set (Step 1). Note that we don't want packets from step 2 (SYN-ACK), just a plain initial SYN. What we need is a correct filter expression for tcpdump.

Recall the structure of a TCP header without options:

 0 15 31
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| source port | destination port |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| sequence number |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| acknowledgment number |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| HL | rsvd |C|E|U|A|P|R|S|F| window size |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| TCP checksum | urgent pointer |
-----------------------------------------------------------------

A TCP header usually holds 20 octets of data, unless options are present. The first line of the graph contains octets 0 - 3, the second line shows octets 4 - 7 etc.

Starting to count with 0, the relevant TCP control bits are contained in octet 13:

 0 7| 15| 23| 31
----------------|---------------|---------------|----------------
| HL | rsvd |C|E|U|A|P|R|S|F| window size |
----------------|---------------|---------------|----------------
| | 13th octet | | |

Let's have a closer look at octet no. 13:

 | |
 |---------------|
 |C|E|U|A|P|R|S|F|
 |---------------|
 |7 5 3 0|

These are the TCP control bits we are interested in. We have numbered the bits in this octet from 0 to 7, right to left, so the PSH bit is bit number 3, while the URG bit is number 5.

Recall that we want to capture packets with only SYN set. Let's see what happens to octet 13 if a TCP datagram arrives with the SYN bit set in its header:

 |C|E|U|A|P|R|S|F|
 |---------------|
 |0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0|
 |---------------|
 |7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0|

Looking at the control bits section we see that only bit number 1 (SYN) is set.

Assuming that octet number 13 is an 8-bit unsigned integer in network byte order, the binary value of this octet is

and its decimal representation is

 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0*2 + 0*2 + 0*2 + 0*2 + 0*2 + 0*2 + 1*2 + 0*2 = 2

We're almost done, because now we know that if only SYN is set, the value of the 13th octet in the TCP header, when interpreted as a 8-bit unsigned integer in network byte order, must be exactly 2.

This relationship can be expressed as

We can use this expression as the filter for tcpdump in order to watch packets which have only SYN set:

The expression says "let the 13th octet of a TCP datagram have the decimal value 2", which is exactly what we want.

Now, let's assume that we need to capture SYN packets, but we don't care if ACK or any other TCP control bit is set at the same time. Let's see what happens to octet 13 when a TCP datagram with SYN-ACK set arrives:

 |C|E|U|A|P|R|S|F|
 |---------------|
 |0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0|
 |---------------|
 |7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0|

Now bits 1 and 4 are set in the 13th octet. The binary value of octet 13 is

which translates to decimal

 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0*2 + 0*2 + 0*2 + 1*2 + 0*2 + 0*2 + 1*2 + 0*2 = 18

Now we can't just use 'tcp[13] == 18' in the tcpdump filter expression, because that would select only those packets that have SYN-ACK set, but not those with only SYN set. Remember that we don't care if ACK or any other control bit is set as long as SYN is set.

In order to achieve our goal, we need to logically AND the binary value of octet 13 with some other value to preserve the SYN bit. We know that we want SYN to be set in any case, so we'll logically AND the value in the 13th octet with the binary value of a SYN:

 00010010 SYN-ACK 00000010 SYN
 AND 00000010 (we want SYN) AND 00000010 (we want SYN)
 -------- --------
 = 00000010 = 00000010

We see that this AND operation delivers the same result regardless whether ACK or another TCP control bit is set. The decimal representation of the AND value as well as the result of this operation is 2 (binary 00000010), so we know that for packets with SYN set the following relation must hold true:

This points us to the tcpdump filter expression

Some offsets and field values may be expressed as names rather than as numeric values. For example tcp[13] may be replaced with tcp[tcpflags]. The following TCP flag field values are also available: tcp-fin, tcp-syn, tcp-rst, tcp-push, tcp-ack, tcp-urg, tcp-ece and tcp-cwr.

This can be demonstrated as:

Note that you should use single quotes or a backslash in the expression to hide the AND ('&') special character from the shell.

UDP format is illustrated by this rwho packet:

actinide.who > broadcast.who: udp 84

Some UDP services are recognized (from the source or destination port number) and the higher level protocol information printed. In particular, Domain Name service requests (RFC 1034/1035) and Sun RPC calls (RFC 1050) to NFS.

(N.B.:The following description assumes familiarity with the Domain Service protocol described in RFC 1035. If you are not familiar with the protocol, the following description will appear to be written in Greek.)

Name server requests are formatted as

src > dst: id op? flags qtype qclass name (len)
h2opolo.1538 > helios.domain: 3+ A? ucbvax.berkeley.edu. (37)

A few anomalies are checked and may result in extra fields enclosed in square brackets: If a query contains an answer, authority records or additional records section, ancount , nscount , or arcount are printed as `[na]', `[nn]' or `[nau]' where n is the appropriate count. If any of the response bits are set (AA, RA or rcode) or any of the `must be zero' bits are set in bytes two and three, `[b2&3=x]' is printed, where x is the hex value of header bytes two and three.

Name server responses are formatted as

src > dst: id op rcode flags a/n/au type class data (len)
helios.domain > h2opolo.1538: 3 3/3/7 A 128.32.137.3 (273)
helios.domain > h2opolo.1537: 2 NXDomain* 0/1/0 (97)

In the second example, helios responds to query 2 with a response code of nonexistent domain (NXDomain) with no answers, one name server and no authority records. The `*' indicates that the authoritative answer bit was set. Since there were no answers, no type, class or data were printed.

Other flag characters that might appear are `-' (recursion available, RA, not set) and `|' (truncated message, TC, set). If the `question' section doesn't contain exactly one entry, `[nq]' is printed.

tcpdump now includes fairly extensive SMB/CIFS/NBT decoding for data on UDP/137, UDP/138 and TCP/139. Some primitive decoding of IPX and NetBEUI SMB data is also done.

By default a fairly minimal decode is done, with a much more detailed decode done if -v is used. Be warned that with -v a single SMB packet may take up a page or more, so only use -v if you really want all the gory details.

For information on SMB packet formats and what all the fields mean see \%https://download.samba.org/pub/samba/specs/ and other online resources. The SMB patches were written by Andrew Tridgell (tridge@samba.org).

Sun NFS (Network File System) requests and replies are printed as:

src.sport > dst.nfs: NFS request xid xid len op args
src.nfs > dst.dport: NFS reply xid xid reply stat len op results

sushi.1023 > wrl.nfs: NFS request xid 26377
 112 readlink fh 21,24/10.73165
wrl.nfs > sushi.1023: NFS reply xid 26377
 reply ok 40 readlink "../var"
sushi.1022 > wrl.nfs: NFS request xid 8219
 144 lookup fh 9,74/4096.6878 "xcolors"
wrl.nfs > sushi.1022: NFS reply xid 8219
 reply ok 128 lookup fh 9,74/4134.3150

In the third line, sushi asks (using a new transaction id) wrl to lookup the name `xcolors' in directory file 9,74/4096.6878. In the fourth line, wrl sends a reply with the respective transaction id.

Note that the data printed depends on the operation type. The format is intended to be self explanatory if read in conjunction with an NFS protocol spec. Also note that older versions of tcpdump printed NFS packets in a slightly different format: the transaction id (xid) would be printed instead of the non-NFS port number of the packet.

If the -v (verbose) flag is given, additional information is printed. For example:

sushi.1023 > wrl.nfs: NFS request xid 79658
 148 read fh 21,11/12.195 8192 bytes @ 24576
wrl.nfs > sushi.1023: NFS reply xid 79658
 reply ok 1472 read REG 100664 ids 417/0 sz 29388

If the -v flag is given more than once, even more details are printed.

NFS reply packets do not explicitly identify the RPC operation. Instead, tcpdump keeps track of ``recent'' requests, and matches them to the replies using the transaction ID. If a reply does not closely follow the corresponding request, it might not be parsable.

Transarc AFS (Andrew File System) requests and replies are printed as: .HD

src.sport > dst.dport: rx packet-type
src.sport > dst.dport: rx packet-type service call call-name args
src.sport > dst.dport: rx packet-type service reply call-name args

elvis.7001 > pike.afsfs:
 rx data fs call rename old fid 536876964/1/1 ".newsrc.new"
 new fid 536876964/1/1 ".newsrc"
pike.afsfs > elvis.7001: rx data fs reply rename

In general, all AFS RPCs are decoded at least by RPC call name. Most AFS RPCs have at least some of the arguments decoded (generally only the `interesting' arguments, for some definition of interesting).

The format is intended to be self-describing, but it will probably not be useful to people who are not familiar with the workings of AFS and RX.

If the -v (verbose) flag is given twice, acknowledgement packets and additional header information is printed, such as the RX call ID, call number, sequence number, serial number, and the RX packet flags.

If the -v flag is given twice, additional information is printed, such as the RX call ID, serial number, and the RX packet flags. The MTU negotiation information is also printed from RX ack packets.

If the -v flag is given three times, the security index and service id are printed.

Error codes are printed for abort packets, with the exception of Ubik beacon packets (because abort packets are used to signify a yes vote for the Ubik protocol).

AFS reply packets do not explicitly identify the RPC operation. Instead, tcpdump keeps track of ``recent'' requests, and matches them to the replies using the call number and service ID. If a reply does not closely follow the corresponding request, it might not be parsable.

AppleTalk DDP packets encapsulated in UDP datagrams are de-encapsulated and dumped as DDP packets (i.e., all the UDP header information is discarded). The file /etc/atalk.names is used to translate AppleTalk net and node numbers to names. Lines in this file have the form

number name

1.254 ether
16.1 icsd-net
1.254.110 ace

AppleTalk addresses are printed in the form

net.host.port

144.1.209.2 > icsd-net.112.220
office.2 > icsd-net.112.220
jssmag.149.235 > icsd-net.2

NBP (name binding protocol) and ATP (AppleTalk transaction protocol) packets have their contents interpreted. Other protocols just dump the protocol name (or number if no name is registered for the protocol) and packet size.

icsd-net.112.220 > jssmag.2: nbp-lkup 190: "=:LaserWriter@*"
jssmag.209.2 > icsd-net.112.220: nbp-reply 190: "RM1140:LaserWriter@*" 250
techpit.2 > icsd-net.112.220: nbp-reply 190: "techpit:LaserWriter@*" 186

jssmag.209.165 > helios.132: atp-req 12266<0-7> 0xae030001
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:0 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:1 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:2 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:3 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:4 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:5 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:6 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp*12266:7 (512) 0xae040000
jssmag.209.165 > helios.132: atp-req 12266<3,5> 0xae030001
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:3 (512) 0xae040000
helios.132 > jssmag.209.165: atp-resp 12266:5 (512) 0xae040000
jssmag.209.165 > helios.132: atp-rel 12266<0-7> 0xae030001
jssmag.209.133 > helios.132: atp-req* 12267<0-7> 0xae030002

Helios responds with 8 512-byte packets. The `:digit' following the transaction id gives the packet sequence number in the transaction and the number in parens is the amount of data in the packet, excluding the ATP header. The `*' on packet 7 indicates that the EOM bit was set.

Jssmag.209 then requests that packets 3 & 5 be retransmitted. Helios resends them then jssmag.209 releases the transaction. Finally, jssmag.209 initiates the next request. The `*' on the request indicates that XO (`exactly once') was not set.

Van Jacobson, Craig Leres and Steven McCanne, all of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA.

It is currently maintained by The Tcpdump Group.

The current version is available via HTTPS:

The original distribution is available via anonymous ftp:

IPv6/IPsec support is added by WIDE/KAME project. This program uses OpenSSL/LibreSSL, under specific configurations.

To report bugs and other problems, contribute patches, request a feature, provide generic feedback etc. please see the file CONTRIBUTING.md in the tcpdump source tree root.

NIT doesn't let you watch your own outbound traffic, BPF will. We recommend that you use the latter.

Some attempt should be made to reassemble IP fragments or, at least to compute the right length for the higher level protocol.

Name server inverse queries are not dumped correctly: the (empty) question section is printed rather than real query in the answer section. Some believe that inverse queries are themselves a bug and prefer to fix the program generating them rather than tcpdump.

A packet trace that crosses a daylight savings time change will give skewed time stamps (the time change is ignored).

Filter expressions on fields other than those in Token Ring headers will not correctly handle source-routed Token Ring packets.

Filter expressions on fields other than those in 802.11 headers will not correctly handle 802.11 data packets with both To DS and From DS set.

"ip6 proto" should chase header chain, but at this moment it does not. "ip6 protochain" is supplied for this behavior.

Arithmetic expression against transport layer headers, like tcp[0], does not work against IPv6 packets. It only looks at IPv4 packets.