path: root/doc/tethereal.pod.template

=head1 NAME

Tethereal - Dump and analyze network traffic

=head1 SYNOPSYS

B<tethereal>
S<[ B<-c> count ]>
S<[ B<-D> ]>
S<[ B<-f> filter expression ]>
S<[ B<-F> file format ]>
S<[ B<-h> ]>
S<[ B<-i> interface ]> 
S<[ B<-n> ]>
S<[ B<-r> infile ]>
S<[ B<-R> filter expression ]>
S<[ B<-s> snaplen ]>
S<[ B<-t> time stamp format ]>
S<[ B<-v> ]>
S<[ B<-V> ]>
S<[ B<-w> savefile ]>
S<[ B<-x> ]>
S<[ filter expression ]>

=head1 DESCRIPTION

B<Tethereal> is a network protocol analyzer.  It lets you capture packet
data from a live network, or read packets from a previously saved
capture file, either printing a decoded form of those packets to the
standard output or writing the packets to a file.  B<Tethereal> knows
how to read B<libpcap> capture files, including those of B<tcpdump>.  In
addition, B<Tethereal> can read capture files from B<snoop> (including
B<Shomiti>) and B<atmsnoop>, B<LanAlyzer>, B<Sniffer> (compressed or
uncompressed), Microsoft B<Network Monitor>, AIX's B<iptrace>,
B<NetXray>, B<Sniffer Pro>, B<RADCOM>'s WAN/LAN analyzer,
B<Lucent/Ascend> router debug output, HP-UX's B<nettl>, the dump output
from B<Toshiba's> ISDN routers, and B<i4btrace> from the ISDN4BSD
project.  There is no need to tell B<Tethereal> what type of file you
are reading; it will determine the file type by itself.  B<Tethereal> is
also capable of reading any of these file formats if they are compressed
using gzip.  B<Tethereal> recognizes this directly from the file; the
'.gz' extension is not required for this purpose.

If the B<-w> flag is not specified, B<Tethereal> prints a decoded form
of the packets it captures or reads; otherwise, it writes those packets
to the file specified by that flag.

When printing a decoded form of packets, B<Tethereal> prints, by
default, a summary line giving a time stamp for the packet if it's
reading a capture file (but not if it's printing packets as it captures
them), the source and destination address for the packet, the top-level
protocol for the packet that B<Tethereal> understands, and a summary of
the packet's contents for that protocol.  If the B<-V> flag is
specified, it prints intead a protocol tree, showing all the fields of
all protocols in the packet.

When writing packets to a file, B<Tethereal>, by default, writes the
file in B<libpcap> format, and writes all of the packets it sees to the
output file.  The B<-F> flag can be used to specify the format in which
to write the file; it can write the file in B<libpcap> format (standard
B<libpcap> format, a modified format used by some patched versions of
B<libpcap>, or the format used by Red Hat Linux 6.1), B<snoop> format,
uncompressed B<Sniffer> format, Microsoft B<Network Monitor> 1.x format,
and the format used by Windows-based versions of the B<Sniffer>
software.

Read filters in B<Tethereal>, which allow you to select which packets
are to be decoded or written to a file, are very powerful; more fields
are filterable in B<Tethereal> than in other protocol analyzers, and the
syntax you can use to create your filters is richer.  As B<Tethereal>
progresses, expect more and more protocol fields to be allowed in read
filters.

Packet capturing is performed with the pcap library.  The capture filter
syntax follows the rules of the pcap library.  This syntax is different
from the read filter syntax.  A read filter can also be specified when
capturing, and only packets that pass the read filter will be displayed
or saved to the output file; note, however, that capture filers are much
more efficient than read filters, and it may be more difficult for
B<Tethereal> to keep up with a busy network if a read filter is
specified for a live capture.

Compressed file support uses (and therefore requires) the zlib library. 
If the zlib library is not present, B<Tethereal> will compile, but will
be unable to read compressed files.

A capture or read filter can either be specified with the B<-f> or B<-R>
option, respectively, in which case the entire filter expression must be
specified as a single argument (which means that if it contains spaces,
it must be quoted), or can be specified with command-line arguments
after the option arguments, in which case all the arguments after the
filter arguments are treated as a filter expression.

=head1 OPTIONS

=over 4

=item -c

Sets the default number of packets to read when capturing live
data.

=item -D

Turns off treating the original IPv4 TOS field as the Differentiated
Services Field. The structure of the DS Field is defined in RFC 2474.

=item -f

Sets the capture filter expression.

=item -F

Sets the file format of the output capture file.

=item -h

Prints the version and options and exits.

=item -i

Sets the name of the network interface to use for live packet capture. 
It should match one of the names listed in "B<netstat -i>" or
"B<ifconfig -a>".  If no interface is specified, B<Tethereal> searches
the list of interfaces, choosing the first non-loopback interface if
there are any non-loopback interfaces, and choosing the first loopback
interface if there are no non-loopback interfaces; if there are no
interfaces, B<Tethereal> reports an error and doesn't start the capture.

=item -n

Disables network object name resolution (such as hostname, TCP and UDP port
names).

=item -r

Reads packet data from I<file>.

=item -R

Causes the specified filter (which uses the syntax of read filters,
rather than that of capture filters) to be applied before printing a
decoded form of packets or writing packets to a file; packets not
matching the filter are discarded rather than being printed or written.

=item -s

Sets the default snapshot length to use when capturing live data. 
No more than I<snaplen> bytes of each network packet will be read into
memory, or saved to disk.

=item -t

Sets the format of the packet timestamp printed in summary lines.
The format can be one of 'r' (relative), 'a' (absolute), or 'd'
(delta).  The relative time is the time elapsed between the first packet
and the current packet.  The absolute time is the actual date and time the
packet was captured.  The delta time is the time since the previous packet
was captured.  The default is relative.

=item -v

Prints the version and exits.

=item -V

Causes B<Tethereal> to print a protocol tree for each packet rather than
a one-line summary of the packet.

=item -w

Writes packet data to I<savefile>.

=item -x

Causes B<Tethereal> to print a hex and ASCII dump of the packet data
after printing the summary or protocol tree.

=back

=head1 CAPTURE FILTER SYNTAX

See manual page of tcpdump(8).

=head1 READ FILTER SYNTAX

Read filters help you remove the noise from a packet trace and let you
see only the packets that interest you.  If a packet meets the
requirements expressed in your read filter, then it is printed.  Read
filters let you compare the fields within a protocol against a specific
value, compare fields against fields, and to check the existence of
specified fields or protocols.

The simplest read filter allows you to check for the existence of a
protocol or field.  If you want to see all packets which contain the IPX
protocol, the filter would be "ipx".  (Without the quotation marks) To
see all packets that contain a Token-Ring RIF field, use "tr.rif".

Fields can also be compared against values.  The comparison operators
can be expressed either through C-like symbols, or through English-like
abbreviations:

    eq, ==    Equal
    ne, !=    Not equal
    gt, >     Greater than
    lt, <     Less Than
    ge, >=    Greater than or Equal to
    le, <=    Less than or Equal to

Furthermore, each protocol field is typed. The types are:

    Unsigned integer (either 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit)
    Signed integer (either 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit)
    Boolean
    Ethernet address (6 bytes)
    Byte string (n-number of bytes)
    IPv4 address
    IPv6 address
    IPX network number
    String (text)
    Double-precision floating point number

An integer may be expressed in decimal, octal, or hexadecimal notation. 
The following three read filters are equivalent:

    frame.pkt_len > 10
    frame.pkt_len > 012
    frame.pkt_len > 0xa

Boolean values are either true or false.  However, a boolean field is
present in a protocol decode only if its value is true.  If the value is
false, the field is not presence.  You can therefore check the truth
value of a boolean field by simply checking for its existence, that is,
by naming the field.  For example, a token-ring packet's source route
field is boolean.  To find any source-routed packets, the read filter
is simply:

    tr.sr

Non source-routed packets can be found with the negation of that filter:

    ! tr.sr

Ethernet addresses, as well as a string of bytes, are represented in hex
digits.  The hex digits may be separated by colons, periods, or hyphens:

    fddi.dst eq ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    ipx.srcnode == 0.0.0.0.0.1
    eth.src == aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa

If a string of bytes contains only one byte, then it is represented as
an unsigned integer.  That is, if you are testing for hex value 'ff' in
a one-byte byte-string, you must compare it agains '0xff' and not 'ff'. 

IPv4 addresses can be represented in either dotted decimal notation, or
by using the hostname:

    ip.dst eq www.mit.edu
    ip.src == 192.168.1.1

IPv4 address can be compared with the same logical relations as numbers:
eq, ne, gt, ge, lt, and le.  The IPv4 address is stored in host order,
so you do not have to worry about how the endianness of an IPv4 address
when using it in a read filter.

Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR) notation can be used to test if an
IPv4 address is in a certain subnet.  For example, this read filter
will find all packets in the 129.111 Class-B network:

    ip.addr == 129.111.0.0/16

Remember, the number after the slash represents the number of bits used
to represent the network.  CIDR notation can also be used with
hostnames, in this example of finding IP addresses on the same Class C
network as 'sneezy':

    ip.addr eq sneezy/24

The CIDR notation can only be used on IP addresses or hostnames, not in
variable names.  So, a read filter like "ip.src/24 == ip.dst/24" is
not valid.  (yet)

IPX networks are represented by unsigned 32-bit integers.  Most likely
you will be using hexadecimal when testing for IPX network values:

    ipx.srcnet == 0xc0a82c00

A substring operator also exists.  You can check the substring
(byte-string) of any protocol or field.  For example, you can filter on
the vendor portion of an ethernet address (the first three bytes) like
this:

    eth.src[0:3] == 00:00:83

Or more simply, since the number of bytes is inherent in the byte-string
you provide, you can provide just the offset.  The previous example can
be stated like this:

    eth.src[0] == 00:00:83

In fact, the only time you need to explicitly provide a length is when
you don't provide a byte-string, and are comparing fields against
fields:

    fddi.src[0:3] == fddi.dst[0:3]

If the length of your byte-string is only one byte, then it must be
represented in the same way as an unsigned 8-bit integer:

    llc[3] == 0xaa

You can use the substring operator on a protocol name, too.  And
remember, the "frame" protocol encompasses the entire packet, allowing
you to look at the nth byte of a packet regardless of its frame type
(Ethernet, token-ring, etc.).

    token[0:5] ne 0.0.0.1.1
    ipx[0:2] == ff:ff
    llc[3:1] eq 0xaa

Offsets for byte-strings can also be negative, in which case the
negative number indicates the number of bytes from the end of the field
or protocol that you are testing.  Here's how to check the last 4 bytes
of a frame:

    frame[-4] == 0.1.2.3

or

    frame[-4:4] == 0.1.2.3

All the above tests can be combined together with logical expressions. 
These too are expressable in C-like syntax or with English-like
abbreviations:

    and, &&   Logical AND
    or, ||    Logical OR
    xor, ^^   Logical XOR
    not, !    Logical NOT

Expressions can be grouped by parentheses as well.  The following are
all valid read filter expression:

    tcp.port == 80 and ip.src == 192.168.2.1
    not llc
    (ipx.srcnet == 0xbad && ipx.srnode == 0.0.0.0.0.1) || ip
    tr.dst[0:3] == 0.6.29 xor tr.src[0:3] == 0.6.29

A special caveat must be given regarding fields that occur more than
once per packet.  "ip.addr" occurs twice per IP packet, once for the
source address, and once for the destination address.  Likewise,
tr.rif.ring fields can occur more than once per packet.  The following
two expressions are not equivalent:

        ip.addr ne 192.168.4.1
    not ip.addr eq 192.168.4.1

The first filter says "show me all packets where an ip.addr exists that
does not equal 192.168.4.1".  That is, as long as one ip.addr in the
packet does not equal 192.168.44.1, the packet passes the display
filter.  The second filter "don't show me any packets that have at least
one ip.addr field equal to 192.168.4.1".  If one ip.addr is 192.168.4.1,
the packet does not pass.  If B<neither> ip.addr fields is 192.168.4.1,
then the packet passes.

It is easy to think of the 'ne' and 'eq' operators as having an implict
"exists" modifier when dealing with multiply-recurring fields.  "ip.addr
ne 192.168.4.1" can be thought of as "there exists an ip.addr that does
not equal 192.168.4.1".

Be careful with multiply-recurring fields; they can be confusing.

The following is a table of protocol and protocol fields that are
filterable in B<Tethereal>.  The abbreviation of the protocol or field is
given.  This abbreviation is what you use in the read filter.  The
type of the field is also given.

=insert_dfilter_table

=head1 FILES

F</etc/ethers> is consulted to correlate 6-byte hardware addresses to
names.  If an address is not found in F</etc/ethers>, the
F<$HOME/.ethereal/ethers> file is consulted next.  Each line contains
one hardware address and name, separated by whitespace.  The digits of
the hardware address are separated by either a colon (:), a dash (-), or
a period (.).  The following three lines are valid lines of an ethers
file:

  ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff          Broadcast
  c0-00-ff-ff-ff-ff          TR_broadcast
  00.00.00.00.00.00          Zero_broadcast

F</usr/local/etc/manuf> matches the 3-byte vendor portion of a 6-byte
hardware address with the manufacturer's name.  The format of the file
is the same as the F</etc/ethers> file, except that each address is
three bytes instead of six.

F</etc/ipxnets> and F<$HOME/.ethereal/ipxnets> correlate 4-byte IPX
network numbers to names.  The format is the same as the F</etc/ethers>
file, except that each address if four bytes instead of six. 
Additionally, the address can be represented a single hexadecimal
number, as is more common in the IPX world, rather than four hex octets. 
For example, these four lines are valid lines of an ipxnets file.

  C0.A8.2C.00              HR
  c0-a8-1c-00              CEO
  00:00:BE:EF              IT_Server1
  110f                     FileServer3

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<ethereal(1)>, L<tcpdump(8)>, L<pcap(3)>

=head1 NOTES

B<Tethereal> is part of the B<Ethereal> distribution.  The latest version
of B<Ethereal> can be found at B<http://ethereal.zing.org>.

=head1 AUTHORS

B<Tethereal> uses the same packet dissection code that B<Ethereal> does,
as well as using many other modules from B<Ethereal>; see the list of
authors in the B<Ethereal> man page for a list of authors of that code.