TCPSLICE linux command manual

TCPSLICE(8)                                                    TCPSLICE(8)



NAME
       tcpslice - extract pieces of and/or glue together tcpdump files

SYNOPSIS
       tcpslice [ -dRrt ] [ -w file ]
                [ start-time [ end-time ] ] file ...

DESCRIPTION
       Tcpslice  is  a  program for extracting portions of packet-trace files
       generated using tcpdump(1)'s -w flag.  It can also  be  used  to  glue
       together several such files, as discussed below.

       The  basic operation of tcpslice is to copy to stdout all packets from
       its input file(s) whose timestamps fall within  a  given  range.   The
       starting and ending times of the range may be specified on the command
       line.  All ranges are inclusive.  The starting time  defaults  to  the
       time  of  the  first  packet in the first input file; we call this the
       first time.  The ending time defaults to ten years after the  starting
       time.   Thus, the command tcpslice trace-file simply copies trace-file
       to stdout (assuming the file does not include  more  than  ten  years'
       worth of data).

       There  are a number of ways to specify times.  The first is using Unix
       timestamps of the form sssssssss.uuuuuu (this is the format  specified
       by tcpdump's -tt flag).  For example, 654321098.7654 specifies 38 sec-
       onds and 765,400 microseconds after 8:51PM PDT, Sept. 25, 1990.

       All examples in this manual are given for PDT times, but when display-
       ing times and interpreting times symbolically as discussed below, tcp-
       slice uses the local timezone, regardless of the timezone in which the
       tcpdump file was generated.  The daylight-savings setting used is that
       which is appropriate for the local timezone at the date  in  question.
       For  example, times associated with summer months will usually include
       daylight-savings effects, and those with winter months will not.

       Times may also be specified relative to either the  first  time  (when
       specifying  a  starting time) or the starting time (when specifying an
       ending time) by preceding a numeric value in seconds with a '+'.   For
       example, a starting time of +200 indicates 200 seconds after the first
       time, and the two arguments +200 +300 indicate from 200 seconds  after
       the first time through 500 seconds after the first time.

       Times  may  also  be specified in terms of years (y), months (m), days
       (d), hours (h), minutes (m), seconds (s),  and  microseconds(u).   For
       example,  the Unix timestamp 654321098.7654 discussed above could also
       be expressed as 90y9m25d20h51m38s765400u.

       When specifying times  using  this  style,  fields  that  are  omitted
       default  as follows.  If the omitted field is a unit greater than that
       of the first specified field, then its value defaults  to  the  corre-
       sponding  value  taken from either first time (if the starting time is
       being specified) or the starting time (if the  ending  time  is  being
       specified).   If  the  omitted  field  is a unit less than that of the
       first specified field, then it defaults to zero.  For example, suppose
       that  the  input file has a first time of the Unix timestamp mentioned
       above, i.e., 38 seconds and 765,400  microseconds  after  8:51PM  PDT,
       Sept.  25,  1990.  To specify 9:36PM PDT (exactly) on the same date we
       could use 21h36m.  To specify a range from 9:36PM PDT  through  1:54AM
       PDT the next day we could use 21h36m 26d1h54m.

       Relative  times  can  also be specified when using the ymdhmsu format.
       Omitted fields then default to 0 if the unit of the field  is  greater
       than that of the first specified field, and to the corresponding value
       taken from either the first time or the starting time if  the  omitted
       field's  unit is less than that of the first specified field.  Given a
       first time of the Unix timestamp mentioned above, 22h +1h10m specifies
       a  range  from  10:00PM  PDT on that date through 11:10PM PDT, and +1h
       +1h10m specifies a range from 38.7654 seconds after 9:51PM PDT through
       38.7654  seconds  after 11:01PM PDT.  The first hour of the file could
       be extracted using +0 +1h.

       Note that with the ymdhmsu format there is an ambiguity between  using
       m  for 'month' or for 'minute'.  The ambiguity is resolved as follows:
       if an m field is followed by a d field then it is interpreted as spec-
       ifying months; otherwise it specifies minutes.

       If  more  than  one input file is specified then tcpslice first copies
       packets lying in  the  given  range  from  the  first  file;  it  then
       increases the starting time of the range to lie just beyond the times-
       tamp of the last packet in the first file, repeats  the  process  with
       the  second  file, and so on.  Thus files with interleaved packets are
       not merged.  For a given file, only packets that are newer than any in
       the  preceding  files  will  be considered.  This mechanism avoids any
       possibility of a packet occurring more than once in the output.

OPTIONS
       If any of -R, -r or -t are specified then tcpslice reports the  times-
       tamps  of  the  first  and  last packets in each input file and exits.
       Only one of these three options may be specified.

       -d     Dump the start and end times specified by the given  range  and
              exit.   This option is useful for checking that the given range
              actually specifies the times you think it does.  If one of  -R,
              -r  or  -t  has been specified then the times are dumped in the
              corresponding format; otherwise, raw format ( -R) is used.

       -R     Dump the timestamps of the first and last packets in each input
              file as raw timestamps (i.e., in the form  sssssssss.uuuuuu).

       -r     Same  as  -R except the timestamps are dumped in human-readable
              format, similar to that used by  date(1).

       -t     Same as -R except the timestamps are dumped in tcpslice format,
              i.e., in the ymdhmsu format discussed above.

       -w     Direct the output to file rather than stdout.

SEE ALSO
       tcpdump(1)

AUTHORS
       The original author was:

       Vern  Paxson,  of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of Califor-
       nia, Berkeley, CA.

       It is currently being maintained by tcpdump.org.

       The current version is available in the ''tcpslice'' module of the CVS
       tree at tcpdump.org; see the tcpdump.org home page at

              https://www.tcpdump.org/

       for information on anonymous CVS access.

       The original distribution is available via anonymous ftp:

              ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/tcpslice.tar.Z

BUGS
       Please  send  problems,  bugs, questions, desirable enhancements, etc.
       to:

              tcpdump-workers@tcpdump.org

       Please send source code contributions, etc. to:

              patches@tcpdump.org

       An input filename that beings with a digit or a '+'  can  be  confused
       with a start/end time.  Such filenames can be specified with a leading
       './';   for   example,   specify   the   file    '04Jul76.trace'    as
       './04Jul76.trace'.

       tcpslice cannot read its input from stdin, since it uses random-access
       to rummage through its input files.

       tcpslice refuses to write to its output if it is a terminal (as  indi-
       cated  by  isatty(3)).  This is not a bug but a feature, to prevent it
       from spraying binary data to the  user's  terminal.   Note  that  this
       means  you  must  either redirect stdout or specify an output file via
       -w.

       tcpslice will not work properly on tcpdump files  spanning  more  than
       one  year;  with  files  containing portions of packets whose original
       length was more than 65,535 bytes; nor  with  files  containing  fewer
       than three packets.  Such files result in the error message: 'couldn't
       find final packet in file'.  These problems are due to the  interpola-
       tion  scheme  used by tcpslice to greatly speed up its processing when
       dealing with large trace files.  Note that  tcpslice  can  efficiently
       extract  slices  from  the  middle of trace files of any size, and can
       also work with truncated trace files (i.e., the final  packet  in  the
       file  is  only  partially  present,  typically  due  to  tcpdump being
       ungracefully killed).



                               21 December 1996                   TCPSLICE(8)