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Ethereal User's Guide
V2.0.2 (16376) for Ethereal 0.10.12
Richard Sharpe, NS Computer Software and Services P/L
Ed Warnicke,
Ulf Lamping,
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Table of Contents
Preface ............................................................................................................................. viii
1. Foreword .............................................................................................................. viii
2. Who should read this document? ................................................................................. ix
3. Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... x
4. About this document ................................................................................................. xi
5. Where to get the latest copy of this document? .............................................................. xii
6. Providing feedback about this document ..................................................................... xiii
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. What is Ethereal? .................................................................................................... 1
1.1.1. Some intended purposes ................................................................................. 1
1.1.2. Features ...................................................................................................... 1
1.1.3. Live capture from many different network media ................................................ 2
1.1.4. Import files from many other capture programs .................................................. 2
1.1.5. Export files for many other capture programs ..................................................... 2
1.1.6. Many protocol decoders ................................................................................. 2
1.1.7. Open Source Software ................................................................................... 2
1.1.8. What Ethereal is not ...................................................................................... 3
1.2. Platforms Ethereal runs on ........................................................................................ 4
1.2.1. Unix ........................................................................................................... 4
1.2.2. Linux ......................................................................................................... 4
1.2.3. Microsoft Windows ....................................................................................... 5
1.3. Where to get Ethereal? ............................................................................................. 6
1.4. A rose by any other name ......................................................................................... 7
1.5. A brief history of Ethereal ......................................................................................... 8
1.6. Development and maintenance of Ethereal ................................................................... 9
1.7. Reporting problems and getting help ..........................................................................10
1.7.1. Website .....................................................................................................10
1.7.2. Wiki ..........................................................................................................10
1.7.3. FAQ ..........................................................................................................10
1.7.4. Mailing Lists ..............................................................................................10
1.7.5. Reporting Problems ......................................................................................11
1.7.6. Reporting Crashes on UNIX/Linux platforms ....................................................11
1.7.7. Reporting Crashes on Windows platforms ........................................................12
2. Building and Installing Ethereal ...........................................................................................14
2.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................14
2.2. Obtaining the source and binary distributions ...............................................................15
2.3. Before you build Ethereal under UNIX .......................................................................16
2.4. Building Ethereal from source under UNIX .................................................................19
2.5. Installing the binaries under UNIX ............................................................................21
2.5.1. Installing from rpm's under RedHat and alike ....................................................21
2.5.2. Installing from deb's under Debian ..................................................................21
2.6. Troubleshooting during the install on Unix ..................................................................22
2.7. Building from source under Windows ........................................................................23
2.8. Installing Ethereal under Windows ............................................................................24
2.8.1. Install Ethereal ............................................................................................24
2.8.2. Install WinPcap ...........................................................................................25
2.8.3. Update Ethereal ...........................................................................................26
2.8.4. Update WinPcap ..........................................................................................26
2.8.5. Uninstall Ethereal ........................................................................................26
2.8.6. Uninstall WinPcap .......................................................................................27
3. User Interface ..................................................................................................................29
3.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................29
3.2. Start Ethereal .........................................................................................................30
3.3. The Main window ..................................................................................................31
3.4. The Menu .............................................................................................................33
3.5. The "File" menu .....................................................................................................34
3.6. The "Edit" menu ....................................................................................................37
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3.7. The "View" menu ...................................................................................................39
3.8. The "Go" menu ......................................................................................................42
3.9. The "Capture" menu ...............................................................................................44
3.10. The "Analyze" menu .............................................................................................46
3.11. The "Statistics" menu ............................................................................................48
3.12. The "Help" menu ..................................................................................................50
3.13. The "Main" toolbar ...............................................................................................52
3.14. The "Filter" toolbar ...............................................................................................55
3.15. The "Packet List" pane ..........................................................................................56
3.16. The "Packet Details" pane ......................................................................................57
3.17. The "Packet Bytes" pane ........................................................................................58
3.18. The Statusbar .......................................................................................................59
4. Capturing Live Network Data .............................................................................................61
4.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................61
4.2. Prerequisites ..........................................................................................................62
4.3. Start Capturing ......................................................................................................63
4.4. The "Capture Interfaces" dialog box ...........................................................................64
4.5. The "Capture Options" dialog box .............................................................................65
4.5.1. Capture frame .............................................................................................65
4.5.2. Capture File(s) frame ....................................................................................67
4.5.3. Stop Capture... frame ....................................................................................67
4.5.4. Display Options frame ..................................................................................68
4.5.5. Name Resolution frame ................................................................................68
4.5.6. Buttons ......................................................................................................68
4.6. Capture files and file modes .....................................................................................69
4.7. Link-layer header type ............................................................................................71
4.8. Filtering while capturing ..........................................................................................72
4.9. While a Capture is running ... ...................................................................................74
4.9.1. Stop the running capture ...............................................................................74
4.9.2. Restart a running capture ...............................................................................75
5. File Input / Output and Printing ...........................................................................................77
5.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................77
5.2. Open capture files ..................................................................................................78
5.2.1. The "Open Capture File" dialog box ................................................................78
5.2.2. Input File Formats ........................................................................................79
5.3. Saving captured packets ..........................................................................................81
5.3.1. The "Save Capture File As" dialog box ............................................................81
5.3.2. Output File Formats .....................................................................................83
5.4. Merging capture files ..............................................................................................84
5.4.1. The "Merge with Capture File" dialog box ........................................................84
5.5. File Sets ...............................................................................................................86
5.5.1. The "List Files" dialog box ............................................................................86
5.6. Exporting data .......................................................................................................87
5.6.1. The "Export as Plain Text File" dialog box .......................................................87
5.6.2. The "Export as PostScript File" dialog box .......................................................87
5.6.3. The "Export as CSV (Comma Seperated Values) File" dialog box .........................88
5.6.4. The "Export as PSML File" dialog box ............................................................88
5.6.5. The "Export as PDML File" dialog box ............................................................89
5.6.6. The "Export selected packet bytes" dialog box ...................................................90
5.7. Printing packets .....................................................................................................92
5.7.1. The "Print" dialog box ..................................................................................92
5.8. The Packet Range frame ..........................................................................................94
5.9. The Packet Format frame .........................................................................................95
6. Working with captured packets ............................................................................................97
6.1. Viewing packets you have captured ...........................................................................97
6.2. Filtering packets while viewing ............................................................................... 103
6.3. Building display filter expressions ........................................................................... 105
6.3.1. Display filter fields .................................................................................... 105
6.3.2. Comparing values ...................................................................................... 105
6.3.3. Combining expressions ............................................................................... 106
6.3.4. A common mistake .................................................................................... 108
6.4. The "Filter Expression" dialog box .......................................................................... 109
6.5. Defining and saving filters ..................................................................................... 111
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6.6. Finding packets .................................................................................................... 113
6.6.1. The "Find Packet" dialog box ....................................................................... 113
6.6.2. The "Find Next" command .......................................................................... 114
6.6.3. The "Find Previous" command ..................................................................... 114
6.7. Go to a specific packet .......................................................................................... 115
6.7.1. The "Go Back" command ............................................................................ 115
6.7.2. The "Go Forward" command ....................................................................... 115
6.7.3. The "Go to Packet" dialog box ..................................................................... 115
6.7.4. The "Go to Corresponding Packet" command .................................................. 115
6.7.5. The "Go to First Packet" command ............................................................... 115
6.7.6. The "Go to Last Packet" command ................................................................ 115
6.8. Marking packets ................................................................................................... 116
6.9. Time display formats and time references ................................................................. 117
6.9.1. Packet time referencing ............................................................................... 117
7. Advanced Features .......................................................................................................... 120
7.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 120
7.2. Following TCP streams ......................................................................................... 121
7.2.1. The "Follow TCP stream" dialog box ............................................................ 121
7.3. Packet Reassembling ............................................................................................ 123
7.3.1. What is it? ................................................................................................ 123
7.3.2. How Ethereal handles it .............................................................................. 123
7.3.3. Reassembling is disabled by default! ............................................................. 123
7.4. Name Resolution .................................................................................................. 124
7.4.1. Ethernet name resolution (MAC layer) ........................................................... 124
7.4.2. IP name resolution (network layer) ................................................................ 124
7.4.3. IPX name resolution (network layer) ............................................................. 125
7.4.4. TCP/UDP port name resolution (transport layer) .............................................. 125
8. Statistics ....................................................................................................................... 127
8.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 127
8.2. The "Summary" window ........................................................................................ 128
8.3. The "Protocol Hierarchy" window ........................................................................... 130
8.4. Endpoints ........................................................................................................... 132
8.4.1. What is an Endpoint? .................................................................................. 132
8.4.2. The "Endpoints" window ............................................................................. 132
8.4.3. The protocol specific "Endpoint List" windows ............................................... 133
8.5. Conversations ...................................................................................................... 134
8.5.1. What is a Conversation? .............................................................................. 134
8.5.2. The "Conversations" window ....................................................................... 134
8.5.3. The protocol specific "Conversation List" windows .......................................... 134
8.6. The "IO Graphs" window ....................................................................................... 135
8.7. Service Response Time ......................................................................................... 137
8.7.1. The "Service Response Time DCE-RPC" window ............................................ 137
8.8. The protocol specific statistics windows ................................................................... 139
9. Customizing Ethereal ...................................................................................................... 141
9.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 141
9.2. Start Ethereal from the command line ....................................................................... 142
9.3. Packet colorization ............................................................................................... 146
9.4. Control Protocol dissection .................................................................................... 149
9.4.1. The "Enabled Protocols" dialog box .............................................................. 149
9.4.2. User Specified Decodes .............................................................................. 151
9.4.3. Show User Specified Decodes ...................................................................... 152
9.5. Preferences ......................................................................................................... 153
A. Configuration (and other) Files and Folders ......................................................................... 156
A.1. Windows folders ................................................................................................. 159
A.1.1. Windows profiles ...................................................................................... 159
A.1.2. Windows NT/2000/XP roaming profiles ........................................................ 160
A.1.3. Windows temporary folder ......................................................................... 160
B. Protocols and Protocol Fields ........................................................................................... 162
C. Related command line tools ............................................................................................. 163
C.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 163
C.2. tcpdump: Capturing with tcpdump for viewing with Ethereal ...................................... 164
C.3. tethereal: Terminal-based Ethereal ......................................................................... 165
C.4. capinfos: Print information about capture files .......................................................... 166
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C.5. editcap: Edit capture files ..................................................................................... 167
C.6. mergecap: Merging multiple capture files into one .................................................... 170
C.7. text2pcap: Converting ASCII hexdumps to network captures ...................................... 173
C.8. idl2eth: Creating dissectors from Corba IDL files ...................................................... 176
C.8.1. What is it? ............................................................................................... 176
C.8.2. Why do this? ............................................................................................ 176
C.8.3. How to use idl2eth ..................................................................................... 176
C.8.4. TODO ..................................................................................................... 177
C.8.5. Limitations .............................................................................................. 178
C.8.6. Notes ...................................................................................................... 178
D. This Document's License (GPL) ........................................................................................ 180
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Preface
1. Foreword
Ethereal is one of those programs that many network managers would love to be able to use, but
they are often prevented from getting what they would like from Ethereal because of the lack of
documentation.
This document is part of an effort by the Ethereal team to improve the usability of Ethereal.
We hope that you find it useful, and look forward to your comments.
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Preface
2. Who should read this document?
The intended audience of this book is anyone using Ethereal.
This book will explain all the basics and also some of the advanced features that Ethereal provides.
As Ethereal has become a very complex program since the early days, not every feature of Ethereal
might be explained in this book.
This book is not intended to explain network sniffing in general and it will not provide details about
specific network protocols. A lot of useful information regarding these topics can be found at the
Ethereal Wiki at http://wiki.ethereal.com
By reading this book, you will learn how to install Ethereal, how to use the basic elements of the
graphical user interface (like the menu) and what's behind some of the advanced features that are
maybe not that obvious at first sight. It will hopefully guide you around some common problems
that frequently appears for new (and sometimes even advanced) users of Ethereal.
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Preface
3. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the whole Ethereal team for their assistance. In particular, the au-
thors would like to thank:
•
•
•
Gerald Combs, for initiating the Ethereal project and funding to do this documentation.
Guy Harris, for many helpful hints and a great deal of patience in reviewing this document.
Gilbert Ramirez, for general encouragement and helpful hints along the way.
The authors would also like to thank the following people for their helpful feedback on this docu-
ment:
•
•
•
Pat Eyler, for his suggestions on improving the example on generating a backtrace.
Martin Regner, for his various suggestions and corrections.
Graeme Hewson, for a lot of grammatical corrections.
The authors would like to acknowledge those man page and README authors for the ethereal
project from who sections of this document borrow heavily:
•
•
•
ture files into one ” is derived.
hexdumps to network captures ” is derived.
from Corba IDL files ” is derived.
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Preface
4. About this document
It is written in DocBook/XML.
You will find some specially marked parts in this book:
This is a warning!
You should pay attention to a warning, as otherwise data loss might occur.
This is a note!
A note will point you to common mistakes and things that might not be obvious.
This is a tip!
Tips will be helpful for your everyday work using Ethereal.
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Preface
6. Providing feedback about this document
Should you have any feedback about this document, please send them to the authors through ethere-
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Preface
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Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. What is Ethereal?
Ethereal is a network packet analyzer. A network packet analyzer will try to capture network pack-
ets and tries to display that packet data as detailed as possible.
You could think of a network packet analyzer as a measuring device used to examine what's going
on inside a network cable, just like a voltmeter is used by an electrician to examine what's going on
inside an electric cable (but at a higher level, of course).
In the past, such tools were either very expensive, proprietary, or both. However, with the advent of
Ethereal, all that has changed.
Ethereal is perhaps one of the best open source packet analyzers available today.
1.1.1. Some intended purposes
Here are some examples people use Ethereal for:
•
•
•
•
network administrators use it to troubleshoot network problems
network security engineers use it to examine security problems
developers use it to debug protocol implementations
people use it to learn network protocol internals
Beside these examples, Ethereal can be helpful in many other situations too.
1.1.2. Features
The following are some of the many features Ethereal provides:
•
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•
•
•
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•
•
•
•
Available for UNIX and Windows.
Capture live packet data from a network interface.
Display packets with very detailed protocol information.
Open and Save packet data captured.
Import and Export packet data from and to a lot of other capture programs.
Filter packets on many criteria.
Search for packets on many criteria.
Colorize packet display based on filters.
Create various statistics.
... and a lot more!
However, to really appreciate its power, you have to start using it.
having captured some packets and waiting for you to examine them.
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Introduction
Figure 1.1. Ethereal captures packets and allows you to examine their content.
1.1.3. Live capture from many different network media
Despite its name, Ethereal can capture traffic from network media other than Ethernet. Which media
types are supported, depends on many things like the operating system you are using. An overview
1.1.4. Import files from many other capture programs
Ethereal can open packets captured from a large number of other capture programs. For a list of in-
1.1.5. Export files for many other capture programs
Ethereal can save packets captured in a large number of formats of other capture programs. For a list
1.1.6. Many protocol decoders
There are protocol decoders (or dissectors, as they are known in Ethereal) for a great many proto-
1.1.7. Open Source Software
Ethereal is an open source software project, and is released under the GNU General Public Licence
(GPL). You can freely use Ethereal on any number of computers you like, without worrying about
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Introduction
license keys or fees or such. In addition, all source code is freely available under the GPL. Because
of that, it is very easy for people to add new protocols to Ethereal, either as plugins, or built into the
source, and they often do!
1.1.8. What Ethereal is not
Here are some things Ethereal does not provide:
•
•
Ethereal isn't an intrusion detection system. It will not warn you when someone does strange
things on your network that he/she isn't allowed to do. However, if strange things happen, Ether-
eal might help you figure out what is really going on.
Ethereal will not manipulate things on the network, it will only "measure" things from it. Ethere-
al doesn't send packets on the network or do other active things (except for name resolutions, but
even that can be disabled).
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Introduction
1.2. Platforms Ethereal runs on
Ethereal currently runs on most UNIX platforms and various Windows platforms. It requires GTK+,
GLib, libpcap and some other libraries in order to run.
If a binary package is not available for your platform, you should download the source and try to
Binary packages are available for at least the following platforms:
1.2.1. Unix
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Apple Mac OS X
BeOS
FreeBSD
HP-UX
IBM AIX
NetBSD
OpenBSD
SCO UnixWare/OpenUnix
SGI Irix
Sun Solaris/Intel
Sun Solaris/Sparc
Tru64 UNIX (formerly Digital UNIX)
1.2.2. Linux
•
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Debian GNU/Linux
Gentoo Linux
IBM S/390 Linux (Red Hat)
Mandrake Linux
PLD Linux
Red Hat Linux
Rock Linux
Slackware Linux
Suse Linux
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Introduction
1.2.3. Microsoft Windows
Maintained:
•
•
Windows Server 2003 / XP / 2000 / NT 4.0
Windows Me / 98
Unsupported/Unmaintained (because lack of required libraries):
•
•
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Windows CE
Windows NT / XP Embedded
Windows 95 is no longer actively maintained by WinPcap, but still may work perfectly
No experiences (fresh versions):
•
•
Windows XP 64-bit Edition
Windows Vista (aka Longhorn)
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Introduction
1.3. Where to get Ethereal?
You can get the latest copy of the program from the Ethereal website: ht-
tp://www.ethereal.com/download.html. The website allows you to choose from among several mir-
rors for downloading.
A new Ethereal version will typically become available every 4-8 weeks.
If you want to be notified about new Ethereal releases, you should subscribe to the ethereal-an-
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Introduction
1.4. A rose by any other name
William Shakespeare wrote: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." And so it is with
Ethereal, as there appears to be two different ways that people pronounce the name.
Some people pronounce it ether-real, while others pronounce it e-the-real, as in ghostly, insubstan-
tial, etc.
You are welcome to call it what you like, as long as you find it useful. The FAQ gives the official
pronunciation as "e-the-real".
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Introduction
1.5. A brief history of Ethereal
In late 1997, Gerald Combs needed a tool for tracking down networking problems and wanted to
learn more about networking, so he started writing Ethereal as a way to solve both problems.
Ethereal was initially released, after several pauses in development, in July 1998 as version 0.2.0.
Within days, patches, bug reports, and words of encouragement started arriving, so Ethereal was on
its way to success.
Not long after that Gilbert Ramirez saw its potential and contributed a low-level dissector to it.
In October, 1998, Guy Harris of Network Appliance was looking for something better than tcpview,
so he started applying patches and contributing dissectors to Ethereal.
In late 1998, Richard Sharpe, who was giving TCP/IP courses, saw its potential on such courses,
and started looking at it to see if it supported the protocols he needed. While it didn't at that point,
new protocols could be easily added. So he started contributing dissectors and contributing patches.
The list of people who have contributed to Ethereal has become very long since then, and almost all
of them started with a protocol that they needed that Ethereal did not already handle. So they copied
an existing dissector and contributed the code back to the team.
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Introduction
1.6.
Development and maintenance of
Ethereal
Ethereal was initially developed by Gerald Combs. Ongoing development and maintenance of Eth-
ereal is handled by the Ethereal team, a loose group of individuals who fix bugs and provide new
functionality.
There have also been a large number of people who have contributed protocol dissectors to Ethereal,
and it is expected that this will continue. You can find a list of the people who have contributed
code to Ethereal by checking the about dialog box of Ethereal, or at the authors page on the Ethereal
web site.
Ethereal is an open source software project, and is released under the GNU General Public Licence
(GPL). All source code is freely available under the GPL. You are welcome to modify Ethereal to
suit your own needs, and it would be appreciated if you contribute your improvements back to the
Ethereal team.
You gain three benefits by contributing your improvements back to the community:
•
•
Other people who find your contributions useful will appreciate them, and you will know that
you have helped people in the same way that the developers of Ethereal have helped people.
The developers of Ethereal might improve your changes even more, as there's always room for
improvements. Or they may implement some advanced things on top of your code, which can be
useful for yourself too.
•
The maintainers and developers of Ethereal will maintain your code as well, fixing it when API
changes or other changes are made, and generally keeping it in tune with what is happening with
Ethereal. So if Ethereal is updated (which is done often), you can get a new Ethereal version
from the website and your changes will already be included without any effort for you.
The Ethereal source code and binary kits for some platforms are all available on the download page
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Introduction
1.7. Reporting problems and getting help
If you have problems, or need help with Ethereal, there are several places that may be of interest to
you (well, beside this guide of course).
1.7.1. Website
1.7.2. Wiki
The Ethereal Wiki at http://wiki.ethereal.com provides a wide range of information related to Ether-
eal and packet capturing in general. You will find a lot of information not part of this user's guide.
For example, there is an explanation how to capture on a switched network, an ongoing effort to
build a protocol reference and a lot more.
And best of all, if you would like to contribute your knowledge on a specific topic (maybe a net-
work protocol you know well), you can edit the wiki pages by simply using your webbrowser.
1.7.3. FAQ
The "Frequently Asked Questions" will list often asked questions and the corresponding answers.
Read the FAQ!
Before sending any mail to the mailing lists below, be sure to read the FAQ, as it will
often answer the question(s) you might have. This will save yourself and others a lot of
time (keep in mind that a lot of people are subscribed to the mailing lists).
You will find the FAQ inside Ethereal by clicking the menu item Help/Contents and selecting the
FAQ page in the upcoming dialog.
prefer this online version, as it's typically more up to date and the HTML format is easier to use.
1.7.4. Mailing Lists
There are several mailing lists of specific Ethereal topics available:
ethereal-announce
ethereal-users
ethereal-dev
This mailing list will inform you about new program releases, which
usually appear about every 4-8 weeks.
This list is for users of Ethereal. People post questions about building
and using Ethereal, others (hopefully) provide answers.
This list is for Ethereal developers. If you want to start developing a
protocol dissector, join this list.
Simply select the mailing lists link on the left hand side of the site. The lists are archived at the Eth-
ereal web site as well.
Tip!
You can search in the list archives to see if someone asked the same question some
time before and maybe already got an answer. That way you don't have to wait until
someone answers your question.
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Introduction
1.7.5. Reporting Problems
Note!
Before reporting any problems, please make sure you have installed the latest version
of Ethereal.
When reporting problems with Ethereal, it is helpful if you supply the following information:
1. The version number of Ethereal and the dependent libraries linked with it, eg GTK+, etc. You
can obtain this with the command ethereal -v.
2. Information about the platform you run Ethereal on.
3. A detailed description of your problem.
4. If you get an error/warning message, copy the text of that message (and also a few lines before
and after it, if there are some), so others may find the place where things go wrong. Please don't
give something like: "I get a warning while doing x" as this won't give a good idea where to
look at.
Don't send large files!
Do not send large files (>100KB) to the mailing lists, just place a note that further data
is available on request. Large files will only annoy a lot of people on the list who are
not interested in your specific problem. If required, you will be asked for further data
by the persons who really can help you.
Don't send confidential information!
If you send captured data to the mailing lists, be sure they don't contain any sensitive
or confidential information like passwords or such.
1.7.6. Reporting Crashes on UNIX/Linux platforms
When reporting crashes with Ethereal, it is helpful if you supply the traceback information (besides
the information mentioned in "Reporting Problems").
You can obtain this traceback information with the following commands:
$ gdb `whereis ethereal | cut -f2 -d: | cut -d' ' -f2` core >& bt.txt
backtrace
^D
$
Note
Type the characters in the first line verbatim! Those are back-tics there!
Note
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Introduction
backtrace is a gdb command. You should enter it verbatim after the first line shown
above, but it will not be echoed. The ^D (Control-D, that is, press the Control key and
the D key together) will cause gdb to exit. This will leave you with a file called
bt.txt in the current directory. Include the file with your bug report.
Note
If you do not have gdb available, you will have to check out your operating system's
debugger.
1.7.7. Reporting Crashes on Windows platforms
The Windows distributions don't contain the symbol files (.pdb), because they are very large. For
this reason it's not possible to create a meaningful backtrace file from it. You should report your
crash just like other problems, using the mechanism described above.
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Introduction
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Chapter 2. Building and Installing
Ethereal
2.1. Introduction
As with all things, there must be a beginning, and so it is with Ethereal. To use Ethereal, you must:
•
•
Obtain a binary package for your operating system, or
Obtain the source and build Ethereal for your operating system.
Currently, only two or three Linux distributions ship Ethereal, and they are commonly shipping an
out-of-date version. No other versions of UNIX ship Ethereal so far, and Microsoft does not ship it
with any version of Windows. For that reason, you will need to know where to get the latest version
of Ethereal and how to install it.
This chapter shows you how to obtain source and binary packages, and how to build Ethereal from
source, should you choose to do so.
The following are the general steps you would use:
1. Download the relevant package for your needs, e.g. source or binary distribution.
2. Build the source into a binary, if you have downloaded the source.
This may involve building and/or installing other necessary packages.
3. Install the binaries into their final destinations.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.2. Obtaining the source and binary
distributions
You can obtain both source and binary distributions from the Ethereal web site: ht-
tp://www.ethereal.com. Simply select the download link, and then select either the source package
or binary package of your choice from the mirror site closest to you.
Download all required files!
In general, unless you have already downloaded Ethereal before, you will most likely
need to download several source packages if you are building Ethereal from source.
This is covered in more detail below.
Once you have downloaded the relevant files, you can go on to the next step.
Note!
While you will find a number of binary packages available on the Ethereal web site,
you might not find one for your platform, and they often tend to be several versions
behind the current released version, as they are contributed by people who have the
platforms they are built for.
For this reason, you might want to pull down the source distribution and build it, as the
process is relatively simple.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.3. Before you build Ethereal under UNIX
Before you build Ethereal from sources, or install a binary package, you must ensure that you have
the following other packages installed:
•
•
GTK+, The GIMP Tool Kit.
You will also need Glib. Both can be obtained from www.gtk.org
libpcap, the packet capture software that Ethereal uses.
You can obtain libpcap from www.tcpdump.org
Depending on your system, you may be able to install these from binaries, e.g. RPMs, or you may
need to obtain them in source code form and build them.
If you have downloaded the source for GTK+, the instructions shown in Example 2.1, “Building
GTK+ from source” may provide some help in building it:
Example 2.1. Building GTK+ from source
gzip -dc gtk+-1.2.10.tar.gz | tar xvf -
<much output removed>
cd gtk+-1.2.10
./configure
<much output removed>
make
<much output removed>
make install
<much output removed>
Note!
You may need to change the version number of gtk+ in Example 2.1, “Building GTK+
from source” to match the version of GTK+ you have downloaded. The directory you
change to will change if the version of GTK+ changes, and in all cases, tar xvf - will
show you the name of the directory you should change to.
Note!
If you use Linux, or have GNU tar installed, you can use tar zxvf gtk+-1.2.10.tar.gz.
It is also possible to use gunzip -c or gzcat rather than gzip -dc on many UNIX sys-
tems.
Note!
If you downloaded gtk+ or any other tar file using Windows, you may find your file
called gtk+-1_2_8_tar.gz.
You should consult the GTK+ web site if any errors occur in carrying out the instructions in Ex-
If you have downloaded the source to libpcap, the general instructions shown in Example 2.2,
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Building and Installing Ethereal
“Building and installing libpcap” will assist in building it. Also, if your operating system does not
Example 2.2. Building and installing libpcap
gzip -dc libpcap-0.8.3.tar.Z | tar xvf -
<much output removed>
cd libpcap_0_8_3
./configure
<much output removed>
make
<much output removed>
make install
<much output removed>
make install-incl
<much output removed>
Note!
The directory you should change to will depend on the version of libpcap you have
downloaded. In all cases, tar xvf - will show you the name of the directory that has
been unpacked.
When installing the include files, you might get the error shown in Example 2.3, “Errors while in-
Example 2.3. Errors while installing the libpcap include files
/usr/local/include/pcap.h
/usr/bin/install -c -m 444 -o bin -g bin ./pcap-namedb.h \
/usr/local/include/pcap-namedb.h
/usr/bin/install -c -m 444 -o bin -g bin ./net/bpf.h \
/usr/local/include/net/bpf.h
/usr/bin/install: cannot create regular file \
`/usr/local/include/net/bpf.h': No such file or directory
make: *** [install-incl] Error 1
If you do, simply create the missing directory with the following command:
mkdir /usr/local/include/net
and rerun the command make install-incl.
Under RedHat 6.x and beyond (and distributions based on it, like Mandrake) you can simply install
each of the packages you need from RPMs. Most Linux systems will install GTK+ and GLib in any-
case, however, you will probably need to install the devel versions of each of these packages. The
” will install all the needed RPMs if they are not already installed.
Example 2.4. Installing required RPMs under RedHat Linux 6.2 and beyond
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Building and Installing Ethereal
cd /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS
rpm -ivh glib-1.2.6-3.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh glib-devel-1.2.6-3.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh gtk+-1.2.6-7.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh gtk+-devel-1.2.6-7.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh libpcap-0.4-19.i386.rpm
Note
If you are using a version of RedHat later than 6.2, the required RPMs have most
likely changed. Simply use the correct RPMs from your distribution.
Under Debian you can install Ethereal using apt-get. apt-get will handle any dependency issues for
Example 2.5. Installing debs under Debian
apt-get install ethereal
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.4. Building Ethereal from source under
UNIX
Use the following general steps if you are building Ethereal from source under a UNIX operating
system:
1. Unpack the source from its gzip'd tar file. If you are using Linux, or your version of UNIX
uses GNU tar, you can use the following command:
tar zxvf ethereal-0.10.12-tar.gz
For other versions of UNIX, You will want to use the following commands:
gzip -d ethereal-0.10.12-tar.gz
tar xvf ethereal-0.10.12-tar
Note!
The pipeline gzip -dc ethereal-0.10.12-tar.gz | tar xvf - will work here as well.
Note!
If you have downloaded the Ethereal tarball under Windows, you may find that
your browser has created a file with underscores rather than periods in its file
name.
2. Change directory to the Ethereal source directory.
3. Configure your source so it will build correctly for your version of UNIX. You can do this with
the following command:
./configure
If this step fails, you will have to rectify the problems and rerun configure. Troubleshooting
4. Build the sources into a binary, with the make command. For example:
make
5. Install the software in its final destination, using the command:
make install
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Building and Installing Ethereal
Once you have installed Ethereal with make install above, you should be able to run it by entering
ethereal.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.5. Installing the binaries under UNIX
In general, installing the binary under your version of UNIX will be specific to the installation meth-
ods used with your version of UNIX. For example, under AIX, you would use smit to install the
Ethereal binary package, while under Tru64 UNIX (formerly Digital UNIX) you would use setld.
2.5.1. Installing from rpm's under RedHat and alike
Use the following command to install the Ethereal RPM that you have downloaded from the Ethere-
al web site:
rpm -ivh ethereal-0.10.5-0.2.2.i386.rpm
If the above step fails because of missing dependencies, install the dependencies first, and then retry
the step above. See Example 2.4, “ Installing required RPMs under RedHat Linux 6.2 and beyond ”
for information on what RPMs you will need to have installed.
2.5.2. Installing from deb's under Debian
Use the following command to install Ethereal under Debian:
apt-get install ethereal
apt-get should take care of all of the dependency issues for you.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.6. Troubleshooting during the install on
Unix
A number of errors can occur during the installation process. Some hints on solving these are
provided here.
If the configure stage fails, you will need to find out why. You can check the file config.log in
the source directory to find out what failed. The last few lines of this file should help in determining
the problem.
The standard problems are that you do not have GTK+ on your system, or you do not have a recent
enough version of GTK+. The configure will also fail if you do not have libpcap (at least the re-
quired include files) on your system.
Another common problem is for the final compile and link stage to terminate with a complaint of:
Output too long. This is likely to be caused by an antiquated sed (such as the one shipped with Sol-
aris). Since sed is used by the libtool script to construct the final link command, this leads to mys-
If you cannot determine what the problems are, send mail to the ethereal-dev mailing list explain-
ing your problem, and including the output from config.log and anything else you think is rel-
evant, like a trace of the make stage.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.7. Building from source under Windows
It is recommended to use the binary installer for Windows, until you want to start developing Ether-
eal on the Windows platform.
For further information how to build Ethereal for Windows from the sources, have a look at the De-
mentation.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.8. Installing Ethereal under Windows
In this section we explore installing Ethereal under Windows from the binary packages.
2.8.1. Install Ethereal
You may acquire a binary installer of Ethereal named something like: ethereal-
setup-x.y.z.exe.
execute it.
Note!
Since Ethereal Version 0.10.12, the WinPcap installer has become part of the
main Ethereal installer, so you don't need to download and install two separate
packages any longer!
2.8.1.1. Command line options
You can simply start the Ethereal installer without any command line parameters, it will show you
the usual interactive installer.
There are some command line parameters available:
•
•
/NCRC disables the CRC check
/S runs the installer or uninstaller silently with default values. Please note: The silent installer
won't install WinPCap!
•
•
•
/desktopicon installation of the desktop icon, =yes - force installation, =no - don't install, other-
wise use defaults / user settings. This option is available since 0.10.13 an can be useful for a si-
lent installer.
/quicklaunchicon installation of the quick launch icon, =yes - force installation, =no - don't in-
stall, otherwise use defaults / user settings. This option is available since 0.10.13 an can be use-
ful for a silent installer.
/D sets the default installation directory ($INSTDIR), overriding InstallDir and InstallDir-
RegKey. It must be the last parameter used in the command line and must not contain any
quotes, even if the path contains spaces.
Example:
ethereal-setup-0.10.13.exe /NCRC /S /desktopicon=yes /quicklaunchicon=no /D=C:\P
2.8.1.2. Components
Beside the usual installer options like where to install the program, there are several optional com-
ponents.
Tip!
If you are unsure which settings to select, just keep the default settings.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
The Components (both Ethereal GTK1 and 2 cannot be installed at the same time):
•
•
Etheral GTK1 - Ethereal is a GUI network protocol analyzer.
Etheral GTK2 - Ethereal is a GUI network protocol analyzer (using the modern GTK2 GUI
toolkit, recommended).
•
GTK-Wimp - GTKWimp is the GTK2 windows impersonator (native Win32 look and feel, re-
commended).
•
Tethereal - Tethereal is a command-line based network protocol analyzer.
The dissection extensions for Ethereal and Tethereal:
•
•
•
Dissector Plugins - Plugins with some extended dissections.
Tree Statistics Plugins - Plugins with some extended statistics.
Mate - Meta Analysis and Tracing Engine - user configurable extension(s) of the display filter
•
SNMP MIBs - SNMP MIBs for a more detailed SNMP dissection.
The Tools:
•
•
•
•
Editcap - Editcap is a program that reads a capture file and writes some or all of the packets into
another capture file.
Text2Pcap - Text2pcap is a program that reads in an ASCII hex dump and writes the data into a
libpcap-style capture file.
Mergecap - Mergecap is a program that combines multiple saved capture files into a single out-
put file.
Capinfos - Capinfos is a program that provides information on capture files.
The Additional Tasks:
•
•
•
•
Start Menu Shortcuts - add some start menu shortcuts.
Desktop Icon - add an Ethereal icon to the desktop.
Quick Launch Icon - add an Ethereal icon to the Explorer quick launch toolbar.
Associate file extensions to Ethereal - Associate standard network trace files to Ethereal.
2.8.2. Install WinPcap
Note!
As mentioned above, the Ethereal installer (since version 0.10.12) takes care of
the installation of WinPcap, so usually you don't have to worry about WinPcap at
all!
If you do not have WinPcap installed you will be able to open saved capture files, but you will not
be able to capture live network traffic.
While running, the Ethereal installer detects which WinPcap version is currently installed and will
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Building and Installing Ethereal
install WinPcap, if none or an older version is detected.
More WinPcap info:
•
•
Ethereal related: http://wiki.ethereal.com/WinPcap
General WinPcap info: http://www.winpcap.org
2.8.2.1. Manual WinPcap Installation
The following is only necessary if you want to try a different version than the one included in the
Ethereal installer, e.g. because a new WinPcap (beta) version was released.
Additional WinPcap versions (including newer alpha or beta releases) can be downloaded from the
following locations:
•
•
•
The main WinPcap site: http://www.winpcap.org
The ethereal.com mirror: http://winpcap.mirror.ethereal.com
The Wiretapped.net mirror: http://www.mirrors.wiretapped.net/security/packet-capture/winpcap
At the download page you will find a single installer exe called something like "auto-installer",
which can be installed under various Windows systems, including 9x/Me/NT4.0/2000/XP.
2.8.3. Update Ethereal
From time to time you may want to update your installed Ethereal to a more recent version. If you
join Ethereal's announce mailing list, you will be informed about new Ethereal versions, see Sec-
tion 1.7.4, “Mailing Lists” for details how to subscribe to this list.
New versions of Ethereal usually become available every 4-8 weeks. Updating Ethereal is done the
same way as installing it, you simply download and start the installer exe. A reboot is usually not re-
quired and all your personal settings remain unchanged.
2.8.4. Update WinPcap
New versions of WinPcap are less frequently available, maybe only once in a year. You will find
WinPcap update instructions where you can download new WinPcap versions. Usually you have to
reboot the machine after installing a new WinPcap version.
Warning!
If you have an older version of WinPcap installed, you must un-install it before in-
stalling the current version. Recent versions of the WinPcap installer will take care of
this.
2.8.5. Uninstall Ethereal
You can uninstall Ethereal the usual way, using the "Add or Remove Programs" option inside the
Control Panel. Select the "Ethereal" entry to start the uninstallation procedure.
The Ethereal uninstaller will provide several options which things to be uninstalled, the default is to
remove the core components but keep the personal settings, WinPcap and alike.
WinPcap won't be uninstalled by default, as other programs than Ethereal may use it as well.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
2.8.6. Uninstall WinPcap
You can uninstall WinPcap independantly of Ethereal, using the "WinPcap" entry in the "Add or
Remove Programs" of the Control Panel.
Note!
After uninstallation of WinPcap you can't capture anything with Ethereal.
It might be a good idea to reboot Windows afterwards.
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Building and Installing Ethereal
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Chapter 3. User Interface
3.1. Introduction
By now you have installed Ethereal and are most likely keen to get started capturing your first pack-
ets. In the next chapters we will explore:
•
•
•
•
•
How the Ethereal user interface works
How to capture packets in Ethereal
How to view packets in Ethereal
How to filter packets in Ethereal
... and many other things!
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User Interface
3.2. Start Ethereal
You can start Ethereal from your shell or window manager.
Tip!
When starting Ethereal it's possible to specify optional settings using the command
Note!
In the following chapters, a lot of screenshots from Ethereal will be shown. As Ethere-
al runs on many different platforms and there are different versions of the underlying
GUI toolkit (GTK 1.x / 2.x) used, your screen might look different from the provided
screenshots. But as there are no real differences in functionality, these screenshots
should still be well understandable.
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User Interface
3.3. The Main window
usually see it after some packets captured or loaded (how to do this will be described later).
Figure 3.1. The Main window
Ethereal's main window consist of parts that are commonly known from many other GUI programs.
used items from the menu.
packet captured. By clicking on packets in this pane you control what is displayed in the other
two panes.
lected in the packet list pane in more detail.
packet selected in the packet list pane, and highlights the field selected in the packet details
pane.
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User Interface
current program state and the captured data.
Tip!
The layout of the main window can be customized by changing preference settings.
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User Interface
3.4. The Menu
The Ethereal menu sits on top of the Ethereal window. An example is shown in Figure 3.2, “The
Note!
Menu items will be greyed out if the corresponding feature isn't available. For ex-
ample, you cannot save a capture file if you didn't capture or load any data before.
Figure 3.2. The Menu
It contains the following items:
File
This menu contains items to open and merge capture files, save / print / export
capture files in whole or in part, and to quit from Ethereal. See Section 3.5, “The
Edit
View
This menu contains items to find a packet, time reference or mark one or more
packets, set your preferences, (cut, copy, and paste are not presently implemented).
This menu controls the display of the captured data, including the colorization of
packets, zooming the font, show a packet in a separate window, expand and col-
Go
This menu contains items to go to a specific packet. See Section 3.8, “The "Go"
Capture
Analyze
This menu allows you to start and stop captures and to edit capture filters. See Sec-
This menu contains items to manipulate display filters, enable or disable the dis-
section of protocols, configure user specified decodes and follow a TCP stream.
Statistics
Help
This menu contains menu-items to display various statistic windows, including a
summary of the packets that have been captured, display protocol hierarchy statist-
This menu contains items to help the user, like access to some basic help, a list of
the supported protocols, manual pages, online access to some of the webpages, and
Each of these menu items is described in more detail in the sections that follow.
Tip!
You can access menu items directly or by pressing the corresponding accelerator keys,
which are shown at the right side of the menu. For example, you can press the Control
(or Strg in German) and the K keys together to open the capture dialog.
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User Interface
3.5. The "File" menu
Figure 3.3. The "File" Menu
Table 3.1. File menu items
Menu Item
Open...
Accelerator
Description
Ctrl+O
This menu item brings up the file open dialog box that allows you to load
a capture file for viewing. It is discussed in more detail in Section 5.2.1,
Open Recent
Merge...
Close
This menu item shows a submenu containing the recently opened capture
files. Clicking on one of the submenu items will open the corresponding
capture file directly.
This menu item brings up the merge file dialog box that allows you to
merge a capture file into the currently loaded one. It is discussed in more
Ctrl+W
This menu item closes the current capture. If you haven't saved the cap-
ture, you will be asked to do so first (this can be disabled by a preference
setting).
------
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User Interface
Menu Item
Save
Accelerator
Description
Ctrl+S
This menu item saves the current capture. If you have not set a default
capture file name (perhaps with the -w <capfile> option), Ethereal pops
up the Save Capture File As dialog box (which is discussed further in
Note!
If you have already saved the current capture, this menu
item will be greyed out.
Note!
You cannot save a live capture while it is in progress. You
must stop the capture in order to save.
Save As...
------
Shift+Ctrl+S
This menu item allows you to save the current capture file to whatever
file you would like. It pops up the Save Capture File As dialog box
(which is discussed further in Section 5.3.1, “The "Save Capture File As"
File Set > List
Files
This menu item allows you to show a list of files in a file set. It pops up
the Ethereal List File Set dialog box (which is discussed further in Sec-
File Set > Next
File
If the currently loaded file is part of a file set, jump to the next file in the
set. If it isn't part of a file set or just the last file in that set, this item is
greyed out.
File Set > Pre-
vious File
If the currently loaded file is part of a file set, jump to the previous file in
the set. If it isn't part of a file set or just the first file in that set, this item
is greyed out.
------
Export
"Plain Text"
file...
>
as
This menu item allows you to export all, or some, of the packets in the
capture file to a plain ASCII text file. It pops up the Ethereal Export dia-
log box (which is discussed further in Section 5.6.1, “The "Export as
Export
"PostScript"
file...
>
as
This menu item allows you to export the (or some) of the packets in the
capture file to a PostScript file. It pops up the Ethereal Export dialog box
(which is discussed further in Section 5.6.2, “The "Export as PostScript
Export
"CSV"
(Comma Sep-
arated Values
packet
mary) file...
>
as
This menu item allows you to export the (or some) of the packet summar-
ies in the capture file to a .csv file (e.g. used by spreadsheet programs). It
pops up the Ethereal Export dialog box (which is discussed further in
sum-
Export
"PSML" file...
>
as
This menu item allows you to export the (or some) of the packets in the
capture file to a PSML (packet summary markup language) XML file. It
pops up the Ethereal Export dialog box (which is discussed further in
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User Interface
Menu Item
Export
"PDML" file...
Accelerator
Description
>
as
This menu item allows you to export the (or some) of the packets in the
capture file to a PDML (packet details markup language) XML file. It
pops up the Ethereal Export dialog box (which is discussed further in
Export > Selec- Ctrl+H
This menu item allows you to export the currently selected bytes in the
packet bytes pane to a binary file. It pops up the Ethereal Export dialog
box (which is discussed further in Section 5.6.6, “The "Export selected
ted
Packet
Bytes...
------
Print...
Ctrl+P
Ctrl+Q
This menu item allows you to print all (or some of) the packets in the
capture file. It pops up the Ethereal Print dialog box (which is discussed
------
Quit
This menu item allows you to quit from Ethereal. Ethereal will ask to
save your capture file if you haven't saved it before (this can be disabled
by a preference setting).
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User Interface
3.6. The "Edit" menu
Figure 3.4. The "Edit" Menu
Table 3.2. Edit menu items
Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Find Packet... Ctrl+F
This menu item brings up a dialog box that allows you to find a packet by
many criteria. There is further information on finding packets in Sec-
Find Next
Ctrl+N
This menu item tries to find the next packet matching the settings from
"Find Packet...".
Find Previous Ctrl+B
This menu item tries to find the previous packet matching the settings
from "Find Packet...".
------
Time Reference Ctrl+T
> Set Time Ref-
erence (toggle)
This menu item set a time reference on the currently selected packet. See
Section 6.9.1, “Packet time referencing” for more information about the
time referenced packets.
Time Reference
> Find Next
This menu item tries to find the next time referenced packet.
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User Interface
Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Time Reference
> Find Previ-
ous
This menu item tries to find the previous time referenced packet.
Mark Packet Ctrl+M
(toggle)
This menu item "marks" the currently selected packet. See Section 6.8,
“Marking packets” for details.
Mark All Pack-
ets
This menu item "marks" all packets.
Unmark
Packets
All
This menu item "unmarks" all marked packets.
------
Preferences... Shift+Ctrl+P
This menu item brings up a dialog box that allows you to set preferences
for many parameters that control Ethereal. You can also save your prefer-
ences so Ethereal will use them the next time you start it. More detail is
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3.7. The "View" menu
Figure 3.5. The "View" Menu
Table 3.3. View menu items
Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Main Toolbar
This menu item hides or shows the main toolbar, see Section 3.13, “The
Filter Toolbar
Statusbar
This menu item hides or shows the filter toolbar, see Section 3.14, “The
This menu item hides or shows the statusbar, see Section 3.18, “The
------
Packet List
This menu item hides or shows the packet list pane, see Section 3.15,
Packet Details
This menu item hides or shows the packet details pane, see Section 3.16,
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Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Packet Bytes
This menu item hides or shows the packet bytes pane, see Section 3.17,
------
Time Display
Format > Time
of Day
Selecting this tells Ethereal to display time stamps in time of day format,
Note!
The fields "Time of Day", "Date and Time of Day",
"Seconds Since Beginning of Capture" and "Seconds Since
Previous Packet" are mutually exclusive.
Time Display
Format > Date
and Time of
Day
Selecting this tells Ethereal to display the time stamps in date and time of
Time Display
Selecting this tells Ethereal to display time stamps in seconds since be-
ginning of capture format, see Section 6.9, “Time display formats and
Format
>
Seconds Since
Beginning
Capture
of
Time Display
Format
Seconds Since
Previous Pack-
et
Selecting this tells Ethereal to display time stamps in seconds since previ-
ous packet format, see Section 6.9, “Time display formats and time refer-
>
Name Resolu-
tion > Resolve
Name
This item allows you to trigger a name resolve of the current packet only,
Name Resolu-
tion > Enable
for MAC Layer
This item allows you to control whether or not Ethereal translates MAC
Name Resolu-
tion > Enable
This item allows you to control whether or not Ethereal translates net-
for
Network
Layer
Name Resolu-
tion > Enable
for Transport
Layer
This item allows you to control whether or not Ethereal translates trans-
Colorize Packet
List
This item allows you to control wether or not Ethereal should colorize
the packet list.
Note!
Enabling colorization will slow down the display of new
packets while capturing / loading capture files.
Auto Scroll in
Live Capture
This item allows you to specify that Ethereal should scroll the packet list
pane as new packets come in, so you are always looking at the last pack-
et. If you do not specify this, Ethereal simply adds new packets onto the
end of the list, but does not scroll the packet list pane.
------
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Menu Item
Zoom In
Accelerator
Description
Ctrl++
Zoom into the packet data (increase the font size).
Zoom out of the packet data (decrease the font size).
Set zoom level back to 100% (set font size back to normal).
Resize all column widths so the content will fit into it.
Note!
Zoom Out
Ctrl+-
Ctrl+=
Normal Size
Resize
Columns
All
Resizing may take a significant amount of time, especially
if a large capture file is loaded.
------
Expand Sub-
trees
This menu item expands the currently selected subtree in the packet de-
tails tree.
Expand All
Ethereal keeps a list of all the protocol subtrees that are expanded, and
uses it to ensure that the correct subtrees are expanded when you display
a packet. This menu item expands all subtrees in all packets in the cap-
ture.
Collapse All
------
This menu item collapses the tree view of all packets in the capture list.
Coloring
Rules...
This menu item brings up a dialog box that allows you to color packets in
the packet list pane according to filter expressions you choose. It can be
very useful for spotting certain types of packets, see Section 9.3, “Packet
------
Show Packet in
New Window
This menu item brings up the selected packet in a separate window. The
separate window shows only the tree view and byte view panes.
Reload
Ctrl-R
This menu item allows you to reload the current capture file.
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User Interface
3.8. The "Go" menu
Figure 3.6. The "Go" Menu
Table 3.4. Go menu items
Menu Item
Back
Accelerator
Description
Alt+Left
Jump to the recently visited packet in the packet history, much like the
page history in a web browser.
Forward
Alt+Right
Jump to the next visited packet in the packet history, much like the page
history in a web browser.
Go to Packet... Ctrl-G
Bring up a dialog box that allows you to specify a packet number, and
details.
Go to Corres-
ponding Packet
Go to the corresponding packet of the currently selected protocol field. If
the selected field doesn't correspond to a packet, this item is greyed out.
------
First Packet
Jump to the first packet of the capture file.
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Menu Item
Last Packet
Accelerator
Description
Jump to the last packet of the capture file.
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3.9. The "Capture" menu
Figure 3.7. The "Capture" Menu
Table 3.5. Capture menu items
Menu Item
Interfaces...
Accelerator
Description
This menu item brings up a dialog box that shows what's going on at the
network interfaces Ethereal knows of, see Section 4.4, “The "Capture In-
Options...
Ctrl+K
This menu item brings up the Capture Options dialog box (discussed fur-
to start capturing packets.
Start
Immediately start capturing packets with the same settings than the last
time.
Stop
Ctrl+E
This menu item stops the currently running capture, see Section 4.9.1,
Restart
This menu item stops the currently running capture and starts again with
the same options, this is just for convenience.
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Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Capture
ters...
Fil-
This menu item brings up a dialog box that allows you to create and edit
capture filters. You can name filters, and you can save them for future
use. More detail on this subject is provided in Section 6.5, “Defining and
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3.10. The "Analyze" menu
Figure 3.8. The "Analyze" Menu
Table 3.6. Analyze menu items
Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Display
ters...
Fil-
This menu item brings up a dialog box that allows you to create and edit
display filters. You can name filters, and you can save them for future
use. More detail on this subject is provided in Section 6.5, “Defining and
Apply as Filter
> ...
These menu items will change the current display filter and apply the
changed filter immediately. Depending on the chosen menu item, the cur-
rent display filter string will be replaced or appended to by the selected
protocol field in the packet details pane.
Prepare a Fil-
ter > ...
These menu items will change the current display filter but won't apply
the changed filter. Depending on the chosen menu item, the current dis-
play filter string will be replaced or appended to by the selected protocol
field in the packet details pane.
------
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Menu Item
Accelerator
Description
Enabled Proto- Shift+Ctrl+R
cols...
This menu item allows the user to enable/disable protocol dissectors, see
Decode As...
This menu item allows the user to force Ethereal to decode certain pack-
ets as a particular protocol, see Section 9.4.2, “User Specified Decodes”
User Specified
Decodes...
This menu item allows the user to force Ethereal to decode certain pack-
ets as a particular protocol, see Section 9.4.3, “Show User Specified De-
------
Follow
Stream
TCP
This menu item brings up a separate window and displays all the TCP
segments captured that are on the same TCP connection as a selected
packet, see Section 7.2, “Following TCP streams”
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3.11. The "Statistics" menu
Figure 3.9. The "Statistics" Menu
All menu items will bring up a new window showing specific statistical information.
Table 3.7. Statistics menu items
Menu Item
Summary
Accelerator
Description
Show information about the data captured, see Section 8.2, “The "Sum-
Protocol Hier-
archy
Display a hierarchical tree of protocol statistics, see Section 8.3, “The
Conversations
Endpoints
Display a list of conversations (traffic between two endpoints), see Sec-
Display a list of endpoints (traffic to/from an address), see Section 8.4.2,
IO Graphs
Display user specified graphs (e.g. the number of packets in the course of
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Menu Item
------
Accelerator
Description
Conversation
List
Display a list of conversations, obsoleted by the combined window of
Conversations above, see Section 8.5.3, “The protocol specific "Conversa-
Endpoint List
Display a list of endpoints, obsoleted by the combined window of End-
points above, see Section 8.4.3, “The protocol specific "Endpoint List"
Service
sponse Time
Re-
Display the time between a request and the corresponding response, see
------
ANSI
GSM
H.225...
ISUP Message
Types
MTP3
RTP
SCTP
SIP
VoIP Calls...
WAP-WSP...
------
BOOTP-DHCP
HTTP
HTTP request/response statistics, see Section 8.8, “The protocol specific
ISUP Messages
ONC-RPC Pro-
grams
TCP
Stream
Graph
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3.12. The "Help" menu
Figure 3.10. The "Help" Menu
Table 3.8. Help menu items
Menu Item
Contents
Accelerator
Description
F1
This menu item brings up a basic help system.
Supported Pro-
tocols
This menu item brings up a dialog box showing the supported protocols
and protocol fields.
Manual Pages
> ...
This menu item starts a Web browser showing one of the locally installed
html manual pages.
Ethereal On-
line > ...
This menu item starts a Web browser showing the chosen webpage from:
------
About Ethereal
This menu item brings up an information window that provides some in-
formation on Ethereal, such as the plugins, the used folders, ...
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Note!
Calling a Web browser might be unsupported in your version of Ethereal. If this is the
case, the corresponding menu items will be hidden.
Note!
If calling a Web browser fails on your machine, maybe because just nothing happens
or the browser is started but no page is shown, have a look at the webbrowser setting
in the preferences dialog.
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3.13. The "Main" toolbar
The main toolbar provides quick access to frequently used items from the menu. This toolbar cannot
be customized by the user, but it can be hidden using the View menu, if the space on the screen is
needed to show even more packet data.
As in the menu, only the items useful in the current program state will be available. The others will
be greyed out (e.g. you cannot save a capture file if you haven't loaded one).
Figure 3.11. The "Main" toolbar
Table 3.9. Main toolbar items
Toolbar Toolbar Item
Icon
Corresponding
Menu Item
Description
Interfaces...
Capture/Inter-
faces...
This item brings up the Capture Interfaces List dialog box
Options...
Capture/Options...
This item brings up the Capture Options dialog box
lows you to start capturing packets.
Start
Capture/Start
Capture/Stop
Capture/Restart
This item starts capturing packets with the options form the
last time.
Stop
This item stops the currently running live capture process
Restart
This item stops the currently running live capture process and
restarts it again, for convenience.
------
Open...
File/Open...
This item brings up the file open dialog box that allows you
to load a capture file for viewing. It is discussed in more de-
Save As...
File/Save As...
This item allows you to save the current capture file to
whatever file you would like. It pops up the Save Capture
File As dialog box (which is discussed further in Sec-
Note!
If you currently have a temporary capture file,
the Save icon
will be shown instead.
Close
File/Close
This item closes the current capture. If you have not saved
the capture, you will be asked to save it first.
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Toolbar Toolbar Item
Icon
Corresponding
Menu Item
Description
Reload
View/Reload
This item allows you to reload the current capture file.
Print...
File/Print...
This item allows you to print all (or some of) the packets in
the capture file. It pops up the Ethereal Print dialog box
(which is discussed further in Section 5.7, “Printing
packets”).
------
Find Packet...
Edit/Find Packet...
This item brings up a dialog box that allows you to find a
packet. There is further information on finding packets in
Go Back
Go/Go Back
This item jumps back in the packet history.
This item jumps forward in the packet history.
Go Forward
Go to Packet...
Go/Go Forward
Go/Go to Packet...
This item brings up a dialog box that allows you to specify a
packet number to go to that packet.
Go
Packet
To
First Go/First Packet
This item jumps to the first packet of the capture file.
This item jumps to the last packet of the capture file.
Go To Last Pack- Go/Last Packet
et
------
------
Colorize
View/Colorize
Colorize the packet list (or not).
Auto Scroll in View/Auto Scroll
Live Capture
Auto scroll packet list while doing a live capture (or not).
in Live Capture
Zoom In
View/Zoom In
Zoom into the packet data (increase the font size).
Zoom out of the packet data (decrease the font size).
Set zoom level back to 100%.
Zoom Out
Normal Size
View/Zoom Out
View/Normal Size
Resize Columns View/Resize
Resize columns, so the content fits into them.
Columns
------
Capture Filters... Capture/Capture
This item brings up a dialog box that allows you to create and
edit capture filters. You can name filters, and you can save
them for future use. More detail on this subject is provided in
Filters...
Display Filters... Analyze/Display
This item brings up a dialog box that allows you to create and
edit display filters. You can name filters, and you can save
them for future use. More detail on this subject is provided in
Filters...
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Toolbar Toolbar Item
Icon
Corresponding
Menu Item
Description
Coloring Rules... View/Coloring
This item brings up a dialog box that allows you color pack-
ets in the packet list pane according to filter expressions you
choose. It can be very useful for spotting certain types of
packets. More detail on this subject is provided in Sec-
Rules...
Preferences...
Edit/Preferences
Help/Contents
This item brings up a dialog box that allows you to set prefer-
ences for many parameters that control Ethereal. You can
also save your preferences so Ethereal will use them the next
time you start it. More detail is provided in Section 9.5,
------
Help
This item brings up help dialog box.
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3.14. The "Filter" toolbar
The filter toolbar lets you quickly edit and apply display filters. More information on display filters
Figure 3.12. The "Filter" toolbar
•
•
The leftmost button labeled "Filter:" can be clicked to bring up the filter construction dialog, de-
The left middle text box provides an area to enter or edit display filter strings, see Section 6.3,
“Building display filter expressions” . A syntax check of your filter string is done while you are
typing. The background will turn red if you enter an incomplete or invalid string, and will be-
come green when you enter a valid string. You can click on the pull down arrow to select a pre-
viously-entered filter string from a list. The entries in the pull down list will remain available
even after a program restart.
Note!
After you've changed something in this field, don't forget to press the Apply button
(or the Enter/Return key), to apply this filter string to the display.
Note!
This field is also where the current filter in effect is displayed.
•
The middle button labeled "Add Expression..." opens a dialog box that lets you edit a display fil-
ter from a list of protocol fields, described in Section 6.4, “The "Filter Expression" dialog box”
•
•
The right middle button labeled "Clear" resets the current display filter and clears the edit area.
The rightmost button labeled "Apply" applies the current value in the edit area as the new dis-
play filter.
Note!
Applying a display filter on large capture files might take quite a long time!
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3.15. The "Packet List" pane
The packet list pane displays all the packets in the current capture file.
Figure 3.13. The "Packet List" pane
Each line in the packet list corresponds to one packet in the capture file. If you select a line in this
pane, more details will be displayed in the "Packet Details" and "Packet Bytes" panes.
While dissecting a packet, Ethereal will place information from the protocol dissectors into the
columns. As higher level protocols might overwrite information from lower levels, you will typic-
ally see the information from the highest possible level only.
For example, let's look at a packet containing TCP inside IP inside an Ethernet packet. The Ethernet
dissector will write its data (such as the Ethernet addresses), the IP dissector will overwrite this by
its own (such as the IP addresses), the TCP dissector will overwrite the IP information, and so on.
There are a lot of different columns available. Which columns are displayed can be selected by pref-
The default columns will show:
•
•
No. The number of the packet in the capture file. This number won't change, even if a display
filter is used.
Time The timestamp of the packet. The presentation format of this timestamp can be changed,
•
•
•
•
Source The address where this packet is coming from.
Destination The address where this packet is going to.
Protocol The protocol name in a short (perhaps abbreviated) version.
Info Additional information about the packet content.
There is a context menu (right mouse click) available, see details in Figure 6.3, “Pop-up menu of
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3.16. The "Packet Details" pane
The packet details pane shows the current packet (selected in the "Packet List" pane) in a more de-
tailed form.
Figure 3.14. The "Packet Details" pane
This pane shows the protocols and protocol fields of the packet selected in the "Packet List" pane.
The protocols and fields of the packet are displayed using a tree, which can be expanded and col-
lapsed.
There is a context menu (right mouse click) available, see details in Figure 6.4, “Pop-up menu of
Some protocol fields are specially displayed.
•
•
Generated fields Ethereal itself will generate additional protocol fields which are surrounded by
brackets. The information in these fields is derived from the known context to other packets in
the capture file. For example, Ethereal is doing a sequence/acknowledge analysis of each TCP
stream, which is displayed in the [SEQ/ACK analysis] fields of the TCP protocol.
Links If Ethereal detected a relationship to another packet in the capture file, it will generate a
link to that packet. Links are underlined and displayed in blue. If double-clicked, Ethereal jumps
to the corresponding packet.
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3.17. The "Packet Bytes" pane
The packet bytes pane shows the data of the current packet (selected in the "Packet List" pane) in a
hexdump style.
Figure 3.15. The "Packet Bytes" pane
As usual for a hexdump, the left side shows the offset in the packet data, in the middle the packet
data is shown in a hexadecimal representation and on the right the corresponding ASCII characters
(or . if not appropriate) are displayed.
There is a context menu (right mouse click) available, see details in Figure 6.5, “Pop-up menu of
Depending on the packet data, sometimes more than one page is available, e.g. when Ethereal has
this case there are some additional tabs shown at the bottom of the pane to let you select the page
you want to see.
Figure 3.16. The "Packet Bytes" pane with tabs
Note!
The additional pages might contain data picked from multiple packets.
The context menu (right mouse click) of the tab labels will show a list of all available pages. This
can be helpful if the size in the pane is too small for all the tab labels.
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3.18. The Statusbar
The statusbar displays informational messages.
In general, the left side will show context related information, while the right side will show the cur-
rent number of packets.
Figure 3.17. The initial Statusbar
This statusbar is shown while no capture file is loaded, e.g. when Ethereal is started.
Figure 3.18. The Statusbar with a loaded capture file
The left side shows information about the capture file, its name, its size and the elapsed time while it
was being captured.
The right side shows the current number of packets in the capture file. The following values are dis-
played:
•
•
•
P: the number of captured packets
D: the number of packets currently being displayed
M: the number of marked packets
Figure 3.19. The Statusbar with a selected protocol field
This is displayed if you have selected a protocol field from the "Packet Details" pane.
Tip!
The value between the brackets (in this example arp.opcode) can be used as a display
filter string, representing the selected protocol field.
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Chapter 4. Capturing Live Network
Data
4.1. Introduction
Capturing live network data is one of the major features of Ethereal.
The Ethereal capture engine provides the following features:
•
•
Capture from different kinds of network hardware (Ethernet, Token Ring, ATM, ...).
Stop the capture on different triggers like: amount of captured data, captured time, captured
number of packets.
•
•
Simultaneously show decoded packets while keep on capturing.
Filter packets, reducing the amount of data to be captured, see Section 4.8, “Filtering while cap-
•
Capturing into multiple files while doing a long term capture, and in addition the option to form
a ringbuffer of these files, keeping only the last x files, useful for a "very long term" capture, see
The capture engine still lacks the following features:
•
•
Simultaneous capturing from multiple network interfaces (however, you can start multiple in-
stances of Ethereal and merge capture files later).
Stop capturing (or doing some other action), depending on the captured data.
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Capturing Live Network Data
4.2. Prerequisites
Setting up Ethereal to capture packets for the first time can be tricky.
Tip!
A
comprehensive guide "How To setup
a
Capture" is available at: ht-
Here are some common pitfalls:
•
•
•
•
You need to have root / Administrator privileges to start a live capture.
You need to choose the right network interface to capture packet data from.
You need to capture at the right place in the network to see the traffic you want to see.
... and a lot more!.
If you have any problems setting up your capture environment, you should have a look at the guide
mentioned above.
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Capturing Live Network Data
4.3. Start Capturing
One of the following methods can be used to start capturing packets with Ethereal:
•
You can get an overview of the available local interfaces using the "
Capture Interfaces"
this dialog box, using (one of) the "Capture" button(s).
•
•
•
You can start capturing using the "
Capture Options" dialog box, see Figure 4.2, “The
If you have selected the right capture options before, you can immediately start a capture using
the " Capture Start" menu / toolbar item. The capture process will start immediately.
If you already know the name of the capture interface, you can start Ethereal from the command
line and use the following:
ethereal -i eth0 -k
This will start Ethereal capturing on interface eth0, more details can be found at: Section 9.2,
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Capturing Live Network Data
4.4. The "Capture Interfaces" dialog box
When you select "Interfaces..." from the Capture menu, Ethereal pops up the "Capture Interfaces"
Warning!
As the "Capture Interfaces" dialog is showing live captured data, it is consuming a lot
of system ressources. Close this dialog as soon as possible to prevent excessive system
load.
Note!
This dialog box will only show the local interfaces Ethereal knows of. As Ethereal
might not be able to detect all local interfaces, and it cannot detect the remote inter-
faces available, there could be more capture interfaces available than listed.
Figure 4.1. The "Capture Interfaces" dialog box
Description
IP
The interface description provided by the operating system.
The first IP address Ethereal could resolve from this interface. If no address
could be resolved (e.g. no DHCP server available), "unknown" will be displayed.
If more than one IP address could be resolved, only the first is shown
(unpredictable which one in that case).
Packets
The number of packets captured from this interface, since this dialog was opened.
Will be greyed out, if no packet was captured in the last second.
Packets/s
Number of packets captured in the last second. Will be greyed out, if no packet
was captured in the last second.
Stop
Stop a currently running capture.
Capture
Start a capture on this interface immediately, using the settings from the last cap-
ture.
Prepare
Close
Open the Capture Options dialog with this interface selected, see Section 4.5,
Close this dialog box.
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Capturing Live Network Data
4.5. The "Capture Options" dialog box
When you select Start... from the Capture menu (or use the corresponding item in the "Main" tool-
bar), Ethereal pops up the "Capture Options" dialog box as shown in Figure 4.2, “The "Capture Op-
Figure 4.2. The "Capture Options" dialog box
Tip!
If you are unsure which options to choose in this dialog box, just try keeping the de-
faults as this should work well in many cases.
You can set the following fields in this dialog box:
4.5.1. Capture frame
Interface
This field specifies the interface you want to capture on. You
can only capture on one interface, and you can only capture
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Capturing Live Network Data
on interfaces that Ethereal has found on the system. It is a
drop-down list, so simply click on the button on the right
hand side and select the interface you want. It defaults to the
first non-loopback interface that supports capturing, and if
there are none, the first loopback interface. On some systems,
loopback interfaces cannot be used for capturing (loopback
interfaces are not available on Windows platforms).
This field performs the same function as the -i <interface>
command line option.
IP address
The IP address(es) of the selected interface. If no address
could be resolved from the system, "unknown" will be shown.
Link-layer header type
Unless you are in the rare situation that you need this, just
keep the default. For a detailed description, see Section 4.7,
Buffer size: n megabyte(s)
Enter the buffer size to be used while capturing. This is the
size of the kernel buffer which will keep the captured packets,
until they are written to disk. If you encounter packet drops,
try increasing this value.
Note
This option is only available on Windows plat-
forms.
Capture packets in promiscuous
mode
This checkbox allows you to specify that Ethereal should put
the interface in promiscuous mode when capturing. If you do
not specify this, Ethereal will only capture the packets going
to or from your computer (not all packets on your LAN seg-
ment).
Note
If some other process has put the interface in
promiscuous mode you may be capturing in
promiscuous mode even if you turn off this op-
tion
Note
Even in promiscuous mode you still won't ne-
cessarily see all packets on your LAN segment,
for some more explanations.
Limit each packet to n bytes
This field allows you to specify the maximum amount of data
that will be captured for each packet, and is sometimes re-
ferred to as the snaplen. If disabled, the default is 65535,
which will be sufficient for most protocols. Some rules of
thumb:
•
•
If you are unsure, just keep the default value.
If you don't need all of the data in a packet - for example,
if you only need the link-layer, IP, and TCP headers - you
might want to choose a small snapshot length, as less
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CPU time is required for copying packets, less buffer
space is required for packets, and thus perhaps fewer
packets will be dropped if traffic is very heavy.
•
If you don't capture all of the data in a packet, you might
find that the packet data you want is in the part that's
dropped, or that reassembly isn't possible as the data re-
quired for reassembly is missing.
Capture Filter
This field allows you to specify a capture filter. Capture fil-
ters are discussed in more details in Section 4.8, “Filtering
while capturing”. It defaults to empty, or no filter.
You can also click on the button labelled Capture Filter, and
Ethereal will bring up the Capture Filters dialog box and al-
low you to create and/or select a filter. Please see Section 6.5,
4.5.2. Capture File(s) frame
An explanation about capture file usage can be found in Section 4.6, “Capture files and file modes”.
File
This field allows you to specify the file name that will be
used for the capture file. This field is left blank by default. If
the field is left blank, the capture data will be stored in a tem-
details.
You can also click on the button to the right of this field to
browse through the filesystem.
Use multiple files
Instead of using a single file, Ethereal will automatically
switch to a new one, if a specific trigger condition is reached.
Next file every n megabyte(s)
Multiple files only: Switch to the next file after the given
number of byte(s)/kilobyte(s)/megabyte(s)/gigabyte(s) have
been captured.
Next file every n minute(s)
Multiple files only: Switch to the next file after the given
number of second(s)/minutes(s)/hours(s)/days(s) have
elapsed.
Ring buffer with n files
Multiple files only: Form a ring buffer of the capture files,
with the given number of files.
Stop capture after n file(s)
Multiple files only: Stop capturing after switching to the next
file the given number of times.
4.5.3. Stop Capture... frame
... after n packet(s)
Stop capturing after the given number of packets have been
captured.
... after n megabytes(s)
Stop
capturing
after
the
given
number
of
byte(s)/kilobyte(s)/megabyte(s)/gigabyte(s) have been cap-
tured. This option is greyed out, if "Use multiple files" is se-
lected.
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... after n minute(s)
Stop
capturing
after
the
given
number
of
second(s)/minutes(s)/hours(s)/days(s) have elapsed.
4.5.4. Display Options frame
Update list This option allows you to specify that Ethereal should update the packet list pane in
of packets real time. If you do not specify this, Ethereal does not display any packets until you
in real
time
stop the capture. When you check this, Ethereal captures in a separate process and
feeds the captures to the display process.
Automatic This option allows you to specify that Ethereal should scroll the packet list pane as
scrolling in new packets come in, so you are always looking at the last packet. If you do not spe-
live cap-
ture
cify this, Ethereal simply adds new packets onto the end of the list, but does not scroll
the packet list pane. This option is greyed out if "Update list of packets in real time"
is disabled.
Hide cap-
ture info
If this option is checked, the following capture info dialog will be hidden.
4.5.5. dNiaalogme Resolution frame
Enable MAC name resolution
This option allows you to control whether or not Ethereal
translates MAC addresses into names, see Section 7.4, “Name
Enable network name resolution This option allows you to control whether or not Ethereal
translates network addresses into names, see Section 7.4,
Enable transport name resolu-
tion
This option allows you to control whether or not Ethereal
translates transport addresses into protocols, see Section 7.4,
4.5.6. Buttons
Once you have set the values you desire and have selected the options you need, simply click on
OK to commence the capture, or Cancel to cancel the capture.
If you start a capture, Ethereal allows you to stop capturing when you have enough packets cap-
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4.6. Capture files and file modes
While capturing, the underlying libpcap capturing engine will grab the packets from the network
card and keep the packet data in a (relatively) small kernel buffer. This data is read by Ethereal and
saved into the capture file(s) the user specified.
Different modes of operation are available when saving this packet data to the capture file(s).
Tip!
Working with large files (several 100 MB's) can be quite slow. If you plan to do a long
term capture or capturing from a high traffic network, think about using one of the
"Multiple files" options. This will spread the captured packets over several smaller
files which can be much more pleasant to work with.
Note!
Using Multiple files may cut context related information. Ethereal keeps context in-
formation of the loaded packet data, so it can report context related problems (like a
stream error) and keeps information about context related protocols (e.g. where data is
exchanged at the establishing phase and only referred to in later packets). As it keeps
this information only for the loaded file, using one of the multiple file modes may cut
these contexts. If the establishing phase is saved in one file and the things you would
like to see is in another, you might not see some of the valuable context related inform-
ation.
Tip!
Information about the folders used for the capture file(s), can be found in Appendix A,
Table 4.1. Capture file mode selected by capture options
"File" option
"Use
files" option
multiple "Ring
buffer Mode
Resulting filename(s) used
with n files" op-
tion
-
-
-
Single temporary etherXXXXXX
file XXXXXX is a unique number)
(where
foo.cap
foo.cap
-
-
-
Single named file foo.cap
x
Multiple
files, foo_00001_20040205110102.cap
continuous
,
foo_00002_20040205110102.cap
, ...
foo.cap
x
x
Multiple
ring buffer
files, foo_00001_20040205110102.cap
,
foo_00002_20040205110102.cap
, ...
Single temporary file
Single named file
A temporary file will be created and used (this is the default).
After the capturing is stopped, this file can be saved later un-
der a user specified name.
A single capture file will be used. If you want to place the
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new capture file to a specific folder, choose this mode.
Multiple files, continuous
Multiple files, ring buffer
Like the "Single named file" mode, but a new file is created
and used, after reaching one of the multiple file switch condi-
tions (one of the "Next file every ..." values).
Much like "Multiple files continuous", reaching one of the
multiple files switch conditions (one of the "Next file every
..." values) will switch to the next file. This will be a newly
created file if value of "Ring buffer with n files" is not
reached, otherwise it will replace the oldest of the formerly
used files (thus forming a "ring").
This mode will limit the maximum disk usage, even for an
unlimited amount of capture input data, keeping the latest
captured data.
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4.7. Link-layer header type
In the usual case, you won't have to choose this link-layer header type. The following paragraphs
describe the exceptional cases, where selecting this type is possible, so you will have a guide what
to do:
If you are capturing on an 802.11 device on some versions of BSD, this might offer a choice of "Eth-
ernet" or "802.11". "Ethernet" will cause the captured packets to have fake Ethernet headers;
"802.11" will cause them to have IEEE 802.11 headers. Unless the capture needs to be read by an
application that doesn't support 802.11 headers, you should select "802.11".
If you are capturing on an Endace DAG card connected to a synchronous serial line, this might offer
a choice of "PPP over serial" or "Cisco HDLC"; if the protocol on the serial line is PPP, select "PPP
over serial", and if the protocol on the serial line is Cisco HDLC, select "Cisco HDLC".
If you are capturing on an Endace DAG card connected to an ATM network, this might offer a
choice of "RFC 1483 IP-over-ATM" or "Sun raw ATM". If the only traffic being captured is RFC
1483 LLC-encapsulated IP, or if the capture needs to be read by an application that doesn't support
SunATM headers, select "RFC 1483 IP-over-ATM", otherwise select "Sun raw ATM".
If you are capturing on an Ethernet device, this might offer a choice of "Ethernet" or "DOCSIS". If
you are capturing traffic from a Cisco Cable Modem Termination System that is putting DOCSIS
traffic onto the Ethernet to be captured, select "DOCSIS", otherwise select "Ethernet".
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4.8. Filtering while capturing
Ethereal uses the libpcap filter language for capture filters. This is explained in the tcpdump man
page, which can be hard to understand, so it's explained here to some extent.
Tip!
You
will
find
a
lot
of
Capture
Filter
examples
at
ht-
You enter the capture filter into the Filter field of the Ethereal Capture Options dialog box, as shown
tcpdump capture filter language. See the expression option at the tcpdump manual page for details:
A capture filter takes the form of a series of primitive expressions connected by conjunctions (and/
or) and optionally preceded by not:
[not] primitive [and|or [not] primitive ...]
An example is shown in Example 4.1, “ A capture filter for telnet than captures traffic to and from a
Example 4.1. A capture filter for telnet than captures traffic to and from a
particular host
tcp port 23 and host 10.0.0.5
This example captures telnet traffic to and from the host 10.0.0.5, and shows how to use two primit-
traffic not from 10.0.0.5”, and shows how to capture all telnet traffic except that from 10.0.0.5.
Example 4.2. Capturing all telnet traffic not from 10.0.0.5
tcp port 23 and not host 10.0.0.5
XXX - add examples to the following list.
A primitive is simply one of the following:
[src|dst] host <host>
This primitive allows you to filter on a host IP address or
name. You can optionally precede the primitive with the
keyword src|dst to specify that you are only interested in
source or destination addresses. If these are not present, pack-
ets where the specified address appears as either the source or
the destination address will be selected.
ether [src|dst] host <ehost>
This primitive allows you to filter on Ethernet host addresses.
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You can optionally include the keyword src|dst between the
keywords ether and host to specify that you are only inter-
ested in source or destination addresses. If these are not
present, packets where the specified address appears in either
the source or destination address will be selected.
gateway host <host>
This primitive allows you to filter on packets that used host
as a gateway. That is, where the Ethernet source or destina-
tion was host but neither the source nor destination IP address
was host.
[src|dst] net <net> [{mask
<mask>}|{len <len>}]
This primitive allows you to filter on network numbers. You
can optionally precede this primitive with the keyword
src|dst to specify that you are only interested in a source or
destination network. If neither of these are present, packets
will be selected that have the specified network in either the
source or destination address. In addition, you can specify
either the netmask or the CIDR prefix for the network if they
are different from your own.
[tcp|udp] [src|dst] port <port>
This primitive allows you to filter on TCP and UDP port
numbers. You can optionally precede this primitive with the
keywords src|dst and tcp|udp which allow you to specify that
you are only interested in source or destination ports and TCP
or UDP packets respectively. The keywords tcp|udp must ap-
pear before src|dst.
If these are not specified, packets will be selected for both the
TCP and UDP protocols and when the specified address ap-
pears in either the source or destination port field.
less|greater <length>
This primitive allows you to filter on packets whose length
was less than or equal to the specified length, or greater than
or equal to the specified length, respectively.
ip|ether proto <protocol>
ether|ip broadcast|multicast
<expr> relop <expr>
This primitive allows you to filter on the specified protocol at
either the Ethernet layer or the IP layer.
This primitive allows you to filter on either Ethernet or IP
broadcasts or multicasts.
This primitive allows you to create complex filter expressions
that select bytes or ranges of bytes in packets. Please see the
dump_man.html for more details.
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4.9. While a Capture is running ...
While a capture is running, the following dialog box is shown:
Figure 4.3. The "Capture Info" dialog box
This dialog box will inform you about the number of captured packets and the time since the capture
was started. The selection which protocols are counted cannot be changed.
Tip!
This Capture Info dialog box can be hidden, using the "Hide capture info dialog" op-
tion in the Capture Options dialog box.
4.9.1. Stop the running capture
A running capture session will be stopped in one of the following ways:
1. Using the "
Stop" button from the Capture Info dialog box .
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Note!
The Capture Info dialog box might be hidden, if the option "Hide capture info
dialog" is used.
2. Using the menu item "Capture/
Stop".
3. Using the toolbar item "
Stop".
4. Pressing the accelerator keys: Ctrl+E.
5. The capture will be automatically stopped, if one of the Stop Conditions is exceeded, e.g. the
maximum amount of data was captured.
4.9.2. Restart a running capture
A running capture session can be restarted with the same capture options than the last time, this will
remove all packets previously captured. This can be useful, if some uninteresting packets are cap-
tured and there's no need to keep them.
Restart is a convenience function and equivalent to a capture stop following by an immediate cap-
ture start. A restart can be triggered in one of the following ways:
1. Using the menu item "Capture/
Restart".
2. Using the toolbar item "
Restart".
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Chapter 5. File Input / Output and
Printing
5.1. Introduction
This chapter will describe input and output of capture data.
•
•
•
•
Open/Import capture files in various capture file formats
Save/Export capture files in various capture file formats
Merge capture files together
Print packets
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5.2. Open capture files
Ethereal can read in previously saved capture files. To read them, simply select the menu or toolbar
item: "File/ Open". Ethereal will then pop up the File Open dialog box, which is discussed in
Note!
You can also use drag-and-drop to open a file, by simply dropping the desired file
from your file manager onto Ethereal's main window. However, drag-and-drop is not
available/won't work in all desktop environments.
If you didn't save the current capture file before, you will be asked to do so, to prevent data loss (this
behaviour can be disabled in the preferences).
In addition to its native file format (libpcap format, also used by tcpdump/WinDump and other libp-
cap/WinPcap-based programs), Ethereal can read capture files from a large number of other packet
capture programs as well. See Section 5.2.2, “Input File Formats” for the list of capture formats Eth-
ereal understands.
5.2.1. The "Open Capture File" dialog box
The "Open Capture File" dialog box allows you to search for a capture file containing previously
an example of the Ethereal Open File Dialog box.
Note
Ethereal uses the open dialog box from the version of the GTK+ toolkit that it's using.
This dialog was completely redesigned in GTK version 2.4. Depending on the installed
GTK version, your dialog box might look different. However, as the functionality re-
mains almost the same, much of this description will work with your version of Ether-
eal.
Figure 5.1. The "Open Capture File" Dialog box
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With this dialog box, you can perform the following actions:
1. The "+ Add" button allows you to add a directory, selected in the right-hand pane, to the favor-
ites (bookmarks?) list. Those changes are persistent.
2. The "- Remove" button allows you to remove a selected directory from that list again (the items
like: "Home", "Desktop", and "Filesystem" cannot be removed).
3. Select files and directories with the list boxes.
4. View file preview information (like the filesize, the number of packets, ...), while browsing the
filesystem.
5. Specify a display filter with the Filter button and filter field. This filter will be used when open-
ing the new file. Clicking on the Filter button causes Ethereal to pop up the Filters dialog box
6. Specify which name resolution is to be performed for all packets by clicking on one of the "En-
able name resolution" check buttons. Details about name resolution can be found in Sec-
7. Click the Open button to accept your selected file and open it. If Ethereal doesn't recognize the
capture format, it will grey out this button.
8. Click the Cancel button to go back to Ethereal and not load a capture file.
You can also change the display filter and name resolution settings later while viewing the packets.
However, for very large capture files it can take a significant amount of extra time changing these
settings later, so it might be a good idea to set at least the filter in advance here.
5.2.2. Input File Formats
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The following file formats from other capture tools can be opened by Ethereal:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
libpcap, tcpdump and various other tools using tcpdump's capture format
Sun snoop and atmsnoop
Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor captures
Novell LANalyzer captures
Microsoft Network Monitor captures
AIX's iptrace captures
Cinco Networks NetXray captures
Network Associates Windows-based Sniffer and Sniffer Pro captures
Network General/Network Associates DOS-based Sniffer (compressed or uncompressed) cap-
tures
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
AG Group/WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek/EtherHelp/PacketGrabber captures
RADCOM's WAN/LAN Analyzer captures
Network Instruments Observer version 9 captures
Lucent/Ascend router debug output
HP-UX's nettl
Toshiba's ISDN routers dump output
ISDN4BSD i4btrace utility
traces from the EyeSDN USB S0
IPLog format from the Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System
pppd logs (pppdump format)
the output from VMS's TCPIPtrace/TCPtrace/UCX$TRACE utilities
the text output from the DBS Etherwatch VMS utility
Visual Networks' Visual UpTime traffic capture
the output from CoSine L2 debug
the output from Accellent's 5Views LAN agents
Endace Measurement Systems' ERF format captures
Linux Bluez Bluetooth stack hcidump -w traces
Note!
It may not be possible to read some formats dependent on the packet types captured.
Ethernet captures are usually supported for most file formats, but other packet types
(e.g. token ring packets) may not be possible to read from all file formats.
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5.3. Saving captured packets
You can save captured packets simply by using the Save As... menu item from the File menu under
Ethereal. You can choose which packets to save and which file format to be used.
5.3.1. The "Save Capture File As" dialog box
The "Save Capture File As" dialog box allows you to save the current capture to a file. Figure 5.2,
“The "Save Capture File As" dialog box” shows an example of this dialog box.
Note
Ethereal uses the open dialog box from the version of the GTK+ toolkit that it's using.
This dialog was completely redesigned in the GTK version 2.4. Depending on the in-
stalled GTK version, your dialog box might look different. However, as the functional-
ity remains almost the same, much of this description will work with your version of
Ethereal.
Figure 5.2. The "Save Capture File As" dialog box
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With this dialog box, you can perform the following actions:
1. Type in the name of the file you wish to save the captured packets in, as a standard file name in
your file system.
2. Select the directory to save the file into.
4. Specify the format of the saved capture file by clicking on the File type drop down box. You
Note!
Some capture formats may not be available, depending on the packet types cap-
tured.
Tip!
You can convert capture files from one format to another by reading in a capture
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file and writing it out using a different format.
5. Use "Browse for other folders" to browse files and folders in your file system.
6. Click on the Save button to accept your selected file and save to it. If Ethereal has a problem
saving the captured packets to the file you specified, it will display an error dialog box. After
clicking OK on this error dialog box, you can try again.
7. Click on the Cancel button to go back to Ethereal and not save the captured packets.
5.3.2. Output File Formats
The following file formats can be saved by Ethereal, so other capture tools can read the capture data
from:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
libpcap (tcpdump)
Novell LANalyzer
Network Associates Sniffer
Sun snoop
Microsoft Network Monitor
Visual Networks Visual UpTime traffic
Accellent 5Views
Networks Instruments Observer version 9
HP-UX's nettl
Other protocol analyzers may require that the file has a certain suffix in order to read
the files you generate with Ethereal, e.g.:
".DMP" for Tcpdump/libpcap
".CAP" for Network Associates Sniffer Windows
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5.4. Merging capture files
Sometimes you need to merge several capture files into one. For example this can be useful, if you
have captured simultaneously from multiple interfaces at once (e.g. using multiple instances of Eth-
ereal).
Merging capture files can be done in three ways:
•
•
•
“The "Merge with Capture File" dialog box”. This menu item will be disabled, until you have
loaded a capture file.
Use drag-and-drop to drop multiple files on the main window. Ethereal will try to merge the
packets in chronological order from the dropped files into a newly created temporary file. If you
drop only a single file, it will simply replace a (maybe) existing one.
Use the mergecap tool, which is a command line tool to merge capture files. This tool provides
5.4.1. The "Merge with Capture File" dialog box
This dialog box let you select a file to be merged into the currently loaded file.
Note!
If your current data wasn't saved before, you will be asked to save it first, before this
dialog box is shown.
Figure 5.3. The "Merge with Capture File" dialog box
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Prepend packets to existing file
Prepend the packets from the selected file before the currently
loaded packets.
Merge packets chronologically
Append packets to existing file
Merge both the packets from the selected and currently
loaded file in chronological order.
Append the packets from the selected file after the currently
loaded packets.
All other controls will work the same way as in the "Open Capture File" dialog box, see Sec-
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5.5. File Sets
When using the "Multiple Files" option while doing a capture, the capture data is spreaded over sev-
eral capture files, called a file set. Ethereal tries to find the files matching the same filename pattern
than the currently loaded file. This will only work, if all the files of the file set are located in the
same directory.
As it can become tedious to work with a file set by hand, Ethereal provides some features in the
"File" menu to handle these file sets in a more convenient way:
•
The List Files dialog box will list the files Ethereal has recognized as being part of the current
file set.
•
•
Next File opens the next file in the file set.
Previous File opens the previous file in the file set.
XXX - add icons from the menu
5.5.1. The "List Files" dialog box
XXX - add screenshot
Each line contains information about a file of the file set:
•
•
•
•
Filename the name of the file
Created the creation time of the file
Last Modified the last time the file was modified
Size the size of the file
The last line will contain info about the currently used directory where all of the files in the file set
can be found.
The content of this dialog box is updated each time a capture file is opened/closed.
If you click on the radio button to the left of the line, the corresponding capture file will be opened.
The Close button will, well, close the dialog box.
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5.6. Exporting data
Ethereal provides several ways and formats to export packet data. This section describes general
ways to export data from Ethereal.
Note!
There are more specialized functions to export specific data, which will be described at
the appropriate places.
XXX - add detailed descriptions of the output formats and some sample output, too.
5.6.1. The "Export as Plain Text File" dialog box
Export packet data into a plain ASCII text file, much like the format used to print packets.
Figure 5.4. The "Export as Plain Text File" dialog box
•
•
•
Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
5.6.2. The "Export as PostScript File" dialog box
Export packet data into PostScript, much like the format used to print packets.
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Tip!
You can easily convert PostScript files to PDF files using ghostscript. For example:
export to a file named foo.ps and then call: ps2pdf foo.ps
Figure 5.5. The "Export as PostScript File" dialog box
•
•
•
Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
5.6.3. The "Export as CSV (Comma Seperated Values)
File" dialog box
XXX - add screenshot
Export packet summary into CSV, used e.g. by spreadsheet programs to im-/export data.
•
•
Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
5.6.4. The "Export as PSML File" dialog box
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Export packet data into PSML. This is an XML based format including only the packet summary.
Figure 5.6. The "Export as PSML File" dialog box
•
•
Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
There's no such thing as a packet details frame for PSML export, as the packet format is defined by
the PSML specification.
5.6.5. The "Export as PDML File" dialog box
Export packet data into PDML. This is an XML based format including the packet details. The
The PDML specification is not officially released and Ethereal's implementation of it
is still in an early beta state, so please expect changes in future Ethereal versions.
Figure 5.7. The "Export as PDML File" dialog box
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•
•
Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
There's no such thing as a packet details frame for PDML export, as the packet format is defined by
the PDML specification.
5.6.6. The "Export selected packet bytes" dialog box
Export the bytes selected in the "Packet Bytes" pane into a raw binary file.
Figure 5.8. The "Export Selected Packet Bytes" dialog box
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File Input / Output and Printing
•
•
•
Name: the filename to export the packet data to.
The Save in folder: field lets you select the folder to save to (from some predefined folders).
Browse for other folders provides a flexible way to choose a folder.
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File Input / Output and Printing
5.7. Printing packets
To print packets, select the "Print..." menu item from the File menu. When you do this, Ethereal
5.7.1. The "Print" dialog box
Figure 5.9. The "Print" dialog box
The following fields are available in the Print dialog box:
Printer
This field contains a pair of mutually exclusive radio buttons:
•
•
Plain Text specifies that the packet print should be in plain text.
PostScript specifies that the packet print process should use PostScript to
generate a better print output on PostScript aware printers.
•
Output to file: specifies that printing be done to a file, which name is
entered in the field or selected using the browse button.
This field is where you enter the file to print to if you have selected Print
to a file, or you can click the button to browse the filesystem. It is greyed
out if Print to a file is not selected.
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File Input / Output and Printing
•
Print command specifies that a command be used for printing.
Note!
These Print command fields are not available on windows
platforms.
This field specifies the command to use for printing. It is typically lpr.
You would change it to specify a particular queue if you need to print to a
queue other than the default. An example might be:
lpr -Pmypostscript
This field is greyed out if Output to file: is checked above.
Packet Range
Packet Format
Select the packets to be printed, see Section 5.8, “The Packet Range frame”
Select the output format of the packets to be printed. You can choose, how
each packet is printed, see Figure 5.11, “The "Packet Format" frame”
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File Input / Output and Printing
5.8. The Packet Range frame
The packet range frame is a part of various output related dialog boxes. It provides options to select
which packets should be processed by the output function.
Figure 5.10. The "Packet Range" frame
If the Captured button is set (default), all packets from the selected rule will be processed. If the
Displayed button is set, only the currently displayed packets are taken into account to the selected
rule.
•
•
•
•
•
All packets will process all packets.
Selected packet only process only the selected packet.
Marked packets only process only the marked packets.
From first to last marked packet process the packets from the first to the last marked one.
Specify a packet range process a user specified range of packets, e.g. specifying 5,10-15,20-
will process the packet number five, the packets from packet number ten to fifteen (inclusive)
and every packet from number twenty to the end of the capture.
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File Input / Output and Printing
5.9. The Packet Format frame
The packet format frame is a part of various output related dialog boxes. It provides options to select
which parts of a packet should be used for the output function.
Figure 5.11. The "Packet Format" frame
•
•
Packet summary line enable the output of the summary line, just as in the "Packet List" pane.
Packet details enable the output of the packet details tree.
•
•
•
All collapsed the info from the "Packet Details" pane in "all collapsed" state.
As displayed the info from the "Packet Details" pane in the current state.
All expanded the info from the "Packet Details" pane in "all expanded" state.
•
•
Packet bytes enable the output of the packet bytes, just as in the "Packet Bytes" pane.
Each packet on a new page put each packet on a separate page (e.g. when saving/printing to a
text file, this will put a form feed character between the packets).
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File Input / Output and Printing
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Chapter 6. Working with captured
packets
6.1. Viewing packets you have captured
Once you have captured some packets, or you have opened a previously saved capture file, you can
view the packets that are displayed in the packet list pane by simply clicking on a packet in the
packet list pane, which will bring up the selected packet in the tree view and byte view panes.
You can then expand any part of the tree view by clicking on the plus sign (the symbol itself may
vary) to the left of that part of the payload, and you can select individual fields by clicking on them
in the tree view pane. An example with a TCP packet selected is shown in Figure 6.1, “Ethereal with
a TCP packet selected for viewing”. It also has the Acknowledgment number in the TCP header se-
lected, which shows up in the byte view as the selected bytes.
Figure 6.1. Ethereal with a TCP packet selected for viewing
You can also select and view packets the same way, while Ethereal is capturing, if you selected "Up-
date list of packets in real time" in the Ethereal Capture Preferences dialog box.
In addition, you can view individual packets in a separate window as shown in Figure 6.2, “Viewing
a packet in a separate window”. Do this by selecting the packet you are interested in the packet list
pane, and then select "Show Packet in New Windows" from the Display menu. This allows you to
easily compare two or even more packets.
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Working with captured packets
Figure 6.2. Viewing a packet in a separate window
Finally, you can bring up a pop-up menu over either the "Packet List", "Packet Details" or "Packet
Bytes" pane by clicking your right mouse button.
The following table gives an overview which functions are available in the panes, where to find the
corresponding function in the menu, and a short description of each item.
Table 6.1. Function overview of the pop-up menus
Item
Lis De- Byt Menu
Description
t
tail es
s
Mark
(toggle)
Packet X
-
-
-
-
-
-
Edit
Mark a packet.
Time Reference
X
-
Edit
Set/reset and find time references.
Expand the currently selected subtree.
Expand all subtrees in all packets in the capture.
Expand Subtrees -
X
X
X
View
View
View
Expand All
Collapse All
-
-
Ethereal keeps a list of all the protocol subtrees that are
expanded, and uses it to ensure that the correct subtrees
are expanded when you display a packet. This menu
item collapses the tree view of all packets in the capture
list.
Apply as Filter
Prepare a Filter
X
X
X
X
X
-
-
-
Analyze
Analyze
Analyze
.
.
Follow
stream
TCP X
View all the data on a TCP stream between a pair of
nodes.
Wiki
Page
Protocol -
X
X
X
-
-
-
-
-
-
Show the wiki page corresponding to the currently se-
lected protocol in your web browser.
Filter Field Ref- -
erence
Show the filter field reference web page corresponding
to the currently selected protocol in your web browser.
Protocol Prefer- -
The menu item takes you to the preferences dialog and
selects the page corresponding to the protocol if there
are settings associated with the highlighted field. More
information on preferences can be found in Section 9.5,
ences...
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Item
Lis De- Byt Menu
Description
t
tail es
s
Decode As...
Print...
X
X
X
-
-
-
-
-
Analyze
.
File
Print (the selected) packet(s).
Show Packet in X
New Window
-
View
Display the selected packet in another window.
Resolve name
-
X
View/Name Res-
olution
Cause a name resolution to be performed for the selec-
ted packet, but NOT for every packet in the capture.
Go to Corres- -
ponding Packet
X
-
Go
If the selected field has a packet number in it, go to it.
The corresponding packet will often be a response
which is requested by this packet, or the request for
which this packet is a response.
Copy
-
-
-
X
X
-
Copy the selected packet data to the clipboard (XXX -
in which format).
Export Selected -
Packet Bytes...
File->Export
Export raw packet bytes to a binary file.
Figure 6.3. Pop-up menu of "Packet List" pane
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Mark Packet (toggle)
Time Reference
This menu item is the same as the Edit menu item of the same
name. It allows you to mark a packet.
This menu item is the same as the Edit menu items of the
same name. It allows you to set and work with time refer-
ences.
Apply as Filter
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu items of the
same name.
Prepare a Filter
Follow TCP Stream
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu items of the
same name.
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu item of the
same name. It allows you to view all the data on a TCP
stream between a pair of nodes.
Decode As...
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu item of the
same name.
Print...
This menu item is the same as the File menu item of the same
name. It allows you to print packets.
Show Packet in New Window
This menu item is the same as the View menu item of the
same name. It allows you to display the selected packet in an-
other window.
Figure 6.4. Pop-up menu of "Packet Details" pane
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Expand Subtrees
Expand All
This menu item expands the currently selected subtree.
This menu item expands all subtrees in all packets in the cap-
ture.
Collapse All
Ethereal keeps a list of all the protocol subtrees that are ex-
panded, and uses it to ensure that the correct subtrees are ex-
panded when you display a packet. This menu item collapses
the tree view of all packets in the capture list.
Apply as Filter
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu items of the
same name.
Prepare a Filter
Follow TCP Stream
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu items of the
same name.
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu item of the
same name. It allows you to view all the data on a TCP
stream between a pair of nodes.
Wiki Protocol Page
Filter Field Reference
Protocol Properties...
Show the wiki page corresponding to the currently selected
protocol in your web browser.
Show the filter field reference web page corresponding to the
currently selected protocol in your web browser.
The menu item takes you to the properties dialog and selects
the page corresponding to the protocol if there are properties
associated with the highlighted field. More information on
preferences can be found in Figure 9.8, “The preferences dia-
Decode As...
This menu item is the same as the Analyze menu item of the
same name.
Resolve Name
This menu item causes name resolution to be performed for
the selected packet, but NOT every packet in the capture.
Go to Corresponding Packet
If the selected field has a corresponding packet, go to it. Cor-
responding packets will usually be a request/response packet
pair or such.
Figure 6.5. Pop-up menu of "Packet Bytes" pane
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Copy
Copy the selected packet data to the clipboard (XXX - in
which format).
Export Selected Packet Bytes...
This menu item is the same as the File menu item of the same
name. It allows you to export raw packet bytes to a binary
file.
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6.2. Filtering packets while viewing
Ethereal has two filtering languages: One used when capturing packets, and one used when display-
ing packets. In this section we explore that second type of filter: Display filters. The first one has
Display filters allow you to concentrate on the packets you are interested in while hiding the cur-
rently uninteresting ones. They allow you to select packets by:
•
•
•
•
•
Protocol
The presence of a field
The values of fields
A comparison between fields
... and a lot more!
To select packets based on protocol type, simply type the protocol you are interested in in the Filter:
field in the filter toolbar of the Ethereal window and press enter to initiate the filter. Figure 6.6,
field.
Note!
All protocol and field names are entered in lowercase. Also, don't forget to press enter
after entering the filter expression.
Figure 6.6. Filtering on the TCP protocol
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As you might have noticed, only packets of the TCP protocol are displayed now (e.g. packets 1-10
are hidden). The packet numbering will remain as before, so the first packet shown is now packet
number 11.
Note!
When using a display filter, all packets remain in the capture file. The display filter
only changes the display of the capture file but not its content!
You can filter on any protocol that Ethereal understands. You can also filter on any field that a dis-
sector adds to the tree view, but only if the dissector has added an abbreviation for the field. A list of
such fields is available in the Ethereal in the Add Expression... dialog box. You can find more in-
box”.
For example, to narrow the packet list pane down to only those packets to or from the IP address
192.168.0.1, use ip.addr==192.168.0.1.
Note!
To remove the filter, click on the Clear button to the right of the filter field.
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6.3. Building display filter expressions
Ethereal provides a simple but powerful display filter language that you can build quite complex fil-
ter expressions with. You can compare values in packets as well as combine expressions into more
specific expressions. The following sections provide more information on doing this.
Tip!
You will find a lot of Display Filter examples at the Ethereal Wiki Display Filter
6.3.1. Display filter fields
Every field in the packet details pane can be used as a filter string, this will result in showing only
the packets where this field exists. For example: the filter string: tcp will show all packets contain-
ing the tcp protocol.
There is a complete list of all filter fields available through the menu item "Help/Supported Proto-
cols" in the page "Display Filter Fields" of the upcoming dialog.
XXX - add some more info here and a link to the statusbar info.
6.3.2. Comparing values
You can build display filters that compare values using a number of different comparison operators.
Tip!
You can use English and C-like terms in the same way, they can even be mixed in a
filter string!
Table 6.2. Display Filter comparison operators
English
C-like
Description and example
Equal
eq
==
ip.addr==10.0.0.5
ne
gt
lt
!=
>
Not equal
ip.addr!=10.0.0.5
Greater than
frame.pkt_len > 10
<
Less than
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English
C-like
Description and example
frame.pkt_len < 128
ge
>=
Greater than or equal to
frame.pkt_len ge 0x100
le
<=
Less than or equal to
frame.pkt_len <= 0x20
In addition, all protocol fields are typed. Table 6.3, “Display Filter Field Types” provides a list of
the types and example of how to express them.
Table 6.3. Display Filter Field Types
Type
Example
Unsigned integer (8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit)
You can express integers in decimal, octal, or hexa-
decimal. The following display filters are equivalent:
ip.len le 1500
ip.len le 02734
ip.len le 0x436
Signed integer (8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit)
Boolean
A boolean field is present in the protocol decode only
if its value is true. For example, tcp.flags.syn is
present, and thus true, only if the SYN flag is present
in a TCP segment header.
Thus the filter expression tcp.flags.syn will select only
those packets for which this flag exists, that is, TCP
segments where the segment header contains the SYN
flag. Similarly, to find source-routed token ring pack-
ets, use a filter expression of tr.sr.
Ethernet address (6 bytes)
IPv4 address
eth.addr == ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
ip.addr == 192.168.0.1
IPv6 address
IPX network number
String (text)
Double-precision floating point number
6.3.3. Combining expressions
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Table 6.4. Display Filter Logical Operations
English
C-like
Description and example
Logical AND
and
&&
ip.addr==10.0.0.5 and tcp.flags.fin
or
||
Logical OR
ip.addr==10.0.0.5 or ip.addr==192.1.1.1
xor
not
[...]
^^
Logical XOR
tr.dst[0:3] == 0.6.29 xor tr.src[0:3] == 0.6.29
!
Logical NOT
not llc
Substring Operator
Ethereal allows you to select subsequences of a sequence in rather elaborate ways.
After a label you can place a pair of brackets [] containing a comma separated list of
range specifiers.
eth.src[0:3] == 00:00:83
The example above uses the n:m format to specify a single range. In this case n is the
beginning offset and m is the length of the range being specified.
eth.src[1-2] == 00:83
The example above uses the n-m format to specify a single range. In this case n is the
beginning offset and m is the ending offset.
eth.src[:4] == 00:00:83:00
The example above uses the :m format, which takes everything from the beginning of
a sequence to offset m. It is equivalent to 0:m
eth.src[4:] == 20:20
The example above uses the n: format, which takes everything from offset n to the end
of the sequence.
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English
C-like
Description and example
eth.src[2] == 83
The example above uses the n format to specify a single range. In this case the ele-
ment in the sequence at offset n is selected. This is equivalent to n:1.
eth.src[0:3,1-2,:4,4:,2] ==
00:00:83:00:83:00:00:83:00:20:20:83
Ethereal allows you to string together single ranges in a comma separated list to form
compound ranges as shown above.
6.3.4. A common mistake
Warning!
Using the != operator on combined expressions like: eth.addr, ip.addr, tcp.port,
udp.port and alike will probably not work as expected!
Often people use a filter string to display something like ip.addr == 1.2.3.4 which will display all
packets containing the IP address 1.2.3.4.
Then they use ip.addr != 1.2.3.4 to see all packets not containing the IP address 1.2.3.4 in it. Unfor-
tunately, this does not do the expected.
Instead, that expression will even be true for packets where either source or destination IP address
equals 1.2.3.4. The reason for this, is that the expression ip.addr != 1.2.3.4 must be read as "the
packet contains a field named ip.addr with a value different from 1.2.3.4". As an IP datagram con-
tains both a source and a destination address, the expression will evaluate to true whenever at least
one of the two addresses differs from 1.2.3.4.
If you want to filter out all packets containing IP datagrams to or from IP address 1.2.3.4, then the
correct filter is !(ip.addr == 1.2.3.4) as it reads "show me all the packets for which it is not true that
a field named ip.addr exists with a value of 1.2.3.4", or in other words, "filter out all packets for
which there are no occurrences of a field named ip.addr with the value 1.2.3.4".
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6.4. The "Filter Expression" dialog box
When you are accustomed to Ethereal's filtering system and know what labels you wish to use in
your filters it can be very quick to simply type a filter string. However if you are new to Ethereal or
are working with a slightly unfamiliar protocol it can be very confusing to try to figure out what to
type. The Filter Expression dialog box helps with this.
Tip!
The "Filter Expression" dialog box is an excellent way to learn how to write Ethereal
display filter strings.
Figure 6.7. The "Filter Expression" dialog box
When you first bring up the Filter Expression dialog box you are shown a tree list of field names,
organized by protocol, and a box for selecting a relation.
Field Name
Relation
Select a protocol field from the protocol field tree. Every protocol with filterable
fields is listed at the top level. By clicking on the "+" next to a protocol name you
can get a list of the field names available for filtering for that protocol.
Select a relation from the list of available relation. The is present is a unary rela-
tion which is true if the selected field is present in a packet. All other listed rela-
tions are binary relations which require additional data (e.g. a Value to match) to
complete.
When you select a field from the field name list and select a binary relation (such as the equality re-
lation ==) you will be given the opportunity to enter a value, and possibly some range information.
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Value
You may enter an appropriate value in the Value text box. The Value
will also indicate the type of value for the field name you have selected
(like character string).
Predefined values
Some of the protocol fields have predefined values available, much like
enum's in C. If the selected protocol field has such values defined, you
can choose one of them here.
Range
OK
XXX - add an explanation here!
When you have built a satisfactory expression click OK and a filter
string will be built for you.
Cancel
You can leave the Add Expression... dialog box without any effect by
clicking the Cancel
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6.5. Defining and saving filters
You can define filters with Ethereal and give them labels for later use. This can save time in remem-
bering and retyping some of the more complex filters you use.
To define a new filter or edit an existing one, select the Capture Filters... menu item from the Cap-
ture menu or the Display Filters... menu item from the Analyze menu. Ethereal will then pop up the
Note!
The mechanisms for defining and saving capture filters and display filters are almost
identical. So both will be described here, differences between these two will be marked
as such.
Warning!
You must use Save to save your filters permanently. Ok or Apply will not save the fil-
ters, so they will be lost when you close Ethereal.
Figure 6.8. The "Capture Filters" and "Display Filters" dialog boxes
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New
This button adds a new filter to the list of filters. The currently entered
values from Filter name and Filter string will be used. If any of these
fields are empty, it will be set to "new".
Delete
This button deletes the selected filter. It will be greyed out, if no filter is
selected.
Filter
You can select a filter from this list (which will fill in the filter name
and filter string in the fields down the bottom of the dialog box).
Filter name:
You can change the name of the currently selected filter here.
Note!
The filter name will only be used in this dialog to identify
the filter for your convenience, it will not be used else-
where. You can add multiple filters with the same name,
but this is not very useful.
Filter string:
You can change the filter string of the currently selected filter here. Dis-
play Filter only: the string will be syntax checked while you are typing.
Add Expression...
Display Filter only: This button brings up the Add Expression dialog
box which assists in building filter strings. You can find more informa-
tion about the Add Expression dialog in Section 6.4, “The "Filter Ex-
OK
Display Filter only: This button applies the selected filter to the current
display and closes the dialog.
Apply
Save
Close
Display Filter only: This button applies the selected filter to the current
display, and keeps the dialog open.
Save the current settings in this dialog. The file location and format is
Close this dialog. This will discard unsaved settings.
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6.6. Finding packets
You can easily find packets once you have captured some packets or have read in a previously saved
capture file. Simply select the Find Packet... menu item from the Edit menu. Ethereal will pop up
6.6.1. The "Find Packet" dialog box
Figure 6.9. The "Find Packet" dialog box
You might first select the kind of thing to search for:
•
Display filter
Simply enter a display filter string into the Filter: field, select a direction, and click on OK.
For example, to find the three way handshake for a connection from host 192.168.0.1, use the
following filter string:
ip.addr==192.168.0.1 and tcp.flags.syn
For more details on display filters, see Section 6.2, “Filtering packets while viewing”
Hex Value
•
•
Search for a specific byte sequence in the packet data.
For example, use "00:00" to find the next packet including two null bytes in the packet data.
String
Find a string in the packet data, with various options.
The value to be found will by syntax checked while you type it in. If the syntax check of your value
succeeded, the background of the entry field will turn green, if it fails, it will turn red.
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You can choose the direction to be searched for:
•
Up
Search upwards in the packet list (decreasing packet numbers).
•
Down
Search downwards in the packet list (increasing packet numbers).
6.6.2. The "Find Next" command
"Find Next" will continue searching with the same options like in the last "Find Packet" run.
6.6.3. The "Find Previous" command
"Find Previous" will do the same thing as "Find Next", but with reverse search direction.
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6.7. Go to a specific packet
You can easily jump to specific packets with one of the menu items in the Go menu.
6.7.1. The "Go Back" command
Go back in the packet history, works much like the page history in current web browsers.
6.7.2. The "Go Forward" command
Go forward in the packet history, works much like the page history in current web browsers.
6.7.3. The "Go to Packet" dialog box
Figure 6.10. The "Go To Packet" dialog box
This dialog box will let you enter a packet number. When you press OK, Ethereal will jump to that
packet.
6.7.4. The "Go to Corresponding Packet" command
If a protocol field is selected which points to another packet in the capture file, this command will
jump to that packet.
Note!
As these protocol fields now work like links (just as in your Web browser), it's easier
to simply double-click on the field to jump to the corresponding field.
6.7.5. The "Go to First Packet" command
This command will simply jump to the first packet displayed.
6.7.6. The "Go to Last Packet" command
This command will simply jump to the last packet displayed.
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6.8. Marking packets
You can mark packets in the "Packet List" pane. A marked packet will be shown with black back-
ground, regardless of the coloring rules set. Marking a packet can be useful to find it later while ana-
lyzing in a large capture file.
Warning!
The packet marks are not stored in the capture file or anywhere else, so all packet
marks will be lost if you close the capture file.
You can use packet marking to control the output of packets when saving/exporting/printing. To do
There are three functions to manipulate the marked state of a packet:
•
•
•
Mark packet (toggle) toggles the marked state of a single packet.
Mark all packets set the mark state of all packets.
Unmark all packets reset the mark state of all packets.
These mark function are available from the "Edit" menu, and the "Mark packet (toggle)" function is
also available from the pop-up menu of the "Packet List" pane.
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6.9. Time display formats and time references
While packets are captured, each packet is timestamped. These timestamps will be saved to the cap-
ture file, so they will be available for later analysis.
When the packets are displayed, the presentation of these timestamps can be chosen by the user.
There are four presentation formats available:
•
•
Time of Day, e.g. 20:02:48.863096 The absolute time of the day when the packet was captured.
Date and Time of Day, e.g. 2004-06-22 20:02:48.863096 The absolute date and time of the day
when the packet was captured.
•
Seconds Since Beginning of Capture, e.g. 123.299139 The time relative to the start of the cap-
ture file or the first "Time Reference" before this packet (see Section 6.9.1, “Packet time referen-
cing”).
•
Seconds Since Previous Packet, e.g. 1.162423 The time relative to the previous packet.
XXX - how is the GMT / localtime thing handled.
6.9.1. Packet time referencing
The user can set time references to packets. A time reference is the starting point for all subsequent
packet time calculations. It will be useful, if you want to see the time values relative to a special
packet, e.g. the start of a new request. It's possible to set multiple time references in the capture file.
Warning!
The time references will not be saved permanently and will be lost when you close the
capture file.
Note!
Time referencing will only be useful, if the time display format is set to "Seconds
Since Beginning of Capture". If one of the other time display formats are used, time
referencing will have no effect (and will make no sense either).
To work with time references, choose one of the "Time Reference" items in the "Edit" menu , see
Section 3.6, “The "Edit" menu”, or from the pop-up menu of the "Packet List" pane.
•
Set Time Reference (toggle) Toggles the time reference state of the currently selected packet to
on or off.
•
•
Find Next Find the next time referenced packet in the "Packet List" pane.
Find Previous Find the previous time referenced packet in the "Packet List" pane.
Figure 6.11. Ethereal showing a time referenced packet
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Working with captured packets
A time referenced packet will be marked with the string *REF* in the Time column (see packet
number 10). All subsequent packets will show the time since the last time reference.
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Working with captured packets
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Advanced Features
7.2. Following TCP streams
There will be occasions when you would like to see the data from a TCP session in the order that the
application layer sees it. Perhaps you are looking for passwords in a Telnet stream, or you are trying
to make sense of a data stream. If so, Ethereal's ability to follow a TCP stream will be useful to you.
Simply select a TCP packet in the stream/connection you are interested in and then select the Follow
TCP Stream menu item from the Ethereal Tools menu. Ethereal will pop up a separate window with
all the data from the TCP stream laid out in order, as shown in Figure 7.1, “The "Follow TCP
7.2.1. The "Follow TCP stream" dialog box
Figure 7.1. The "Follow TCP Stream" dialog box
You can choose from the following actions:
1. Save As Save the stream data in the currently selected format.
2. Print Print the stream data in the currently selected format.
3. Direction Choose the stream direction to be displayed ("Entire conversation", "data from A to
B only" or "data from B to A only").
4. Filter out this stream Apply a display filter removing the current TCP stream data from the
display.
5. Close Close this dialog box.
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Advanced Features
You can then choose to view the data in one of the following formats:
1. ASCII. In this view you see the data from each end in ASCII, but alternating according to
when each end sent data. Unfortunately, non-printing characters do not print.
2. EBCDIC. For the big-iron freaks out there.
3. HEX Dump. This allows you to see all the data, but you lose the ability to read it in ASCII.
4. C Arrays. This allows you to import the stream data into your own C program.
5. Raw. This allows you to load the unaltered stream data into a different program for further ex-
amination.
Note!
It is worthwhile noting that Follow TCP Stream installs a filter to select all the packets
in the TCP stream you have selected.
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Advanced Features
7.3. Packet Reassembling
7.3.1. What is it?
Often network protocols needs to transport large chunks of data, which are complete in itself, e.g.
when transferring a file. The underlying protocol might not be able to handle that chunk size (e.g.
limitation of the network packet size), or is stream-based like TCP, which doesn't know data chunks
at all.
In that case the network protocol has to handle that chunks itself and (if required) spreading the data
over multiple packets. It also needs a mechanism to find back the chunk boundaries on the receiving
side.
Tip!
Ethereal calls this mechanism reassembling, although a specific protocol specification
might use a different term for this.
7.3.2. How Ethereal handles it
For some of the network protocols Ethereal knows of, a mechanism is implemented to find, decode
and display this chunks of data. Ethereal will try to find the corresponding packets of this chunk,
and will show the combined data as additional pages in the "Packet Bytes" pane, see Section 3.17,
Note!
Reassembling might take place in several protocol layers, so it's possible that multiple
tabs in the "Packet Bytes" pane appear.
Note!
You will find the reassembled data in the last packet of the chunk.
An example: In a HTTP GET response, the requested data (e.g. a HTML page) is returned. Ethereal
will show the hex dump of the data in a new tab "Uncompressed entity body" in the "Packet Bytes"
pane.
7.3.3. Reassembling is disabled by default!
Reassembling is usually disabled in the preferences by default, as it slows down packet processing a
bit.
Enabling reassembling of a protocol typically requires two things:
1. the lower level protocol (e.g., TCP) must support reassembly. Often this reassembly can be en-
abled or disabled via the protocol preferences.
2. the higher level protocol (e.g., HTTP) must use the reassembly mechanism to reassemble frag-
mented protocol data. This too can often be enabled or disabled via the protocol preferences.
The tooltip of the higher level protocol setting will note you if and which lower level protocol set-
ting has to be considered too.
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Advanced Features
7.4. Name Resolution
Name resolution tries to resolve some of the numerical address values to human readable names.
There are two possible ways to do this conversations, depending on the resolution to be done: call-
ing system/network services (like the gethostname function) and/or evaluate from Ethereal specific
configuration files. If there are both features available, Ethereal will first try the system services and
then fall back to it's own configuration files. XXX - is this really true? For details about the config-
uration files Ethereal uses for name resolution and alike, see Appendix A, Configuration (and other)
However, be prepared that this conversion often will fail, e.g. the name to be resolved might simply
be unknown by the servers asked and not found in the configuration files.
Note!
You may see packets to/from your machine in your capture file, which are caused by
name resolution network services (e.g. DNS packets).
Note!
The resolved names are not stored in the capture file or somewhere else, so the re-
solved names might not be available if you open the capture file later or on a different
machine.
Tip!
The name resolution in the packet list is done while the list is filled. If a name could be
resolved after a packet was added to the list, that entry won't be changed. As the name
resolution results are cached, you can use "View/Reload" to rebuild the packet list, this
time with the correctly resolved names.
The name resolution feature can be en-/disabled separately for the following protocol layers (in
brackets):
7.4.1. Ethernet name resolution (MAC layer)
ARP name resolution (system service) Ethereal will ask the operating system to convert an ether-
net address to the corresponding IP address (e.g. 00:09:5b:01:02:03 -> 192.168.0.1).
Ethernet codes (ethers file) If the ARP name resolution failed, Ethereal tries to convert the ethernet
address to a known device name, which has been assigned by the user using an ethers file (e.g.
00:09:5b:01:02:03 -> homerouter).
Ethernet manufacturer codes (manuf file) If both ARP and ethers didn't returned a result, Ethere-
al tries to convert the first 3 bytes of an ethernet address to an abbreviated manufacturer name,
which has been assigned by the IETF (e.g. 00:09:5b:01:02:03 -> Netgear_01:02:03).
7.4.2. IP name resolution (network layer)
DNS/ADNS name resolution (system/library service) Ethereal will ask the operating system (or
the ADNS library), to convert an IP address to the hostname associated with it (e.g. 65.208.228.223
-> www.ethereal.com). The DNS service is using synchronous calls to the DNS server. So Ethereal
will stop responding until a response to a DNS request is returned. If possible, you might consider
using the ADNS library (which won't wait for a network response).
Warning!
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Advanced Features
Enabling network name resolution when your name server is unavailable may signific-
antly slow down Ethereal while it waits for all of the name server requests to time out.
Use ADNS in that case.
DNS vs. ADNS here's a short comparison: Both mechanisms are used to convert an IP address to
some human readable (domain) name. The usual DNS call gethostname() will try to convert the ad-
dress to a name. To do this, it will first ask the systems hosts file (e.g. /etc/hosts) if it finds a match-
ing entry. If that fails, it will ask the configured DNS server(s) about the name.
So the real difference between DNS and ADNS comes when the system has to wait for the DNS
server about a name resolution. The system call gethostname() will wait until a name is resolved or
an error occurs. If the DNS server is unavailable, this might take quite a while (several seconds).
The ADNS service will work a bit differently. It will also ask the DNS server, but it won't wait for
the answer. It will just return to Ethereal in a very short amount of time. XXX - what does happen
with the actual address field at that run? Will the response be ignored for that field?
hosts name resolution (hosts file) If DNS name resolution failed, Ethereal will try to convert an IP
address to the hostname associated with it, using an hosts file provided by the user (e.g.
65.208.228.223 -> www.ethereal.com).
7.4.3. IPX name resolution (network layer)
ipxnet name resolution (ipxnets file) XXX - add ipxnets name resolution explanation.
7.4.4. TCP/UDP port name resolution (transport layer)
TCP/UDP port conversion (system service) Ethereal will ask the operating system to convert a
TCP or UDP port to its well known name (e.g. 80 -> http).
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Advanced Features
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Chapter 8. Statistics
8.1. Introduction
Ethereal provides a wide range of network statistics.
These statistics range from general information about the loaded capture file (like the number of
captured packets), to statistics about specific protocols (e.g. statistics about the number of HTTP re-
quests and responses captured).
•
General statistics:
•
•
•
•
•
Summary about the capture file.
Protocol Hierarchy of the captured packets.
Endpoints e.g. traffic to and from an IP addresses.
Conversations e.g. traffic between specific IP addresses.
IO Graphs visualizing the number of packets (or similar) in time.
•
Protocol specific statistics:
•
•
Service Response Time between request and response of some protocols.
Various other protocol specific statistics.
Note!
The protocol specific statistics requires detailed knowledge about the specific protocol.
Unless you are familiar with that protocol, statistics about it will be pretty hard to un-
derstand.
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Statistics
•
•
File general information about the capture file.
Time the timestamps when the first and the last packet were capturing (and the time between
them).
•
Capture information from the time when the capture was done (only available if the packet data
was captured from the network and not loaded from a file).
•
•
Display some display related information.
Traffic some statistics of the network traffic seen. If a display filter is set, you will see values in
both columns. The values in the Captured column will remain the same as before, while the
values in the Displayed column will reflect the values corresponding to the packets shown in the
display.
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Statistics
8.3. The "Protocol Hierarchy" window
The protocol hierarchy of the captured packets.
Figure 8.2. The "Protocol Hierarchy" window
This is a tree of all the protocols in the capture. You can collapse or expand subtrees, by clicking on
the plus / minus icons. By default, all trees are expanded.
Each row contains the statistical values of one protocol.
The following columns containing the statistical values are available:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Protocol this protocol's name
% Packets the percentage of protocol packets, relative to all packets in the capture
Packets the absolute number of packets of this protocol
Bytes the absolute number of bytes of this protocol
MBit/s the bandwidth of this protocol, relative to the capture time
End Packets the absolute number of packets of this protocol (where this protocol were the
highest protocol to decode)
•
•
End Bytes the absolute number of bytes of this protocol (where this protocol were the highest
protocol to decode)
End MBit/s the bandwidth of this protocol, relative to the capture time (where this protocol
were the highest protocol to decode)
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Statistics
Note!
Packets will usually contain multiple protocols, so more than one protocol will be
counted for each packet. Example: In the screenshot IP has 99,17% and TCP 85,83%
(which is together much more than 100%).
Note!
A single packet can contain the same protocol more than once. In this case, the pro-
tocol is counted more than once. For example: in some tunneling configurations the IP
layer can appear twice.
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Statistics
8.4. Endpoints
Statistics of the endpoints captured.
Tip!
If you are looking for a feature other network tools call a hostlist, here is the right
place to look. The list of Ethernet or IP endpoints is usually what you're looking for.
8.4.1. What is an Endpoint?
A network endpoint is the logical endpoint of separate protocol traffic of a specific protocol layer.
The endpoint statistics of Ethereal will take the following endpoints into account:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ethernet an Ethernet endpoint is identical to the Ethernet's MAC address.
Fibre Channel XXX - insert info here.
FDDI a FDDI endpoint is identical to the FDDI MAC address.
IPv4 an IP endpoint is identical to its IP address.
IPX XXX - insert info here.
TCP a TCP endpoint is a combination of the IP address and the TCP port used, so different TCP
ports on the same IP address are different TCP endpoints.
•
•
Token Ring a Token Ring endpoint is identical to the Token Ring MAC address.
UDP a UDP endpoint is a combination of the IP address and the UDP port used, so different
UDP ports on the same IP address are different UDP endpoints.
Broadcast / multicast endpoints
Broadcast / multicast traffic will be shown separately as additional endpoints. Of
course, as these endpoints are virtual endpoints, the real traffic will be received by all
(multicast: some) of the listed unicast endpoints.
8.4.2. The "Endpoints" window
This window shows statistics about the endpoints captured.
Figure 8.3. The "Endpoints" window
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Statistics
For each supported protocol, a tab is shown in this window. The tab labels shows the number of en-
dpoints captured (e.g. the tab label "Ethernet: 5" tells you that five ethernet endpoints have been
captured). If no endpoints of a specific protocol were captured, the tab label will be grayed out
(although the related page can still be selected).
Each row in the list shows the statistical values for exactly one endpoint.
Name resolution will be done if selected in the window and if it is active for the specific protocol
layer (MAC layer for the selected Ethernet endpoints page). As you might have noticed, the first
row has a name resolution of the first three bytes "Netgear", the second row's address was resolved
to an IP address (using ARP) and the third was resolved to a broadcast (unresolved this would still
be: ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff), the last two Ethernet addresses remain unresolved.
Tip!
This window will be updated frequently, so it will be useful, even if you open it before
(or while) you are doing a live capture.
8.4.3. The protocol specific "Endpoint List" windows
Before the combined window described above was available, each of its pages were shown as separ-
ate windows. Even though the combined window is much more convenient to use, these separate
windows are still available. The main reason is, they might process faster for very large capture
files. However, as the functionality is exactly the same as in the combined window, they won't be
discussed in detail here.
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Statistics
8.5. Conversations
Statistics of the captured conversations.
8.5.1. What is a Conversation?
A network conversation is the traffic between two specific endpoints. For example, an IP conversa-
tion is all the traffic between two IP addresses. The description of the known endpoint types can be
8.5.2. The "Conversations" window
Beside the list content, the conversations window work the same way as the endpoint ones, see Sec-
tion 8.4.2, “The "Endpoints" window” for a description how it works.
Figure 8.4. The "Conversations" window
8.5.3. The protocol specific "Conversation List"
windows
Before the combined window described above was available, each of its pages were shown as separ-
ate windows. Even though the combined window is much more convenient to use, these separate
windows are still available. The main reason is, they might process faster for very large capture
files. However, as the functionality is exactly the same as in the combined window, they won't be
discussed in detail here.
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Statistics
8.6. The "IO Graphs" window
User configurable graph of the captured network packets.
You can define up to five differently colored graphs.
Figure 8.5. The "IO Graphs" window
The user can configure the following things:
•
Graphs
•
•
•
Graph 1-5 enable the graph 1-5 (only graph 1 is enabled by default)
Color the color of the graph (cannot be changed)
Filter: a display filter for this graph (only the packets that pass this filter will be taken into
account for that graph)
•
Style: the style of the graph (Line/Impulse/FBar)
•
•
X Axis
•
•
Tick interval an interval in x direction lasts (10/1/0.1/0.01/0.001 seconds)
Pixels per tick use 10/5/2/1 pixels per tick interval
Y Axis
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Statistics
•
•
Unit the unit for the y direction (Packets/Tick, Bytes/Tick, Advanced...)
Scale the scale for the y unit (10,20,50,100,200,500,...)
XXX - describe the Advanced feature.
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Statistics
8.7. Service Response Time
The service response time is the time between a request and the corresponding response. This in-
formation is available for many protocols.
Service response time statistics are currently available for the following protocols:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
DCE-RPC
Fibre Channel
H.225 RAS
LDAP
MGCP
ONC-RPC
SMB
As an example, the DCE-RPC service response time is described in more detail.
Note!
The other Service Response Time windows will work the same way (or only slightly
different) compared to the following description.
8.7.1. The "Service Response Time DCE-RPC" window
The service response time of DCE-RPC is the time between the request and the corresponding re-
sponse.
First of all, you have to select the DCE-RPC interface:
Figure 8.6. The "Compute DCE-RPC statistics" window
You can optionally set a display filter, to reduce the amount of packets.
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Statistics
Figure 8.7. The "DCE-RPC Statistic for ..." window
Each row corresponds to a method of the interface selected (so the EPM interface in version 3 has 7
methods). For each method the number of calls, and the statistics of the SRT time is calculated.
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Statistics
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Chapter 9. Customizing Ethereal
9.1. Introduction
Ethereal's default behaviour will usually suit your needs pretty well. However, as you become more
familiar with Ethereal, it can be customized in various ways to suit your needs even better. In this
chapter we explore:
•
•
•
•
How to start Ethereal with command line parameters
How to colorize the packet list
How to control protocol dissection
How to use the various preference settings
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Customizing Ethereal
9.2. Start Ethereal from the command line
You can start Ethereal from the command line, but it can also be started from most Window man-
agers as well. In this section we will look at starting it from the command line.
Ethereal supports a large number of command line parameters. To see what they are, simply enter
able from Ethereal” (or something similar) should be printed.
Example 9.1. Help information available from Ethereal
This is GNU ethereal 0.10.11
(C) 1998-2005 Gerald Combs <[email protected]>
Compiled with GTK+ 2.4.14, with GLib 2.4.7, with WinPcap (version unknown),
with libz 1.2.2, with libpcre 4.4, with Net-SNMP 5.1.2, with ADNS.
Running with WinPcap version 3.1 beta4 (packet.dll version 3, 1, 0, 24), based o
n libpcap version 0.8.3 on Windows XP Service Pack 1, build 2600.
ethereal [ -vh ] [ -klLnpQS ] [ -a <capture autostop condition> ] ...
[ -b <capture ring buffer option> ] ...] [ -B capture buffer size (Win32
[ -c <capture packet count> ] [ -f <capture filter> ]
[ -g <packet number> ]
[ -i <capture interface> ] [ -m <font> ] [ -N <name resolving flags> ]
[ -o <preference/recent setting> ] ...
[ -r <infile> ] [ -R <read (display) filter> ] [ -s <capture snaplen> ]
[ -t <time stamp format> ]
[ -w <savefile> ] [ -y <capture link type> ] [ -z <statistics> ]
[ <infile> ]
We will examine each of the command line options in turn.
The first thing to notice is that issuing the command ethereal by itself will bring up Ethereal.
However, you can include as many of the command line parameters as you like. Their meanings are
as follows ( in alphabetical order ): XXX - is the alphabetical order a good choice? Maybe better
task based?
-a <capture autostop condition>
Specify a criterion that specifies when Ethereal is to stop
writing to a capture file. The criterion is of the form
test:value, where test is one of:
:v
al
Stop writing to a capture file after value of
seconds have elapsed.
durationue
:val
Stop writing to a capture file after it reaches a
size of value kilobytes (where a kilobyte is
1000 bytes, not 1024 bytes). If this option is
used together with the -b option, Ethereal will
stop writing to the current capture file and
switch to the next one if filesize is reached.
filesizeue
files:value
Stop writing to capture files after value number
of files were written.
-b <capture ring buffer option>
If a maximum capture file size was specified, cause Ethereal
to run in "ring buffer" mode, with the specified number of
files. In "ring buffer" mode, Ethereal will write to several cap-
ture files. Their name is based on the number of the file and
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Customizing Ethereal
on the creation date and time.
When the first capture file fills up, Ethereal will switch to
writing to the next file, until it fills up the last file, at which
point it'll discard the data in the first file (unless 0 is spe-
cified, in which case, the number of files is unlimited) and
start writing to that file and so on.
If the optional duration is specified, Ethereal will switch also
to the next file when the specified number of seconds has
elapsed even if the current file is not completely fills up.
:v
al
Switch to the next file after value seconds have
elapsed, even if the current file is not com-
durationue pletely filled up.
:val
filesizeue
Switch to the next file after it reaches a size of
value kilobytes (where a kilobyte is 1000 bytes,
not 1024 bytes).
files:value
Begin again with the first file after value num-
ber of files were written (form a ring buffer).
-B <capture buffer size (Win32
only)>
Win32 only: set capture buffer size (in MB, default is 1MB).
This is used by the the capture driver to buffer packet data un-
til that data can be written to disk. If you encounter packet
drops while capturing, try to increase this size.
-c <capture packet count>
This option specifies the maximum number of packets to cap-
ture when capturing live data. It would be used in conjunction
with the -k option.
-f <capture filter>
-g <packet number>
-h
This option sets the initial capture filter expression to be used
when capturing packets.
After reading in a capture file using the -r flag, go to the giv-
en packet number.
The -h option requests Ethereal to print its version and usage
instructions (as shown above) and exit.
-i <capture interface>
The -i option allows you to specify, from the command line,
which interface packet capture should occur on if capturing
packets.
An example would be: ethereal -i eth0.
To get a listing of all the interfaces you can capture on, use
the command ifconfig -a or netstat -i. Unfortunately, some
versions of UNIX do not support ifconfig -a, so you will have
to use netstat -i in these cases.
-k
The -k option specifies that Ethereal should start capturing
packets immediately. This option requires the use of the -i
parameter to specify the interface that packet capture will oc-
cur from.
-l
This option turns on automatic scrolling if the packet list pane
is being updated automatically as packets arrive during a cap-
ture ( as specified by the -S flag).
-L
List the data link types supported by the interface and exit.
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Customizing Ethereal
-m <font>
This option sets the name of the font used for most text dis-
played by Ethereal. XXX - add an example!
-n
Disable network object name resolution (such as hostname,
TCP and UDP port names).
-N <name resolving flags>
Turns on name resolving for particular types of addresses and
port numbers; the argument is a string that may contain the
letters m to enable MAC address resolution, n to enable net-
work address resolution, and t to enable transport-layer port
number resolution. This overrides -n if both -N and -n are
present. The letter C enables concurrent (asynchronous) DNS
lookups.
-o <preference/recent settings>
Sets a preference or recent value, overriding the default value
and any value read from a preference/recent file. The argu-
ment to the flag is a string of the form prefname:value, where
prefname is the name of the preference (which is the same
name that would appear in the preference/recent file), and
value is the value to which it should be set. Multiple instances
of -o <preference settings> can be given on a single com-
mand line.
An example of setting a single preference would be:
ethereal -o mgcp.display_dissect_tree:TRUE
An example of setting multiple preferences would be:
ethereal
-o
mgcp.display_dissect_tree:TRUE
-o
mgcp.udp.callagent_port:2627
Tip!
You can get a list of all available preference
strings from the preferences file, see Ap-
-p
Don't put the interface into promiscuous mode. Note that the
interface might be in promiscuous mode for some other reas-
on; hence, -p cannot be used to ensure that the only traffic
that is captured is traffic sent to or from the machine on
which Ethereal is running, broadcast traffic, and multicast
traffic to addresses received by that machine.
-Q
This option forces Ethereal to exit when capturing is com-
plete. It can be used with the -c option. It must be used in
conjunction with the -i and -w options.
-r <infile>
This option provides the name of a capture file for Ethereal to
read and display. This capture file can be in one of the
formats Ethereal understands.
-R <read (display) filter>
This option specifies a display filter to be applied when read-
ing packets from a capture file. The syntax of this filter is that
of the display filters discussed in Section 6.2, “Filtering pack-
ets while viewing”. Packets not matching the filter are dis-
carded.
-s <capture snaplen>
This option specifies the snapshot length to use when captur-
ing packets. Ethereal will only capture <snaplen> bytes of
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data for each packet.
-S
This option specifies that Ethereal will display packets as it
captures them. This is done by capturing in one process and
displaying them in a separate process. This is the same as "Up-
date list of packets in real time" in the Capture Options dialog
box.
-t <time stamp format>
This option sets the format of packet timestamps that are dis-
played in the packet list window. The format can be one of:
•
•
•
•
r relative, which specifies timestamps are displayed relat-
ive to the first packet captured.
a absolute, which specifies that actual times be displayed
for all packets.
ad absolute with date, which specifies that actual dates
and times be displayed for all packets.
d delta, which specifies that timestamps are relative to the
previous packet.
-v
The -v option requests Ethereal to print out its version in-
formation and exit.
-w <savefile>
This option sets the name of the savefile to be used when sav-
ing a capture file.
-y <capture link type>
If a capture is started from the command line with -k, set the
data link type to use while capturing packets. The values re-
ported by -L are the values that can be used.
-z <statistics-string>
Get Ethereal to collect various types of statistics and display
the result in a window that updates in semi-real time. XXX -
add more details here!
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9.3. Packet colorization
A very useful mechanism available in Ethereal is packet colorization. You can set-up Ethereal so
that it will colorize packets according to a filter. This allows you to emphasize the packets you are
usually interested in.
Tip!
You will find a lot of Coloring Rule examples at the Ethereal Wiki Coloring Rules
To colorize packets, select the Coloring Rules... menu item from the View menu, Ethereal will pop
Figure 9.1. The "Coloring Rules" dialog box
Once the Coloring Rules dialog box is up, there are a number of buttons you can use, depending on
whether or not you have any color filters installed already.
Note!
You will need to carefully select the order the coloring rules are listed (and thus ap-
plied) as they are applied in order from top to bottom. So, more specific rules need to
be listed before more general rules. For example, if you have a color rule for UDP be-
fore the one for DNS, the color rule for DNS will never be applied (as DNS uses UDP,
so the UDP rule will be matching first).
If this is the first time you have used Coloring Rules, click on the New button which will bring up
Figure 9.2. The "Edit Color Filter" dialog box
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In the Edit Color dialog box, simply enter a name for the color filter, and enter a filter string in the
which means that the name of the color filter is arp and the filter will select protocols of type arp.
Once you have entered these values, you can choose a foreground and background color for packets
that match the filter expression. Click on Foreground color... or Background color... to achieve
this and Ethereal will pop up the Choose foreground/background color for protocol dialog box as
Figure 9.3. The "Choose color" dialog box
Select the color you desire for the selected packets and click on OK.
Note!
You must select a color in the colorbar next to the colorwheel to load values into the
RGB values. Alternatively, you can set the values to select the color you want.
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Figure 9.4, “Using color filters with Ethereal” shows an example of several color filters being used
in Ethereal. You may not like the color choices, however, feel free to choose your own.
Figure 9.4. Using color filters with Ethereal
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9.4. Control Protocol dissection
The user can control how protocols are dissected.
Each protocol has its own dissector, so dissecting a complete packet will typically involve several
dissectors. As Ethereal tries to find the right dissector for each packet (using static "routes" and
heuristics "guessing"), it might choose the wrong dissector in your specific case. For example, Eth-
ereal won't know if you use a common protocol on an uncommon TCP port, e.g. using HTTP on
TCP port 800 instead of the standard port 80.
There are two ways to control the relations between protocol dissectors: disable a protocol dissector
completely or temporarily divert the way Ethereal calls the dissectors.
9.4.1. The "Enabled Protocols" dialog box
The Enabled Protocols dialog box lets you enable or disable specific protocols, all protocols are en-
abled by default. When a protocol is disabled, Ethereal stops processing a packet whenever that pro-
tocol is encountered.
Note!
Disabling a protocol will prevent information about higher-layer protocols from being
displayed. For example, suppose you disabled the IP protocol and selected a packet
containing Ethernet, IP, TCP, and HTTP information. The Ethernet information would
be displayed, but the IP, TCP and HTTP information would not - disabling IP would
prevent it and the other protocols from being displayed.
Figure 9.5. The "Enabled Protocols" dialog box
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To disable or enable a protocol, simply click on it using the mouse or press the space bar when the
protocol is highlighted.
Warning!
You have to use the Save button to save your settings. The OK or Apply buttons will
not save your changes permanently, so they will be lost when Ethereal is closed.
You can choose from the following actions:
1. Enable All Enable all protocols in the list.
2. Disable All Disable all protocols in the list.
3. Invert Toggle the state of all protocols in the list.
4. OK Apply the changes and close the dialog box.
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5. Apply Apply the changes and keep the dialog box open.
and Folders for details.
7. Cancel Cancel the changes and close the dialog box.
9.4.2. User Specified Decodes
The "Decode As" functionality let you temporarily divert specific protocol dissections. This might
be useful for example, if you do some uncommon experiments on your network.
Figure 9.6. The "Decode As" dialog box
The content of this dialog box depends on the selected packet when it was opened.
Warning!
The user specified decodes can not be saved. If you quit Ethereal, these settings will be
lost.
1. Decode Decode packets the selected way.
2. Do not decode Do not decode packets the selected way.
3. Link/Network/Transport Specify the network layer at which "Decode As" should take place.
Which of these pages are available, depends on the content of the selected packet when this
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dialog box was opened.
4. Show Current Open a dialog box showing the current list of user specified decodes.
5. OK Apply the currently selected decode and close the dialog box.
6. Apply Apply the currently selected decode and keep the dialog box open.
7. Cancel Cancel the changes and close the dialog box.
9.4.3. Show User Specified Decodes
This dialog box shows the currently active user specified decodes.
Figure 9.7. The "Decode As: Show" dialog box
1. OK Close this dialog box.
2. Clear Removes all user specified decodes.
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9.5. Preferences
There are a number of preferences you can set. Simply select the Preferences... menu item from the
Edit menu, and Ethereal will pop up the Preferences dialog box as shown in Figure 9.8, “The prefer-
ences dialog box”, with the "User Interface" page as default. On the left side is a tree where you can
select the page to be shown.
Note!
Preference settings are added frequently. For a recent explanation of the preference
pages and their settings have a look at the Ethereal Wiki Preferences page at ht-
Warning!
The OK or Apply button will not save the preference settings, you'll have to save the
settings by clicking the Save button.
•
•
•
The OK button will apply the preferences settings and close the dialog.
The Apply button will apply the preferences settings and keep the dialog open.
The Save button will apply the preferences settings, save the settings on the harddisk and keep
the dialog open.
•
The Cancel button will restore all preferences settings to the last saved state.
Figure 9.8. The preferences dialog box
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Appendix A. Configuration (and
other) Files and Folders
Ethereal uses a number of files and folders while it is running. Some of these reside in the personal
configuration folder and are used to maintain information between runs of Ethereal, while some of
them are maintained in system areas.
Tip
A list of the folders Ethereal actually uses can be found under the Folders tab in the
dialog box coming up, when you select About Ethereal from the Help menu.
The content format of the configuration files is the same on all platforms. However, to match the
different policies for unix and windows platforms, different folders for these files are used.
Table A.1. Configuration files and folders overview
File/Folder
Description
Unix/Linux
folders
Windows folders
preferences
Settings from the /etc/ethereal.conf, %ETHEREAL%\ethereal.conf,
Preferences dialog $HOME/.ethereal/ %APPDATA%\Ethereal\preferences
box.
preferences
recent
Recent GUI set- $HOME/.ethereal/ %APPDATA%\Ethereal\recent
tings (e.g. recent recent
files lists).
cfilters
Capture filters.
Display filters.
Coloring rules.
$HOME/.ethereal/ %ETHEREAL%\cfilters,
cfilters %APPDATA%\Ethereal\cfilters
dfilters
$HOME/.ethereal/ %ETHEREAL%\dfilters,
dfilters %APPDATA%\Ethereal\dfilters
colorfilters
$HOME/.ethereal/ %ETHEREAL%\colorfilters,
colorfilters %APPDATA%\Ethereal\colorfilters
dis-
abled_protos
Disabled
cols.
proto- $HOME/.ethereal/ %ETHEREAL%\disabled_protos,
disabled_protos
%APPDATA%\Ethereal\disabled_protos
ethers
Ethernet name res- /etc/ethers,
%ETHEREAL%\ethers,
olution.
$HOME/.ethereal/ %APPDATA%\Ethereal\ethers
ethers
manuf
hosts
Ethernet name res- /etc/manuf
olution.
%ETHEREAL%\manuf
IPv4 and IPv6 $HOME/.ethereal/ %APPDATA%\hosts
name resolution. hosts
ipxnets
plugins
IPX name resolu- $HOME/.ethereal/ %ETHEREAL%\ipxnets
tion.
Plugin directories. /
usr/
ipxnets
%ETHEREAL%\plugins\<version>,
%APPDATA%\Ethereal\plugins
share/ethere-
al/plugins,
usr/loc-
/
al/
share/ethere-
al/plugins,
$HOME/.ethereal/
plugins
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Configuration (and other) Files and
Folders
File/Folder
temp
Description
Unix/Linux
folders
Windows folders
Temporary files. Environment:
TMPDIR
Environment: TMPDIR or TEMP
Windows folders
%APPDATA% points to the personal configuration folder, typically C:\Documents
and Settings\<username>\Application Data (for further details, have a
program folder, typically C:\Program Files\Ethereal
Unix/Linux folders
The /etc folder is the global Ethereal configuration folder. The folder actually used
on your system may vary, maybe something like: /usr/local/etc.
preferences/ethereal.conf
This file contains your Ethereal preferences, including de-
faults for capturing and displaying packets. It is a simple text
file containing statements of the form:
variable: value
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
written to disk when you press the Save button in the "Prefer-
ences" dialog box.
recent
This file contains various GUI related settings like the main
window position and size, the recent files list and such. It is a
simple text file containing statements of the form:
variable: value
It is read at program start and written at program exit.
cfilters
This file contains all the capture filters that you have defined
and saved. It consists of one or more lines, where each line
has the following format:
"<filter name>" <filter string>
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
written to disk when you press the Save button in the "Cap-
ture Filters" dialog box.
dfilters
This file contains all the display filters that you have defined
and saved. It consists of one or more lines, where each line
has the following format:
"<filter name>" <filter string>
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
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Configuration (and other) Files and
Folders
written to disk when you press the Save button in the "Dis-
play Filters" dialog box.
colorfilters
This file contains all the color filters that you have defined
and saved. It consists of one or more lines, where each line
has the following format:
@<filter name>@<filter string>
@[<bg RGB(16-bit)>][<fg RGB(16-bit)>]
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
written to disk when you press the Save button in the "Color-
ing Rules" dialog box.
disabled_protos
Each line in this file specifies a disabled protocol name. The
following are some examples:
tcp
udp
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
written to disk when you press the Save button in the "En-
abled Protocols" dialog box.
ethers
When Ethereal is trying to translate Ethernet hardware ad-
dresses to names, it consults the files listed in Table A.1,
“Configuration files and folders overview”. If an address is
not
found
in
/etc/ethers,
Ethereal
looks
in
$HOME/.ethereal/ethers
Each line in these files consists of one hardware address and
name separated by whitespace. The digits of hardware ad-
dresses are separated by colons (:), dashes (-) or periods(.).
The following are some examples:
ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff
c0-00-ff-ff-ff-ff
00.2b.08.93.4b.a1
Broadcast
TR_broadcast
Freds_machine
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
never written by Ethereal.
manuf
Ethereal uses the files listed in Table A.1, “Configuration
files and folders overview” to translate the first three bytes of
an Ethernet address into a manufacturers name. This file has
the same format as the ethers file, except addresses are three
bytes long.
An example is:
00:00:01 Xerox
# XEROX CORPORATION
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
never written by Ethereal.
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Configuration (and other) Files and
Folders
hosts
Ethereal uses the files listed in Table A.1, “Configuration
files and folders overview” to translate IPv4 and IPv6 ad-
dresses into names.
This file has the same format as the usual /etc/hosts file in
unix systems.
An example is:
# Comments must be prepended by the # sign!
192.168.0.1 homeserver
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
never written by Ethereal.
ipxnets
Ethereal uses the files listed in Table A.1, “Configuration
files and folders overview” to translate IPX network numbers
into names.
An example is:
C0.A8.2C.00
c0-a8-1c-00
00:00:BE:EF
110f
HR
CEO
IT_Server1
FileServer3
The settings from this file are read in at program start and
never written by Ethereal.
plugins folder
Ethereal searches for plugins in the directories listed in Ta-
searched in the order listed.
temp folder
If you start a new capture and don't specify a filename for it,
Ethereal uses this directory to place that file in, see Sec-
A.1. Windows folders
Here you will find some details about the folders used in Ethereal on different Windows versions.
As already mentioned, you can find the currently used folders in the About Ethereal dialog.
A.1.1. Windows profiles
Windows uses some special directories to store user configuration files in, named the user profile.
This can be confusing, as the default directory location changed from version to version and might
also be different for english and internationalized versions of windows.
Note!
If you upgraded to a new windows version, your profile might be kept in the former
location, so the defaults mentioned here might not apply.
The following will try to guide you to the right place where to look for Ethereals profile data.
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Configuration (and other) Files and
Folders
95/98/ME
The default in Windows 95/98/ME is: all users work with the
same profile, which is located at:
C:\windows\Application Data\Ethereal
98/ME (with enabled user pro-
files)
In Windows 98 and ME you can enable separate user profiles.
In that case, something like:
C:\windows\Profiles\<username>\Applicatio
n Data\Ethereal is used.
NT 4
C:\WINNT\Profiles\<username>\Application
Data\Ethereal
2000/XP
C:\Documents
and
Set-
tings\<username>\Application Data, "Docu-
ments and Settings" and "Application Data" might be interna-
tionalized.
A.1.2. Windows NT/2000/XP roaming profiles
The following will only be applicable if you are using roaming profiles. This might be the case, if
you work in a Windows domain environment (used in huge company networks). The configurations
of all programs you use won't be saved on the local harddrive of the computer you are currently
working on, but on the domain server.
As Ethereal is using the correct places to store it's profile data, your settings will travel with you, if
you logon to a different computer the next time.
There is an exception to this: The "Local Settings" folder in your profile data (typically something
like: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings) will not be trans-
ferred to the domain server. This is the default for temporary capture files.
A.1.3. Windows temporary folder
Ethereal uses the folder which is set by the TMPDIR or TEMP environment variable. This variable
will be set by the windows installer.
The default location for temporary files on NT 4 is just C:\TEMP, and in 2000 the default location
is some directory under your profile directory but it might have "Temporary Files" in the path name.
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Folders
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Appendix C. Related command line
tools
C.1. Introduction
Beside the Ethereal GUI application, there are some command line tools, which can be helpful for
doing some more specialized things. These tools will be described in this chapter.
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Related command line tools
C.2. tcpdump: Capturing with tcpdump for
viewing with Ethereal
There are occasions when you want to capture packets using tcpdump rather than ethereal, espe-
cially when you want to do a remote capture and do not want the network load associated with run-
ning Ethereal remotely (not to mention all the X traffic polluting your capture).
However, the default tcpdump parameters result in a capture file where each packet is truncated,
because tcpdump, by default, does only capture the first 68 bytes of each packet.
To ensure that you capture complete packets, use the following command:
tcpdump -i <interface> -s 1500 -w <some-file>
You will have to specify the correct interface and the name of a file to save into. In addition, you
will have to terminate the capture with ^C when you believe you have captured enough packets.
Note!
tcpdump is not part of the Ethereal distribution. You can get it from: ht-
tp://www.tcpdump.org for various platforms.
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C.3. tethereal: Terminal-based Ethereal
Tethereal is a terminal oriented version of ethereal designed for capturing and displaying packets
when an interactive user interface isn't necessary or available. It supports the same options as ether-
eal. For more information on tethereal, see the manual pages (man tethereal).
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C.4. capinfos: Print information about
capture files
Included with Ethereal is a small utility called capinfos, which is a command-line utility to print in-
formation about binary capture files.
Example C.1. Help information available from capinfos
$ capinfos -h
Usage: capinfos [-t] [-c] [-s] [-d] [-u] [-a] [-e] [-y]
[-i] [-z] [-h] <capfile>
where -t display the capture type of <capfile>
-c count the number of packets
-s display the size of the file
-d display the total length of all packets in the file
(in bytes)
-u display the capture duration (in seconds)
-a display the capture start time
-e display the capture end time
-y display average data rate (in bytes)
-i display average data rate (in bits)
-z display average packet size (in bytes)
-h produces this help listing.
If no data flags are given, default is to display all statistics
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C.5. editcap: Edit capture files
Included with Ethereal is a small utility called editcap, which is a command-line utility for working
with capture files. Its main function is to remove packets from capture files, but it can also be used
to convert capture files from one format to another, as well as print information about capture files.
Example C.2. Help information available from editcap
$ editcap.exe -h
Usage: editcap [-r] [-h] [-v] [-T <encap type>] [-E <probability>]
[-F <capture type>]> [-s <snaplen>] [-t <time adjustment>]
<infile> <outfile> [ <record#>[-<record#>] ... ]
where
-E <probability> specifies the probability (between 0 and 1)
that a particular byte will will have an error.
-F <capture type> specifies the capture file type to write:
libpcap - libpcap (tcpdump, Ethereal, etc.)
rh6_1libpcap - RedHat Linux 6.1 libpcap (tcpdump)
suse6_3libpcap - SuSE Linux 6.3 libpcap (tcpdump)
modlibpcap - modified libpcap (tcpdump)
nokialibpcap - Nokia libpcap (tcpdump)
lanalyzer - Novell LANalyzer
ngsniffer - Network Associates Sniffer (DOS-based)
snoop - Sun snoop
netmon1 - Microsoft Network Monitor 1.x
netmon2 - Microsoft Network Monitor 2.x
ngwsniffer_1_1 - Network Associates Sniffer (Windows-based) 1.1
ngwsniffer_2_0 - Network Associates Sniffer (Windows-based) 2.00x
nettl - HP-UX nettl trace
visual - Visual Networks traffic capture
5views - Accellent 5Views capture
niobserverv9 - Network Instruments Observer version 9
default is libpcap
-h produces this help listing.
-r specifies that the records specified should be kept, not deleted,
default is to delete
-s <snaplen> specifies that packets should be truncated to
<snaplen> bytes of data
-t <time adjustment> specifies the time adjustment
to be applied to selected packets
-T <encap type> specifies the encapsulation type to use:
ether - Ethernet
tr - Token Ring
slip - SLIP
ppp - PPP
fddi - FDDI
fddi-swapped - FDDI with bit-swapped MAC addresses
rawip - Raw IP
arcnet - ARCNET
arcnet_linux - Linux ARCNET
atm-rfc1483 - RFC 1483 ATM
linux-atm-clip - Linux ATM CLIP
lapb - LAPB
atm-pdus - ATM PDUs
atm-pdus-untruncated - ATM PDUs - untruncated
null - NULL
ascend - Lucent/Ascend access equipment
isdn - ISDN
ip-over-fc - RFC 2625 IP-over-Fibre Channel
ppp-with-direction - PPP with Directional Info
ieee-802-11 - IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN
prism - IEEE 802.11 plus Prism II monitor mode header
ieee-802-11-radio - IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN with radio information
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ieee-802-11-radiotap - IEEE 802.11 plus radiotap WLAN header
ieee-802-11-avs - IEEE 802.11 plus AVS WLAN header
linux-sll - Linux cooked-mode capture
frelay - Frame Relay
frelay-with-direction - Frame Relay with Directional Info
chdlc - Cisco HDLC
ios - Cisco IOS internal
ltalk - Localtalk
pflog-old - OpenBSD PF Firewall logs, pre-3.4
hhdlc - HiPath HDLC
docsis - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification
cosine - CoSine L2 debug log
whdlc - Wellfleet HDLC
sdlc - SDLC
tzsp - Tazmen sniffer protocol
enc - OpenBSD enc(4) encapsulating interface
pflog - OpenBSD PF Firewall logs
chdlc-with-direction - Cisco HDLC with Directional Info
bluetooth-h4 - Bluetooth H4
mtp2 - SS7 MTP2
mtp3 - SS7 MTP3
irda - IrDA
user0 - USER 0
user1 - USER 1
user2 - USER 2
user3 - USER 3
user4 - USER 4
user5 - USER 5
user6 - USER 6
user7 - USER 7
user8 - USER 8
user9 - USER 9
user10 - USER 10
user11 - USER 11
user12 - USER 12
user13 - USER 13
user14 - USER 14
user15 - USER 15
symantec - Symantec Enterprise Firewall
ap1394 - Apple IP-over-IEEE 1394
bacnet-ms-tp - BACnet MS/TP
raw-icmp-nettl - Raw ICMP with nettl headers
raw-icmpv6-nettl - Raw ICMPv6 with nettl headers
gprs-llc - GPRS LLC
juniper-atm1 - Juniper ATM1
juniper-atm2 - Juniper ATM2
redback - Redback SmartEdge
rawip-nettl - Raw IP with nettl headers
ether-nettl - Ethernet with nettl headers
tr-nettl - Token Ring with nettl headers
fddi-nettl - FDDI with nettl headers
unknown-nettl - Unknown link-layer type with nettl headers
mtp2-with-phdr - MTP2 with pseudoheader
juniper-pppoe - Juniper PPPoE
gcom-tie1 - GCOM TIE1
gcom-serial - GCOM Serial
x25-nettl - X25 with nettl headers
default is the same as the input file
-v specifies verbose operation, default is silent
A range of records can be specified as well
Where each option has the following meaning:
-r
This option specifies that the frames listed should be kept, not
deleted. The default is to delete the listed frames.
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This option provides help.
-h
-v
This option specifies verbose operation. The default is silent
operation.
-T {encap type}
This option specifies the frame encapsulation type to use.
It is mainly for converting funny captures to something that
Ethereal can deal with.
The default frame encapsulation type is the same as the input
encapsulation.
-F {capture type}
This option specifies the capture file format to write the out-
put file in.
The default is libpcap format.
-s {snaplen}
Specifies that packets should be truncated to {snaplen} bytes
of data.
-t {time adjustment}
{infile}
Specifies the time adjustment to be applied to selected pack-
ets.
This parameter specifies the input file to use. It must be
present.
{outfile}
This parameter specifies the output file to use. It must be
present.
[record#[-][record# ...]]
This optional parameter specifies the records to include or ex-
clude (depending on the -r option. You can specify individual
records or a range of records.
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C.6. mergecap: Merging multiple capture files
into one
Mergecap is a program that combines multiple saved capture files into a single output file specified
by the -w argument. Mergecap knows how to read libpcap capture files, including those of tcpdump.
In addition, Mergecap can read capture files from snoop (including Shomiti) and atmsnoop, LanA-
lyzer, Sniffer (compressed or uncompressed), Microsoft Network Monitor, AIX's iptrace, NetXray,
Sniffer Pro, RADCOM's WAN/LAN analyzer, Lucent/Ascend router debug output, HP-UX's nettl,
and the dump output from Toshiba's ISDN routers. There is no need to tell Mergecap what type of
file you are reading; it will determine the file type by itself. Mergecap is also capable of reading any
of these file formats if they are compressed using gzip. Mergecap recognizes this directly from the
file; the '.gz' extension is not required for this purpose.
By default, it writes the capture file in libpcap format, and writes all of the packets in both input
capture files to the output file. The -F flag can be used to specify the format in which to write the
capture file; it can write the file in libpcap format (standard libpcap format, a modified format used
by some patched versions of libpcap, the format used by Red Hat Linux 6.1, or the format used by
SuSE Linux 6.3), snoop format, uncompressed Sniffer format, Microsoft Network Monitor 1.x
format, and the format used by Windows-based versions of the Sniffer software.
Packets from the input files are merged in chronological order based on each frame's timestamp, un-
less the -a flag is specified. Mergecap assumes that frames within a single capture file are already
stored in chronological order. When the -a flag is specified, packets are copied directly from each
input file to the output file, independent of each frame's timestamp.
If the -s flag is used to specify a snapshot length, frames in the input file with more captured data
than the specified snapshot length will have only the amount of data specified by the snapshot
length written to the output file. This may be useful if the program that is to read the output file can-
not handle packets larger than a certain size (for example, the versions of snoop in Solaris 2.5.1 and
Solaris 2.6 appear to reject Ethernet frames larger than the standard Ethernet MTU, making them in-
capable of handling gigabit Ethernet captures if jumbo frames were used).
If the -T flag is used to specify an encapsulation type, the encapsulation type of the output capture
file will be forced to the specified type, rather than being the type appropriate to the encapsulation
type of the input capture file. Note that this merely forces the encapsulation type of the output file to
be the specified type; the packet headers of the packets will not be translated from the encapsulation
type of the input capture file to the specified encapsulation type (for example, it will not translate an
Ethernet capture to an FDDI capture if an Ethernet capture is read and '-T fddi' is specified).
Example C.3. Help information available from mergecap
$ mergecap.exe -h
mergecap version 0.10.5
Usage: mergecap [-hva] [-s <snaplen>] [-T <encap type>]
[-F <capture type>] -w <outfile> <infile> [...]
where -h produces this help listing.
-v verbose operation, default is silent
-a files should be concatenated, not merged
Default merges based on frame timestamps
-s <snaplen>: truncate packets to <snaplen> bytes of data
-w <outfile>: sets output filename to <outfile>
-T <encap type> encapsulation type to use:
ether - Ethernet
tr - Token Ring
slip - SLIP
ppp - PPP
fddi - FDDI
fddi-swapped - FDDI with bit-swapped MAC addresses
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rawip - Raw IP
arcnet - ARCNET
arcnet_linux - Linux ARCNET
atm-rfc1483 - RFC 1483 ATM
linux-atm-clip - Linux ATM CLIP
lapb - LAPB
atm-pdus - ATM PDUs
atm-pdus-untruncated - ATM PDUs - untruncated
null - NULL
ascend - Lucent/Ascend access equipment
isdn - ISDN
ip-over-fc - RFC 2625 IP-over-Fibre Channel
ppp-with-direction - PPP with Directional Info
ieee-802-11 - IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN
prism - IEEE 802.11 plus Prism II monitor mode header
ieee-802-11-radio - IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN with radio information
ieee-802-11-bsd - IEEE 802.11 plus BSD WLAN header
ieee-802-11-avs - IEEE 802.11 plus AVS WLAN header
linux-sll - Linux cooked-mode capture
frelay - Frame Relay
frelay-with-direction - Frame Relay with Directional Info
chdlc - Cisco HDLC
ios - Cisco IOS internal
ltalk - Localtalk
pflog-old - OpenBSD PF Firewall logs, pre-3.4
hhdlc - HiPath HDLC
docsis - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification
cosine - CoSine L2 debug log
whdlc - Wellfleet HDLC
sdlc - SDLC
tzsp - Tazmen sniffer protocol
enc - OpenBSD enc(4) encapsulating interface
pflog - OpenBSD PF Firewall logs
chdlc-with-direction - Cisco HDLC with Directional Info
bluetooth-h4 - Bluetooth H4
mtp2 - SS7 MTP2
mtp3 - SS7 MTP3
irda - IrDA
user0 - USER 0
user1 - USER 1
user2 - USER 2
user3 - USER 3
user4 - USER 4
user5 - USER 5
user6 - USER 6
user7 - USER 7
user8 - USER 8
user9 - USER 9
user10 - USER 10
user11 - USER 11
user12 - USER 12
user13 - USER 13
user14 - USER 14
user15 - USER 15
symantec - Symantec Enterprise Firewall
ap1394 - Apple IP-over-IEEE 1394
bacnet-ms-tp - BACnet MS/TP
default is the same as the first input file
-F <capture type> capture file type to write:
libpcap - libpcap (tcpdump, Ethereal, etc.)
rh6_1libpcap - RedHat Linux 6.1 libpcap (tcpdump)
suse6_3libpcap - SuSE Linux 6.3 libpcap (tcpdump)
modlibpcap - modified libpcap (tcpdump)
nokialibpcap - Nokia libpcap (tcpdump)
lanalyzer - Novell LANalyzer
ngsniffer - Network Associates Sniffer (DOS-based)
snoop - Sun snoop
netmon1 - Microsoft Network Monitor 1.x
netmon2 - Microsoft Network Monitor 2.x
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ngwsniffer_1_1 - Network Associates Sniffer (Windows-based) 1.1
ngwsniffer_2_0 - Network Associates Sniffer (Windows-based) 2.00x
visual - Visual Networks traffic capture
5views - Accellent 5Views capture
niobserverv9 - Network Instruments Observer version 9
default is libpcap
-h Prints the version and options and exits.
-v Causes mergecap to print a number of messages while it's working.
-a Causes the frame timestamps to be ignored, writing all packets from the first input file fol-
lowed by all packets from the second input file. By default, when -a is not specified, the con-
tents of the input files are merged in chronological order based on each frame's timestamp.
Note: when merging, mergecap assumes that packets within a capture file are already in chro-
nological order.
-s Sets the snapshot length to use when writing the data.
-w Sets the output filename.
-T Sets the packet encapsulation type of the output capture file.
-F Sets the file format of the output capture file.
A simple example merging dhcp-capture.libpcap and imap-1.libpcap into out-
file.libpcap is shown below.
Example C.4. Simple example of using mergecap
$ mergecap -w outfile.libpcap dhcp-capture.libpcap imap-1.libpcap
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C.7. text2pcap: Converting ASCII hexdumps
to network captures
There may be some occasions when you wish to convert a hex dump of some network traffic into a
libpcap file.
Text2pcap is a program that reads in an ASCII hex dump and writes the data described into a libp-
cap-style capture file. text2pcap can read hexdumps with multiple packets in them, and build a cap-
ture file of multiple packets. text2pcap is also capable of generating dummy Ethernet, IP and UDP
headers, in order to build fully processable packet dumps from hexdumps of application-level data
only.
Text2pcap understands a hexdump of the form generated by od -t x1. In other words, each byte is in-
dividually displayed and surrounded with a space. Each line begins with an offset describing the po-
sition in the file. The offset is a hex number (can also be octal - see -o), of more than two hex digits.
Here is a sample dump that text2pcap can recognize:
000000 00 e0 1e a7 05 6f 00 10 ........
000008 5a a0 b9 12 08 00 46 00 ........
000010 03 68 00 00 00 00 0a 2e ........
000018 ee 33 0f 19 08 7f 0f 19 ........
000020 03 80 94 04 00 00 10 01 ........
000028 16 a2 0a 00 03 50 00 0c ........
000030 01 01 0f 19 03 80 11 01 ........
There is no limit on the width or number of bytes per line. Also the text dump at the end of the line
is ignored. Bytes/hex numbers can be uppercase or lowercase. Any text before the offset is ignored,
including email forwarding characters '>'. Any lines of text between the bytestring lines is ignored.
The offsets are used to track the bytes, so offsets must be correct. Any line which has only bytes
without a leading offset is ignored. An offset is recognized as being a hex number longer than two
characters. Any text after the bytes is ignored (e.g. the character dump). Any hex numbers in this
text are also ignored. An offset of zero is indicative of starting a new packet, so a single text file
with a series of hexdumps can be converted into a packet capture with multiple packets. Multiple
packets are read in with timestamps differing by one second each. In general, short of these restric-
tions, text2pcap is pretty liberal about reading in hexdumps and has been tested with a variety of
mangled outputs (including being forwarded through email multiple times, with limited line wrap
etc.)
There are a couple of other special features to note. Any line where the first non-whitespace charac-
ter is '#' will be ignored as a comment. Any line beginning with #TEXT2PCAP is a directive and
options can be inserted after this command to be processed by text2pcap. Currently there are no dir-
ectives implemented; in the future, these may be used to give more fine grained control on the dump
and the way it should be processed e.g. timestamps, encapsulation type etc.
Text2pcap also allows the user to read in dumps of application-level data, by inserting dummy L2,
L3 and L4 headers before each packet. The user can elect to insert Ethernet headers, Ethernet and
IP, or Ethernet, IP and UDP headers before each packet. This allows Ethereal or any other full-
packet decoder to handle these dumps.
Example C.5. Help information available for text2pcap
$ text2pcap.exe -h
Usage: text2pcap.exe [-h] [-d] [-q] [-o h|o] [-l typenum] [-e l3pid] [-i proto]
[-m max-packet] [-u srcp,destp] [-T srcp,destp] [-s srcp,destp,tag]
[-S srcp,destp,tag] [-t timefmt] <input-filename> <output-filename>
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where <input-filename> specifies input filename (use - for standard input)
<output-filename> specifies output filename (use - for standard output)
[options] are one or more of the following
-h
: Display this help message
-d
: Generate detailed debug of parser states
: Parse offsets as (h)ex or (o)ctal. Default is hex
: Specify link-layer type number. Default is 1 (Ethernet).
See net/bpf.h for list of numbers.
: Generate no output at all (automatically turns off -d)
: Prepend dummy Ethernet II header with specified L3PID (in
HEX)
-o hex|oct
-l typenum
-q
-e l3pid
Example: -e 0x800
-i proto
: Prepend dummy IP header with specified IP protocol (in
DECIMAL).
Automatically prepends Ethernet header as well.
Example: -i 46
-m max-packet
-u srcp,destp
: Max packet length in output, default is 64000
: Prepend dummy UDP header with specified dest and source ports
(in DECIMAL).
Automatically prepends Ethernet and IP headers as well
Example: -u 30,40
-T srcp,destp
: Prepend dummy TCP header with specified dest and source ports
(in DECIMAL).
Automatically prepends Ethernet and IP headers as well
Example: -T 50,60
-s srcp,dstp,tag: Prepend dummy SCTP header with specified dest/source ports
and verification tag (in DECIMAL).
Automatically prepends Ethernet and IP headers as well
Example: -s 30,40,34
-S srcp,dstp,ppi: Prepend dummy SCTP header with specified dest/source ports
and verification tag 0. It also prepends a dummy SCTP DATA
chunk header with payload protocol identifier ppi.
Example: -S 30,40,34
-t timefmt
: Treats the text before the packet as a date/time code; the
specified argument is a format string of the sort supported
by strptime.
Example: The time "10:15:14.5476" has the format code
"%H:%M:%S."
NOTE:
The subsecond component delimiter must be specified
(.) but no pattern is required; the remaining number
is assumed to be fractions of a second.
-w <filename>
Write the capture file generated by text2pcap to <filename>. The de-
fault is to write to standard output.
-h
-d
Display the help message
Displays debugging information during the process. Can be used
multiple times to generate more debugging information.
-q
Be completely quiet during the process.
-o hex|oct
Specify the radix for the offsets (hex or octal). Defaults to hex. This
corresponds to the -A option for od.
-l
Specify the link-layer type of this packet. Default is Ethernet(1). See
net/bpf.h for the complete list of possible encapsulations. Note that
this option should be used if your dump is a complete hex dump of
an encapsulated packet and you wish to specify the exact type of en-
capsulation. Example: -l 7 for ARCNet packets.
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-e l3pid
Include a dummy Ethernet header before each packet. Specify the
L3PID for the Ethernet header in hex. Use this option if your dump
has Layer 3 header and payload (e.g. IP header), but no Layer 2 en-
capsulation. Example: -e 0x806 to specify an ARP packet.
For IP packets, instead of generating a fake Ethernet header you can
also use -l 12 to indicate a raw IP packet to Ethereal. Note that -l 12
does not work for any non-IP Layer 3 packet (e.g. ARP), whereas
generating a dummy Ethernet header with -e works for any sort of L3
packet.
-u srcport destport
Include dummy UDP headers before each packet. Specify the source
and destination UDP ports for the packet in decimal. Use this option
if your dump is the UDP payload of a packet but does not include
any UDP, IP or Ethernet headers. Note that this automatically in-
cludes appropriate Ethernet and IP headers with each packet. Ex-
ample: -u 1000 69 to make the packets look like TFTP/UDP packets.
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C.8. idl2eth: Creating dissectors from Corba
IDL files
In an ideal world idl2eth would be mentioned in the users guide in passing and documented in the
developers guide. As the developers guide has not yet been completed it will be documented here.
C.8.1. What is it?
As you have probably guessed from the name, idl2eth takes a user specified IDL file and attempts
to build a dissector that can decode the IDL traffic over GIOP. The resulting file is "C" code, that
should compile okay as an ethereal dissector.
idl2eth basically parses the data struct given to it by the omniidl compiler, and using the GIOP API
available in packet-giop.[ch], generates get_CDR_xxx calls to decode the CORBA traffic on the
wire.
It consists of 4 main files.
README.idl2eth
ethereal_be.py
This document
The main compiler backend
ethereal_gen.py A helper class, that generates the C code.
idl2eth A simple shell script wrapper that the end user should use to generate the
dissector from the IDL file(s).
C.8.2. Why do this?
It is important to understand what CORBA traffic looks like over GIOP/IIOP, and to help build a
tool that can assist in troubleshooting CORBA interworking. This was especially the case after see-
ing a lot of discussions about how particular IDL types are represented inside an octet stream.
I have also had comments/feedback that this tool would be good for say a CORBA class when
teaching students what CORBA traffic looks like "on the wire".
It is also COOL to work on a great Open Source project such as the case with "Ethereal" ( ht-
C.8.3. How to use idl2eth
To use the idl2eth to generate ethereal dissectors, you need the following:
Prerequisites to using idl2eth
3. Of course you need ethereal installed to compile the code and tweak it if required. idl2eth is
part of the standard Ethereal distribution
To use idl2eth to generate an ethereal dissector from an idl file use the following procedure:
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Procedure for converting a Corba idl file into an ethereal dissector
1. To write the C code to stdout.
idl2eth <your file.idl>
eg:
idl2eth echo.idl
2. To write to a file, just redirect the output.
idl2eth echo.idl > packet-test-idl.c
You may wish to comment out the register_giop_user_module() code and that will leave you
with heuristic dissection.
If you don't want to use the shell script wrapper, then try steps 3 or 4 instead.
3. To write the C code to stdout.
Usage: omniidl -p ./ -b ethereal_be <your file.idl>
eg:
omniidl -p ./ -b ethereal_be echo.idl
4. To write to a file, just redirect the output.
omniidl -p ./ -b ethereal_be echo.idl > packet-test-idl.c
You may wish to comment out the register_giop_user_module() code and that will leave you
with heuristic dissection.
5. Copy the resulting C code to your ethereal src directory, edit the 2 make files to include the
packet-test-idl.c
cp packet-test-idl.c /dir/where/ethereal/lives/
edit Makefile.am
edit Makefile.nmake
6. Run configure
./configure (or ./autogen.sh)
7. Compile the code
make
8. Good Luck !!
C.8.4. TODO
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1. Exception code not generated (yet), but can be added manually.
2. Enums not converted to symbolic values (yet), but can be added manually.
3. Add command line options etc
4. More I am sure :-)
C.8.5. Limitations
See the TODO list inside packet-giop.c
C.8.6. Notes
1. The "-p ./" option passed to omniidl indicates that the ethereal_be.py and ethereal_gen.py are
residing in the current directory. This may need tweaking if you place these files somewhere
else.
2. If it complains about being unable to find some modules (eg tempfile.py), you may want to
check if PYTHONPATH is set correctly. On my Linux box, it is PYTHON-
PATH=/usr/lib/python1.5/
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Appendix D. This Document's License
(GPL)
As with the original licence and documentation distributed with Ethereal, this document is covered
by the GNU General Public Licence (GNU GPL).
If you haven't read the GPL before, please do so. It explains all the things that you are allowed to do
with this code and documentation.
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Preamble
The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
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patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
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You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
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b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
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c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
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These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
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on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
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Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
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In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
the scope of this License.
3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
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to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
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The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
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If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
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4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
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However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
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prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
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6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
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these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
this License.
7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
circumstances.
It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
impose that choice.
This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
be a consequence of the rest of this License.
8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
address new problems or concerns.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
Foundation.
10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
NO WARRANTY
11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
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This Document's License (GPL)
FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
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This Document's License (GPL)
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
Public License instead of this License.
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