tcpreplay

NAME

tcpreplay - Replay network traffic stored in pcap files

SYNOPSIS

tcpreplay [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]] <pcap_file(s)> | <pcap_dir(s)>

tcpreplay is a tool for replaying network traffic from files saved with tcpdump or other tools which write pcap(3) files.

DESCRIPTION

The basic operation of tcpreplay is to resend all packets from the input file(s) at the speed at which they were recorded, or a specified data rate, up to as fast as the hardware is capable.

Optionally, the traffic can be split between two interfaces, written to files, filtered and edited in various ways, providing the means to test firewalls, NIDS and other network devices.

For more details, please see the Tcpreplay Manual at: http://tcpreplay.appneta.com

OPTIONS

-d number, --dbug=number Enable debugging output. This option may appear
up to 1 times. This option takes an integer number as its argument. The
value of number is constrained to being:

in the range 0 through 5

The default number for this option is:
0

If configured with --enable-debug, then you can specify a verbosity level
for debugging output. Higher numbers increase verbosity.

-q, --quiet Quiet mode.

Print nothing except the statistics at the end of the run

-T string, --timer=string Select packet timing mode: select, ioport, gtod,
nano. This option may appear up to 1 times. The default string for this
option is:
gtod

Allows you to select the packet timing method to use:

nano - Use nanosleep() API

select - Use select() API

ioport - Write to the i386 IO Port 0x80

gtod [default] - Use a gettimeofday() loop

--maxsleep=number Sleep for no more then X milliseconds between packets.
This option takes an integer number as its argument. The default number
for this option is:
0

Set a limit for the maximum number of milliseconds that tcpreplay will
sleep between packets. Effectively prevents long delays between packets
without effecting the majority of packets. Default is disabled.

-v, --verbose Print decoded packets via tcpdump to STDOUT. This option may
appear up to 1 times.

-A string, --decode=string Arguments passed to tcpdump decoder. This
option may appear up to 1 times. This option must appear in combination
with the following options: verbose.

When enabling verbose mode (-v) you may also specify one or more additional
arguments to pass to tcpdump to modify the way packets are decoded. By
default, -n and -l are used. Be sure to quote the arguments like: -A
"-axxx" so that they are not interpreted by tcpreplay. Please see the
tcpdump(1) man page for a complete list of options.

-K, --preload-pcap Preloads packets into RAM before sending.

This option loads the specified pcap(s) into RAM before starting to send in
order to improve replay performance while introducing a startup performance
hit. Preloading can be used with or without --loop. This option also
suppresses flow statistics collection for every iteration, which can
significantly reduce memory usage. Flow statistics are predicted based on
options supplied and statistics collected from the first loop iteration.

-c string, --cachefile=string Split traffic via a tcpprep cache file. This
option may appear up to 1 times. This option must appear in combination
with the following options: intf2. This option must not appear in
combination with any of the following options: dualfile.

If you have a pcap file you would like to use to send bi-directional
traffic through a device (firewall, router, IDS, etc) then using tcpprep
you can create a cachefile which tcpreplay will use to split the traffic
across two network interfaces.

-2, --dualfile Replay two files at a time from a network tap. This option
may appear up to 1 times. This option must appear in combination with the
following options: intf2. This option must not appear in combination with
any of the following options: cachefile.

If you captured network traffic using a network tap, then you can end up
with two pcap files- one for each direction. This option will replay these
two files at the same time, one on each interface and inter-mix them using
the timestamps in each.

-i string, --intf1=string Client to server/RX/primary traffic output
interface. This option may appear up to 1 times.

Required network interface used to send either all traffic or traffic which
is marked as ’primary’ via tcpprep. Primary traffic is usually
client-to-server or inbound (RX) on khial virtual interfaces.

-I string, --intf2=string Server to client/TX/secondary traffic output
interface. This option may appear up to 1 times.

Optional network interface used to send traffic which is marked as
’secondary’ via tcpprep. Secondary traffic is usually server-to-client or
outbound (TX) on khial virtual interfaces. Generally, it only makes sense
to use this option with --cachefile.

--listnics List available network interfaces and exit.

-l number, --loop=number Loop through the capture file X times. This
option may appear up to 1 times. This option takes an integer number as
its argument. The value of number is constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 0

The default number for this option is:
1

--loopdelay-ms=number Delay between loops in milliseconds. This option
must appear in combination with the following options: loop. This option
takes an integer number as its argument. The value of number is
constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 0

The default number for this option is:
0

--pktlen Override the snaplen and use the actual packet len. This option
may appear up to 1 times.

By default, tcpreplay will send packets based on the size of the "snaplen"
stored in the pcap file which is usually the correct thing to do. However,
occasionally, tools will store more bytes then told to. By specifying this
option, tcpreplay will ignore the snaplen field and instead try to send
packets based on the original packet length. Bad things may happen if you
specify this option.

-L number, --limit=number Limit the number of packets to send. This option
may appear up to 1 times. This option takes an integer number as its
argument. The value of number is constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 1

The default number for this option is:
-1

By default, tcpreplay will send all the packets. Alternatively, you can
specify a maximum number of packets to send.

--duration=number Limit the number of seconds to send. This option may
appear up to 1 times. This option takes an integer number as its argument.
The value of number is constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 1

The default number for this option is:
-1

By default, tcpreplay will send all the packets. Alternatively, you can
specify a maximum number of seconds to transmit.

-x string, --multiplier=string Modify replay speed to a given multiple.
This option may appear up to 1 times. This option must not appear in
combination with any of the following options: pps, mbps, oneatatime,
topspeed.

Specify a value to modify the packet replay speed. Examples:
2.0 will replay traffic at twice the speed captured
0.7 will replay traffic at 70% the speed captured

-p string, --pps=string Replay packets at a given packets/sec. This option
may appear up to 1 times. This option must not appear in combination with
any of the following options: multiplier, mbps, oneatatime, topspeed.

Specify a value to regulate the packet replay to a specific
packet-per-second rate. Examples:
200 will replay traffic at 200 packets per second
0.25 will replay traffic at 15 packets per minute

-M string, --mbps=string Replay packets at a given Mbps. This option may
appear up to 1 times. This option must not appear in combination with any
of the following options: multiplier, pps, oneatatime, topspeed.

Specify a floating point value for the Mbps rate that tcpreplay should send
packets at.

-t, --topspeed Replay packets as fast as possible. This option must not
appear in combination with any of the following options: mbps, multiplier,
pps, oneatatime.

-o, --oneatatime Replay one packet at a time for each user input. This
option must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
mbps, pps, multiplier, topspeed.

Allows you to step through one or more packets at a time.

--pps-multi=number Number of packets to send for each time interval. This
option must appear in combination with the following options: pps. This
option takes an integer number as its argument. The value of number is
constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 1

The default number for this option is:
1

When trying to send packets at very high rates, the time between each
packet can be so short that it is impossible to accurately sleep for the
required period of time. This option allows you to send multiple packets
at a time, thus allowing for longer sleep times which can be more
accurately implemented.

--unique-ip Modify IP addresses each loop iteration to generate unique
flows. This option must appear in combination with the following options:
loop.

Ensure IPv4 and IPv6 packets will be unique for each --loop iteration.
This is done in a way that will not alter packet CRC, and therefore will
generally not affect performance. This option will significantly increase
the flows/sec over generated over multiple loop iterations.

--unique-ip-loops=string Number of times to loop before assigning new
unique ip. This option may appear up to 1 times. This option must appear
in combination with the following options: unique-ip.

Number of --loop iterations before a new unique IP is assigned. Default is
1. Assumes both --loop and --unique-ip.

--netmap Write packets directly to netmap enabled network adapter.

This feature will detect netmap capable network drivers on Linux and BSD
systems. If detected, the network driver is bypassed for the execution
duration, and network buffers will be written to directly. This will allow
you to achieve full line rates on commodity network adapters, similar to
rates achieved by commercial network traffic generators. Note that
bypassing the network driver will disrupt other applications connected
through the test interface. See INSTALL for more information.

This feature can also be enabled by specifying an interface as
’netmap:<intf>’ or ’vale:<intf>. For example ’netmap:eth0’ specifies netmap
over interface eth0.

--nm-delay=number Netmap startup delay. This option takes an integer
number as its argument. The default number for this option is:
10

Number of seconds to delay after netmap is loaded. Required to ensure
interfaces are fully up before netmap transmit. Requires netmap option.
Default is 10 seconds.

--no-flow-stats Suppress printing and tracking flow count, rates and
expirations.

Suppress the collection and printing of flow statistics. This option may
improve performance when not using --preload-pcap option, otherwise its
only function is to suppress printing.

The flow feature will track and print statistics of the flows being sent.
A flow is loosely defined as a unique combination of a 5-tuple, i.e.
source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port and protocol.

If --loop is specified, the flows from one iteration to the next will not
be unique, unless the packets are altered. Use --unique-ip or
tcpreplay-edit to alter packets between iterations.

--flow-expiry=number Number of inactive seconds before a flow is considered
expired. This option must not appear in combination with any of the
following options: no-flow-stats. This option takes an integer number as
its argument. The value of number is constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 0

The default number for this option is:
0

This option will track and report flow expirations based on the flow idle
times. The timestamps within the pcap file are used to determine the
expiry, not the actual timestamp of the packets are replayed. For example,
a value of 30 suggests that if no traffic is seen on a flow for 30 seconds,
any subsequent traffic would be considered a new flow, and thereby will
increment the flows and flows per second (fps) statistics.

This option can be used to optimize flow timeout settings for flow
products. Setting the timeout low may lead to flows being dropped when in
fact the flow is simply slow to respond. Configuring your flow timeouts too
high may increase resources required by your flow product.

Note that using this option while replaying at higher than original speeds
can lead to inflated flows and fps counts.

Default is 0 (no expiry) and a typical value is 30-120 seconds.

-P, --pid Print the PID of tcpreplay at startup.

--stats=number Print statistics every X seconds, or every loop if ’0’.
This option takes an integer number as its argument. The value of number
is constrained to being:

greater than or equal to 0

Note that timed delays are a "best effort" and long delays between sending
packets may cause equally long delays between printing statistics.

-V, --version Print version information.

-h, --less-help Display less usage information and exit.

-H, --help Display usage information and exit.

-!, --more-help Pass the extended usage information through a pager.

--save-opts [=cfgfile] Save the option state to cfgfile. The default is
the last configuration file listed in the OPTION PRESETS section, below.
The command will exit after updating the config file.

--load-opts=cfgfile, --no-load-opts Load options from cfgfile. The
no-load-opts form will disable the loading of earlier config/rc/ini files.
--no-load-opts is handled early, out of order.

OPTION PRESETS

Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s). The homerc file is "$$/", unless that is a directory. In that case, the file ".tcpreplayrc" is searched for within that directory.

FILES

See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.

EXIT STATUS

One of the following exit values will be returned:
0 (EXIT_SUCCESS) Successful program execution.

1 (EXIT_FAILURE) The operation failed or the command syntax was not
valid.

66 (EX_NOINPUT) A specified configuration file could not be loaded.

70 (EX_SOFTWARE) libopts had an internal operational error. Please
report it to autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you.

AUTHORS

Copyright 2013-2022 Fred Klassen - AppNeta Copyright 2000-2012 Aaron Turner For support please use the tcpreplay-users@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list. The latest version of this software is always available from: http://tcpreplay.appneta.com/

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2000-2022 Aaron Turner and Fred Klassen all rights reserved. This program is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.

BUGS

Please send bug reports to: tcpreplay-users@lists.sourceforge.net

NOTES

This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the tcpreplay option definitions.