.LP
Reading packets from a network interface may require that you have
special privileges; see the
-.B pcap (3PCAP)
+.B pcap (3)
man page for details. Reading a saved packet file doesn't require
special privileges.
.SH OPTIONS
notation.
.TP
.B \-B
- Set the operating system capture buffer size to \fIbuffer_size\fP.
+ Set the operating system capture buffer size to \fIbuffer_size\fP, in
+ units of KiB (1024 bytes).
.TP
.B \-c
Exit after receiving \fIcount\fP packets.
Useful if you want to see the data
while capturing it.
E.g.,
- .br
- ``tcpdump\ \ \-l\ \ |\ \ tee dat'' or
- ``tcpdump\ \ \-l \ \ > dat\ \ &\ \ tail\ \ \-f\ \ dat''.
+ .IP
+ .RS
+ .RS
+ .nf
+ \fBtcpdump \-l | tee dat\fP
+ .fi
+ .RE
+ .RE
+ .IP
+ or
+ .IP
+ .RS
+ .RS
+ .nf
+ \fBtcpdump \-l > dat & tail \-f dat\fP
+ .fi
+ .RE
+ .RE
+ .IP
+ Note that on Windows,``line buffered'' means ``unbuffered'', so that
+ WinDump will write each character individually if
+ .B \-l
+ is specified.
+ .IP
+ .B \-U
+ is similar to
+ .B \-l
+ in its behavior, but it will cause output to be ``packet-buffered'', so
+ that the output is written to stdout at the end of each packet rather
+ than at the end of each line; this is buffered on all platforms,
+ including Windows.
.TP
.B \-L
List the known data link types for the interface, in the specified mode,
Print undecoded NFS handles.
.TP
.B \-U
- Make output saved via the
+ If the
+ .B \-w
+ option is not specified, make the printed packet output
+ ``packet-buffered''; i.e., as the description of the contents of each
+ packet is printed, it will be written to the standard output, rather
+ than, when not writing to a terminal, being written only when the output
+ buffer fills.
+ .IP
+ If the
.B \-w
- option ``packet-buffered''; i.e., as each packet is saved, it will be
- written to the output file, rather than being written only when the
- output buffer fills.
+ option is specified, make the saved raw packet output
+ ``packet-buffered''; i.e., as each packet is saved, it will be written
+ to the output file, rather than being written only when the output
+ buffer fills.
.IP
The
.B \-U
them out.
They can later be printed with the \-r option.
Standard output is used if \fIfile\fR is ``-''.
+ .IP
+ This output will be buffered if written to a file or pipe, so a program
+ reading from the file or pipe may not see packets for an arbitrary
+ amount of time after they are received. Use the
+ .B \-U
+ flag to cause packets to be written as soon as they are received.
+ .IP
See
.BR pcap-savefile (@MAN_FILE_FORMATS@)
for a description of the file format.
Ethernet interface removed the packet from the wire and when the kernel
serviced the `new packet' interrupt.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
-stty(1), pcap(3PCAP), bpf(4), nit(4P), pcap-savefile(@MAN_FILE_FORMATS@),
+stty(1), pcap(3), bpf(4), pcap-savefile(@MAN_FILE_FORMATS@),
pcap-filter(@MAN_MISC_INFO@), pcap-tstamp-type(@MAN_MISC_INFO@)
.SH AUTHORS
The original authors are: