tshark(1) Manual Page

Perform a two-pass analysis. This causes TShark to buffer output until the entire first pass is done, but allows it to fill in fields that require future knowledge, such as 'response in frame #' fields. Also permits reassembly frame dependencies to be calculated correctly. This requires the ability to seek backwards on the input, and as such cannot be used with live captures or when reading from a pipe or FIFO.

Specify a criterion that specifies when TShark is to stop writing to a capture file. The criterion is of the form test:value, where test is one of:

duration:value Stop writing to a capture file after value seconds have elapsed. Floating point values (e.g. 0.5) are allowed.

files:value Stop writing to capture files after value number of files were written.

filesize:value Stop writing to a capture file after it reaches a size of value kB. If this option is used together with the -b option, TShark will stop writing to the current capture file and switch to the next one if filesize is reached. When reading a capture file, TShark will stop reading the file after the number of bytes read exceeds this number (the complete packet will be read, so more bytes than this number may be read). Note that the filesize is limited to a maximum value of 2 TB, although you might have problems before then if the number of packets exceeds exceeds 2³² (4294967296).

packets:value switch to the next file after it contains value packets. This does not include any packets that do not pass the display filter, so it may differ from -c<capture packet count>.

Specify a user and a password when TShark captures from a rpcap:// interface where authentication is required.

This option is available with libpcap with enabled remote support.

Cause TShark to run in "multiple files" mode. In "multiple files" mode, TShark will write to several capture files. When the first capture file fills up, TShark will switch writing to the next file and so on.

The created filenames are based on the filename given with the -w option, the number of the file and on the creation date and time, e.g. outfile_00001_20240714120117.pcap, outfile_00002_20240714120523.pcap, …​

With the files option it’s also possible to form a "ring buffer". This will fill up new files until the number of files specified, at which point TShark will discard the data in the first file and start writing to that file and so on. If the files option is not set, new files filled up until one of the capture stop conditions match (or until the disk is full).

The criterion is of the form key:value, where key is one of:

duration:value switch to the next file after value seconds have elapsed, even if the current file is not completely filled up. Floating point values (e.g. 0.5) are allowed.

files:value begin again with the first file after value number of files were written (form a ring buffer). This value must be less than 100000. Caution should be used when using large numbers of files: some filesystems do not handle many files in a single directory well. The files criterion requires either duration, interval or filesize to be specified to control when to go to the next file. It should be noted that each -b parameter takes exactly one criterion; to specify two criterion, each must be preceded by the -b option.

filesize:value switch to the next file after it reaches a size of value kB. Note that the filesize is limited to a maximum value of 2 TB, although you might have problems before then if the number of packets exceeds exceeds 2³² (4294967296).

interval:value switch to the next file when the time is an exact multiple of value seconds. For example, use 3600 to switch to a new file every hour on the hour.

packets:value switch to the next file after it contains value packets.

printname:filename print the name of the most recently written file to filename after the file is closed. filename can be stdout or - for standard output, or stderr for standard error.

nametimenum:value Choose between two save filename templates. If value is 1, make running file number part before start time part; this is the original and default behaviour (e.g. log_00001_20240714164426.pcap). If value is greater than 1, make start time part before running number part (e.g. log_20210828164426_00001.pcap). The latter makes alphabetical sorting order equal to creation time order, and keeps related multiple file sets in same directory close to each other.

Example: tshark -b filesize:1000 -b files:5 results in a ring buffer of five files of size one megabyte each.

Set capture buffer size (in MiB, default is 2 MiB). This is used by the capture driver to buffer packet data until that data can be written to disk. If you encounter packet drops while capturing, try to increase this size. Note that, while TShark attempts to set the buffer size to 2 MiB by default, and can be told to set it to a larger value, the system or interface on which you’re capturing might silently limit the capture buffer size to a lower value or raise it to a higher value.

This is available on UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, with libpcap 1.0.0 or later, and on Windows. It is not available on UNIX-compatible systems with earlier versions of libpcap.

This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default capture buffer size. If used after an -i option, it sets the capture buffer size for the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option. If the capture buffer size is not set specifically, the default capture buffer size is used instead.

Set the maximum number of packets to read when capturing live data. If reading a capture file, set the maximum number of packets to read. This includes any packets that do not pass the display filter, so it may differ from -a packets:<capture packet count>.

Run with the given configuration profile. If used in conjucton with --global-profile, then the global profile with the associated name would be used.

Print a list of the interfaces on which TShark can capture, and exit. For each network interface, a number and an interface name, possibly followed by a text description of the interface, is printed. The interface name or the number can be supplied to the -i flag to specify an interface on which to capture. The number can be useful on Windows systems, where the interfaces have long names that usually contain a GUID.

Add a field to the list of fields to display if -T ek|fields|json|pdml is selected. This option can be used multiple times on the command line. At least one field must be provided if the -T fields option is selected. Column types may be used prefixed with "_ws.col."

Example: tshark -T fields -e frame.number -e ip.addr -e udp -e _ws.col.info

Fields are separated by tab characters by default. -E controls the format of the printed fields. Giving a protocol rather than a single field will print the protocol summary (subtree label) from the packet details as a single field. If the protocol summary contains only the protocol name (e.g. "Hypertext Transfer Protocol") then the protocol filter name ("http") will be printed.

Set an option controlling the printing of fields when -T fields is selected.

Options are:

bom=y|n If y, prepend output with the UTF-8 byte order mark (hexadecimal ef, bb, bf). Defaults to n.

header=y|n If y, print a list of the field names given using -e as the first line of the output; the field name will be separated using the same character as the field values. Defaults to n.

separator=/t|/s|<character> Set the separator character to use for fields. If /t tab will be used (this is the default), if /s, a single space will be used. Otherwise any character that can be accepted by the command line as part of the option may be used.

occurrence=f|l|a Select which occurrence to use for fields that have multiple occurrences. If f the first occurrence will be used, if l the last occurrence will be used and if a all occurrences will be used (this is the default).

aggregator=,|/s|<character> Set the aggregator character to use for fields that have multiple occurrences. If , a comma will be used (this is the default), if /s, a single space will be used. Otherwise any character that can be accepted by the command line as part of the option may be used.

quote=d|s|n Set the quote character to use to surround fields. d uses double-quotes, s single-quotes, n no quotes (the default). If the quote character appears in a field value, it will be escaped by being duplicated.

escape=y|n If y, the whitespace control characters (tab, line feed, carriage return, form feed, and vertical tab) backspace, and the backslash will be replaced in field values by C-style escapes, e.g. "\n" for line feed. If n, field value strings will be printed as-is. Defaults to y.

Set the capture filter expression.

This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default capture filter expression. If used after an -i option, it sets the capture filter expression for the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option. If the capture filter expression is not set specifically, the default capture filter expression is used if provided.

Pre-defined capture filter names, as shown in the GUI menu item Capture→Capture Filters, can be used by prefixing the argument with "predef:". Example: tshark -f "predef:MyPredefinedHostOnlyFilter"

The -G option will cause TShark to dump one of several types of glossaries and then exit. If no glossary type is specified, then the fields report will be generated by default; this is deprecated and a future version will require the report type argument. The -G option must be the first option given. Using the report type of help lists all the current report types.

The available report types include:

column-formats Dumps the column formats understood by TShark. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

currentprefs Dumps a copy of the current preferences file to stdout.

decodes Dumps the "layer type"/"decode as" associations to stdout. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

defaultprefs Dumps a default preferences file to stdout.

dissectors Dumps a list of registered dissectors to stdout. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

dissector-tables Dumps a list of dissector tables to stdout. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

elastic-mapping Dumps the ElasticSearch mapping file to stdout. Fields falling in the default case (string) won’t be mapped.

enterprises Dumps the IANA Private Enterprise Number (PEN) table.

fieldcount Dumps the number of header fields to stdout.

fields[,prefix] Dumps the contents of the registration database to stdout. An independent program can take this output and format it into nice tables or HTML or whatever. There is one record per line. Each record is either a protocol or a header field, differentiated by the first field. The fields are tab-delimited.

An optional search prefix argument can be given to fields, in which case the output is limited to protocols and fields whose abbreviation starts with the search prefix.

folders Dumps various folders used by TShark. This is essentially the same data reported in Wireshark’s About | Folders tab. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

ftypes Dumps the "ftypes" (fundamental types) understood by TShark. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

heuristic-decodes Dumps the heuristic decodes currently installed. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

help Displays the available report types.

manuf Dumps the MAC address lookup table in manuf format.

plugins Dumps the plugins currently installed. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

protocols Dumps the protocols in the registration database to stdout. An independent program can take this output and format it into nice tables or HTML or whatever. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.

services Dumps the TCP, UDP, and SCTP transport service (port) table.

values Dumps the value_strings, range_strings or true/false strings for fields that have them. There is one record per line. Fields are tab-delimited. There are three types of records: Value String, Range String and True/False String. The first field, 'V', 'R' or 'T', indicates the type of record.

Read a list of entries from a "hosts" file, which will then be written to a capture file. Implies -W n. Can be called multiple times.

The "hosts" file format is documented at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file).

Set the name of the network interface or pipe to use for live packet capture.

Network interface names should match one of the names listed in "tshark -D" (described above); a number, as reported by "tshark -D", can also be used.

If no interface is specified, TShark searches the list of interfaces, choosing the first non-loopback interface if there are any non-loopback interfaces, and choosing the first loopback interface if there are no non-loopback interfaces. If there are no interfaces at all, TShark reports an error and doesn’t start the capture.

Pipe names should be either the name of a FIFO (named pipe) or "-" to read data from the standard input. On Windows systems, pipe names must be of the form "\\.\pipe\pipename". Data read from pipes must be in standard pcapng or pcap format. Pcapng data must have the same endianness as the capturing host.

"TCP@<host>:<port>" causes TShark to attempt to connect to the specified port on the specified host and read pcapng or pcap data.

This option can occur multiple times. When capturing from multiple interfaces, the capture file will be saved in pcapng format.

Put the interface in "monitor mode"; this is supported only on IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi interfaces, and supported only on some operating systems.

Note that in monitor mode the adapter might disassociate from the network with which it’s associated, so that you will not be able to use any wireless networks with that adapter. This could prevent accessing files on a network server, or resolving host names or network addresses, if you are capturing in monitor mode and are not connected to another network with another adapter.

This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first occurrence of the -i option, it enables the monitor mode for all interfaces. If used after an -i option, it enables the monitor mode for the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option.

Protocol match filter used for ek|json|jsonraw|pdml output file types. Only the protocol’s parent node is included. Child nodes are only included if explicitly specified in the filter.

Example: tshark -T json -j "ip ip.flags http"

Protocol top level filter used for ek|json|jsonraw|pdml output file types. The protocol’s parent node and all child nodes are included. Lower-level protocols must be explicitly specified in the filter.

Example: tshark -T pdml -J "tcp http"

Flush the standard output after the information for each packet is printed. (This is not, strictly speaking, line-buffered if -V was specified; however, it is the same as line-buffered if -V wasn’t specified, as only one line is printed for each packet, and, as -l is normally used when piping a live capture to a program or script, so that output for a packet shows up as soon as the packet is seen and dissected, it should work just as well as true line-buffering. We do this as a workaround for a deficiency in the Microsoft Visual C++ C library.) This also sets --update-interval to 0 ms.

This may be useful when piping the output of TShark to another program, as it means that the program to which the output is piped will see the dissected data for a packet as soon as TShark sees the packet and generates that output, rather than seeing it only when the standard output buffer containing that data fills up.

Set a preference value, overriding the default value and any value read from a preference file. The argument to the option 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 file), and value is the value to which it should be set.

Similar to the -V option, but causes TShark to only show a detailed view of the comma-separated list of protocols specified, and show only the top-level detail line for all other protocols, rather than a detailed view of all protocols. Use the output of "tshark -G protocols" to find the abbreviations of the protocols you can specify.

Don’t put the interface into promiscuous mode. Note that the interface might be in promiscuous mode for some other reason; hence, -p cannot be used to ensure that the only traffic that is captured is traffic sent to or from the machine on which TShark is running, broadcast traffic, and multicast traffic to addresses received by that machine.

This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first occurrence of the -i option, no interface will be put into the promiscuous mode. If used after an -i option, the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option will not be put into the promiscuous mode.

Decode and display the packet summary or details, even if writing raw packet data using the -w option, and even if packet output is otherwise suppressed with -Q.

When capturing packets, don’t display the continuous count of packets captured that is normally shown when saving a capture to a file; instead, just display, at the end of the capture, a count of packets captured. On systems that support the SIGINFO signal, such as various BSDs, you can cause the current count to be displayed by typing your "status" character (typically control-T, although it might be set to "disabled" by default on at least some BSDs, so you’d have to explicitly set it to use it).

When reading a capture file, or when capturing and not saving to a file, don’t print packet information; this is useful if you’re using a -z option to calculate statistics and don’t want the packet information printed, just the statistics.

When capturing packets, don’t display, on the standard error, the initial message indicating on which interfaces the capture is being done, the continuous count of packets captured shown when saving a capture to a file, and the final message giving the count of packets captured. Only true errors are displayed on the standard error.

This outputs less than the -q option, so the interface name and total packet count and the end of a capture are not sent to stderr.

When reading a capture file, or when capturing and not saving to a file, don’t print packet information; this is useful if you’re using a -z option to calculate statistics and don’t want the packet information printed, just the statistics.

Read packet data from infile, can be any supported capture file format (including compressed files). It is possible to use named pipes or stdin (-) here but only with certain capture file formats (in particular: those that can be read without seeking backwards.)

Cause the specified filter (which uses the syntax of read/display filters, rather than that of capture filters) to be applied during the first pass of analysis. Packets not matching the filter are not considered for future passes. Only makes sense with multiple passes, see -2. For regular filtering on single-pass dissect see -Y instead.

Note that forward-looking fields such as 'response in frame #' cannot be used with this filter, since they will not have been calculated when this filter is applied.

Set the default snapshot length to use when capturing live data. No more than snaplen bytes of each network packet will be read into memory, or saved to disk. A value of 0 specifies a snapshot length of 262144, so that the full packet is captured; this is the default.

This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default snapshot length. If used after an -i option, it sets the snapshot length for the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option. If the snapshot length is not set specifically, the default snapshot length is used if provided.

Set the format of the output when viewing decoded packet data. The options are one of:

ek Newline delimited JSON format for bulk import into Elasticsearch. It can be used with -j or -J to specify which protocols to include or with -x to include raw hex-encoded packet data. If -P is specified it will print the packet summary only, with both -P and -V it will print the packet summary and packet details. If neither -P or -V are used it will print the packet details only. Example of usage to import data into Elasticsearch:

Elastic requires a mapping file to be loaded as template for packets-* index in order to convert Wireshark types to elastic types. This file can be auto-generated with the command "tshark -G elastic-mapping". Since the mapping file can be huge, protocols can be selected by using the option --elastic-mapping-filter:

fields The values of fields specified with the -e option, in a form specified by the -E option. For example,

would generate comma-separated values (CSV) output suitable for importing into your favorite spreadsheet program.

json JSON file format. It can be used with -j or -J to specify which protocols to include or with -x option to include raw hex-encoded packet data. Example of usage:

jsonraw JSON file format including only raw hex-encoded packet data. It can be used with -j or -J to specify which protocols to include. Example of usage:

pdml Packet Details Markup Language, an XML-based format for the details of a decoded packet. This information is equivalent to the packet details printed with the -V option. Using the --color option will add color attributes to pdml output. These attributes are nonstandard.

ps PostScript for a human-readable one-line summary of each of the packets, or a multi-line view of the details of each of the packets, depending on whether the -V option was specified.

psml Packet Summary Markup Language, an XML-based format for the summary information of a decoded packet. This information is equivalent to the information shown in the one-line summary printed by default. Using the --color option will add color attributes to pdml output. These attributes are nonstandard.

tabs Similar to the default text report except the human-readable one-line summary of each packet will include an ASCII horizontal tab (0x09) character as a delimiter between each column.

text Text of a human-readable one-line summary of each of the packets, or a multi-line view of the details of each of the packets, depending on whether the -V option was specified. This is the default.

Specifies the directory into which temporary files (including capture files) are to be written. The default behavior on UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, is to use the environment variable $TMPDIR if set, and the system default, typically /tmp, if it is not. On Windows, the %TEMP% environment variable is used, which typically defaults to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp.

PDUs export, exports PDUs from infile to outfile according to the tap name given. Use -Y to filter.

Enter an empty tap name "" or a tap name of ? to get a list of available names.

Write raw packet data to outfile or to the standard output if outfile is '-'. The -F and --compress options can be used to control the file format and compression method. If the latter is not given, then the extension may be used to deduce the desired compression algorithm, if supported, e.g. a gzip archive for '.gz'.

Save extra information in the file if the format supports it. For example,

will save host name resolution records along with captured packets.

Future versions of TShark may automatically change the capture format to pcapng as needed.

The argument is a string that may contain the following letter:

n write network address resolution information (pcapng only)

Cause TShark to print a hex and ASCII dump of the packet data with the ability to select which data sources to dump and how to format or exclude the ASCII dump text.

This option can be used multiple times where the data source <hexoption> is all or frames and the ASCII dump text <hexoption> is ascii, delimit, noascii.

The use of --hexdump <hexoption> is particularly useful to generate output that can be used to create a pcap or pcapng file from a capture file type such as Microsoft NetMon 2.x which TShark and Wireshark can read but can not directly do a "Save as" nor export packets from.

Examples:

Generate hexdump output, with only the frame data source, with delimited ASCII dump text, with each frame hex block preceded by a human readable timestamp that is directly usable by the text2pcap utility:

Generate hexdump output, with only the frame data source, with no ASCII dump text, with each frame hex block preceded by an epoch timestamp that is directly usable by the text2pcap utility:

Specify an option to be passed to a TShark module. The eXtension option is in the form extension_key:value, where extension_key can be:

lua_script:lua_script_filename tells TShark to load the given script in addition to the default Lua scripts.

lua_scriptnum:argument tells TShark to pass the given argument to the lua script identified by 'num', which is the number indexed order of the 'lua_script' command. For example, if only one script was loaded with '-X lua_script:my.lua', then '-X lua_script1:foo' will pass the string 'foo' to the 'my.lua' script. If two scripts were loaded, such as '-X lua_script:my.lua' and '-X lua_script:other.lua' in that order, then a '-X lua_script2:bar' would pass the string 'bar' to the second lua script, namely 'other.lua'.

read_format:file_format tells TShark to use the given file format to read in the file (the file given in the -r command option). Providing no file_format argument, or an invalid one, will produce a list of available file formats to use. For example,

will display the internal file structure and allow access to the file-pcapng fields.

Set the data link type to use while capturing packets. The values reported by -L are the values that can be used.

This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default capture link type. If used after an -i option, it sets the capture link type for the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option. If the capture link type is not set specifically, the default capture link type is used if provided.

Cause the specified filter (which uses the syntax of read/display filters, rather than that of capture filters) to be applied before printing a decoded form of packets or writing packets to a file. Packets matching the filter are printed or written to file; packets that the matching packets depend upon (e.g., fragments), are not printed but are written to file; packets not matching the filter nor depended upon are discarded rather than being printed or written.

Use this instead of -R for filtering using single-pass analysis. If doing two-pass analysis (see -2) then only packets matching the read filter (if there is one) will be checked against this filter.

Automatically reset internal session when reached to specified number of packets. For example,

will reset session every 100000 packets.

This feature does not support -2 two-pass analysis

Get TShark to collect various types of statistics and display the result after finishing reading the capture file. Use the -q option if you’re reading a capture file and only want the statistics printed, not any per-packet information.

Statistics are calculated independently of the normal per-packet output, unaffected by the main display filter. However, most have their own optional filter parameter, and only packets that match that filter (and any capture filter or read filter) will be used in the calculations.

Note that the -z proto option is different - it doesn’t cause statistics to be gathered and printed when the capture is complete, it modifies the regular packet summary output to include the values of fields specified with the option. Therefore you must not use the -q option, as that option would suppress the printing of the regular packet summary output, and must also not use the -V option, as that would cause packet detail information rather than packet summary information to be printed.

Some of the currently implemented statistics are:

Create a table that lists all conversations that could be seen in the capture. type specifies the conversation endpoint type for which we want to generate the statistics; currently the supported ones are:

The table is presented with one line for each conversation which displays the number of frames/bytes in each direction, the total number of frames/bytes, relative start time and duration. The table is sorted according to the total number of frames.

Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for DCERPC interface uuid, version major.minor. Data collected is the number of calls for each procedure, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

Example: -z dcerpc,srt,12345778-1234-abcd-ef00-0123456789ac,1.0 will collect data for the CIFS SAMR Interface.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z dcerpc,srt,12345778-1234-abcd-ef00-0123456789ac,1.0,ip.addr==1.2.3.4 will collect SAMR SRT statistics for a specific host.

This option enables extraction of most important diameter fields from large capture files. Exactly one text line for each diameter message with matched diameter.cmd.code will be printed.

Empty diameter command code or '*' can be specified to match any diameter.cmd.code

Example: -z diameter,avp extract default field set from diameter messages.

Example: -z diameter,avp,280 extract default field set from diameter DWR messages.

Example: -z diameter,avp,272 extract default field set from diameter CC messages.

Extract most important fields from diameter CC messages:

tshark -r file.cap.gz -q -z diameter,avp,272,CC-Request-Type,CC-Request-Number,Session-Id,Subscription-Id-Data,Rating-Group,Result-Code

Following fields will be printed out for each diameter message:

-z diameter,avp option is much faster than -V -T text or -T pdml options.

-z diameter,avp option is more powerful than -T field and -z proto,colinfo options.

Multiple diameter messages in one frame are supported.

Several fields with same name within one diameter message are supported, e.g. diameter.Subscription-Id-Data or diameter.Rating-Group.

Note: tshark -q option is recommended to suppress default TShark output.

Create a table that lists all endpoints that could be seen in the capture. type specifies the endpoint type for which we want to generate the statistics; currently the supported ones are:

The table is presented with one line for each endpoint which displays the total number of packets/bytes and the number of packets/bytes in each direction. The table is sorted according to the total number of packets.

Collects information about all expert info, and will display them in order, grouped by severity.

Example: -z expert,sip will show expert items of all severity for frames that match the sip protocol.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "expert,note,tcp" will only collect expert items for frames that include the tcp protocol, with a severity of note or higher.

Displays the flow of data between two nodes. Output is the same as ASCII format saved from GUI.

name specifies the flow name. It can be one of:

mode specifies the address type. It can be one of:

Example: -z flow,tcp,network will show data flow for all TCP frames

Displays the contents of a TCP or UDP stream between two nodes. The data sent by the second node is prefixed with a tab to differentiate it from the data sent by the first node.

prot specifies the transport protocol. It can be one of:

mode specifies the output mode. It can be one of:

Since the output in ascii, ebcdic, or utf-8 mode may contain newlines, each section of output is preceded by its length in bytes plus a newline. (Note that for utf-8 this is not UTF-8 characters, and may be different than the length as transmitted due to the substitution of replacement characters for invalid sequences.)

filter specifies the stream to be displayed. There are three formats:

The first format specifies IP addresses and TCP, UDP, or DCCP port pairs. (TCP ports are used for TLS, HTTP, and HTTP2; QUIC does not support address and port matching because of connection migration.)

The second format specifies stream indices, and is used for TCP, UDP, DCCP, TLS, and HTTP. (TLS and HTTP use TCP stream indices.)

The third format, specifying streams and substreams, is used for HTTP/2 and QUIC due to their use of multiplexing. (TCP stream and HTTP/2 stream indices for HTTP/2, QUIC connection number and stream ID for QUIC.)

range optionally specifies which "chunks" of the stream should be displayed.

Example: -z "follow,tcp,hex,1" will display the contents of the second TCP stream (the first is stream 0) in "hex" format.

Example: -z "follow,tcp,ascii,200.57.7.197:32891,200.57.7.198:2906" will display the contents of a TCP stream between 200.57.7.197 port 32891 and 200.57.7.98 port 2906.

Example: -z "follow,http2,hex,0,1" will display the contents of a HTTP/2 stream on the first TCP session (index 0) with HTTP/2 Stream ID 1.

Calculate statistics on the Fractal Generator Protocol of Reliable Server Pooling. For each message type, displays the number, rate and share among all message types of both packets and bytes, and the first and last time that it is seen.

Count the number of GSM A-I/F messages of each type within the following categories: BSSMAP, DTAP Mobility Management, DTAP Radio Resource Management, DTAP Call Control, DTAP GPRS Mobility Management, DTAP SMS messages, DTAP GPRS Session Management, DTAP Supplementary Services, DTAP Special Conformance Testing Functions, and SACCH Radio Resource Management.

Unlike the individual statistics for each category that follow, this only prints a line for each message type that appears, instead of including lines for message types with a count of zero.

Count the number of messages of each type in GSM A-I/F category, which can be one of:

Count ITU-T H.225 messages and their reasons. In the first column you get a list of H.225 messages and H.225 message reasons, which occur in the current capture file. The number of occurrences of each message or reason is displayed in the second column.

Example: -z h225,counter.

Example: use -z "h225,counter,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" to only collect stats for H.225 packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Collect requests/response RTD (Response Time Delay) data for ITU-T H.225 RAS. Data collected is number of calls of each ITU-T H.225 RAS Message Type, Minimum RTD, Maximum RTD, Average RTD, Minimum in Frame, and Maximum in Frame. You will also get the number of Open Requests (Unresponded Requests), Discarded Responses (Responses without matching request) and Duplicate Messages.

Example: tshark -z h225_ras,rtd

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "h225_ras,rtd,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will only collect stats for ITU-T H.225 RAS packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

Dump any collected resolved IPv4 and/or IPv6 addresses in "hosts" format. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are dumped by default. "ip" argument will dump only IPv4 addresses.

Addresses are collected from a number of sources, including standard "hosts" files and captured traffic. Resolution must be enabled, e.g. through the -n option.

Compute total ICMP echo requests, replies, loss, and percent loss, as well as minimum, maximum, mean, median and sample standard deviation SRT statistics typical of what ping provides.

Example: -z icmp,srt,ip.src==1.2.3.4 will collect ICMP SRT statistics for ICMP echo request packets originating from a specific host.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Compute total ICMPv6 echo requests, replies, loss, and percent loss, as well as minimum, maximum, mean, median and sample standard deviation SRT statistics typical of what ping provides.

Example: -z icmpv6,srt,ipv6.src==fe80::1 will collect ICMPv6 SRT statistics for ICMPv6 echo request packets originating from a specific host.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Create Protocol Hierarchy Statistics listing both number of packets and bytes.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Collect packet/bytes statistics for the capture in intervals of interval seconds. Interval can be specified either as a whole or fractional second and can be specified with microsecond (us) resolution. If interval is 0, the statistics will be calculated over all packets.

If one or more filters are specified statistics will be calculated for all filters and presented with one column of statistics for each filter.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z io,stat,1,ip.addr==1.2.3.4 will generate 1 second statistics for all traffic to/from host 1.2.3.4.

Example: -z "io,stat,0.001,smb&&ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will generate 1ms statistics for all SMB packets to/from host 1.2.3.4.

The examples above all use the standard syntax for generating statistics which only calculates the number of packets and bytes in each interval.

io,stat can also do much more statistics and calculate COUNT(), SUM(), MIN(), MAX(), AVG() and LOAD() using a slightly different filter syntax:

So: -z io,stat,0.010,AVG(smb.time) does not work. Use -z io,stat,0.010,AVG(smb.time)smb.time instead. Also be aware that a field can exist multiple times inside the same packet and will then be counted multiple times in those packets.

COUNT - Calculates the number of times that the field name (not its value) appears per interval in the filtered packet list. ''field'' can be any display filter name.

Example: -z io,stat,0.010,"COUNT(smb.sid)smb.sid"

This will count the total number of SIDs seen in each 10ms interval.

SUM - Unlike COUNT, the values of the specified field are summed per time interval. ''field'' can only be a named integer, float, double or relative time field.

Example: tshark -z io,stat,0.010,"SUM(frame.len)frame.len"

Reports the total number of bytes that were transmitted bidirectionally in all the packets within a 10 millisecond interval.

MIN/MAX/AVG - The minimum, maximum, or average field value in each interval is calculated. The specified field must be a named integer, float, double or relative time field. For relative time fields, the output is presented in seconds with six decimal digits of precision rounded to the nearest microsecond.

In the following example, the time of the first Read_AndX call, the last Read_AndX response values are displayed and the minimum, maximum, and average Read response times (SRTs) are calculated. NOTE: If the DOS command shell line continuation character, ''^'' is used, each line cannot end in a comma so it is placed at the beginning of each continuation line:

The following command displays the average SMB Read response PDU size, the total number of read PDU bytes, the average SMB Write request PDU size, and the total number of bytes transferred in SMB Write PDUs:

LOAD - The LOAD/Queue-Depth in each interval is calculated. The specified field must be a relative time field that represents a response time. For example smb.time. For each interval the Queue-Depth for the specified protocol is calculated.

The following command displays the average SMB LOAD. A value of 1.0 represents one I/O in flight.

FRAMES | BYTES[()filter] - Displays the total number of frames or bytes. The filter field is optional but if included it must be prepended with ''()''.

The following command displays five columns: the total number of frames and bytes (transferred bidirectionally) using a single comma, the same two stats using the FRAMES and BYTES subcommands, the total number of frames containing at least one SMB Read response, and the total number of bytes transmitted to the client (unidirectionally) at IP address 10.1.0.64.

This option will activate a counter for LTE or NR MAC messages. You will get information about the maximum number of UEs/TTI, common messages and various counters for each UE that appears in the log.

Example: tshark -z mac-3gpp,stat.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "mac-3gpp,stat,mac-lte.rnti>3000" will only collect stats for LTE UEs with an assigned RNTI whose value is more than 3000.

Collect requests/response RTD (Response Time Delay) data for MEGACO. (This is similar to -z smb,srt). Data collected is the number of calls for each known MEGACO Type, MinRTD, MaxRTD and AvgRTD. Additionally you get the number of duplicate requests/responses, unresponded requests, responses, which don’t match with any request. Example: -z megaco,rtd.

Example: -z "megaco,rtd,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will only collect stats for MEGACO packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Collect requests/response RTD (Response Time Delay) data for MGCP. (This is similar to -z smb,srt). Data collected is the number of calls for each known MGCP Type, MinRTD, MaxRTD and AvgRTD. Additionally you get the number of duplicate requests/responses, unresponded requests, responses, which don’t match with any request. Example: -z mgcp,rtd.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "mgcp,rtd,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will only collect stats for MGCP packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

Append all field values for the packet to the Info column of the one-line summary output. This feature can be used to append arbitrary fields to the Info column in addition to the normal content of that column. field is the display-filter name of a field which value should be placed in the Info column. filter is a filter string that controls for which packets the field value will be presented in the info column. field will only be presented in the Info column for the packets which match filter.

For a simple example to add the "nfs.fh.hash" field to the Info column for all packets containing the "nfs.fh.hash" field, use

-z proto,colinfo,nfs.fh.hash,nfs.fh.hash

To put "nfs.fh.hash" in the Info column but only for packets coming from host 1.2.3.4 use:

-z "proto,colinfo,nfs.fh.hash && ip.src==1.2.3.4,nfs.fh.hash"

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

This option will activate a counter for LTE or NR RLC messages. You will get information about common messages and various counters for each UE that appears in the log.

Example: tshark -z rlc-3gpp,stat.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "rlc-3gpp,stat,rlc-nr.ueid>3000" will only collect stats for NR UEs with a UEId of more than 3000.

Collect call/reply SRT data for all known ONC-RPC programs/versions. Data collected is number of calls for each protocol/version, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT. This option can only be used once on the command line.

Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for program/version. Data collected is the number of calls for each procedure, MinSRT, MaxSRT, AvgSRT, and the total time taken for each procedure.

Example: tshark -z rpc,srt,100003,3 will collect data for NFS v3.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z rpc,srt,100003,3,nfs.fh.hash==0x12345678 will collect NFS v3 SRT statistics for a specific file.

Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for SCSI commandset cmdset.

Commandsets are 0:SBC 1:SSC 5:MMC

Data collected is the number of calls for each procedure, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

Example: -z scsi,srt,0 will collect data for SCSI BLOCK COMMANDS (SBC).

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z scsi,srt,0,ip.addr==1.2.3.4 will collect SCSI SBC SRT statistics for a specific iscsi/ifcp/fcip host.

This option will activate a counter for SIP messages. You will get the number of occurrences of each SIP Method and of each SIP Status-Code. Additionally you also get the number of resent SIP Messages (only for SIP over UDP).

Example: -z sip,stat.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "sip,stat,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will only collect stats for SIP packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

When this feature is used TShark will print a report with all the discovered SID and account name mappings. Only those SIDs where the account name is known will be presented in the table.

For this feature to work you will need to either to enable "Edit/Preferences/Protocols/SMB/Snoop SID to name mappings" in the preferences or you can override the preferences by specifying -o "smb.sid_name_snooping:TRUE" on the TShark command line.

The current method used by TShark to find the SID→name mapping is relatively restricted with a hope of future expansion.

Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for SMB. Data collected is number of calls for each SMB command, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

Example: -z smb,srt

The data will be presented as separate tables for all normal SMB commands, all Transaction2 commands and all NT Transaction commands. Only those commands that are seen in the capture will have its stats displayed. Only the first command in a xAndX command chain will be used in the calculation. So for common SessionSetupAndX + TreeConnectAndX chains, only the SessionSetupAndX call will be used in the statistics. This is a flaw that might be fixed in the future.

This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

Example: -z "smb,srt,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will only collect stats for SMB packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

Add a capture comment to the output file, if supported by the output file format.

This option may be specified multiple times. Note that Wireshark currently only displays the first comment of a capture file.

When generating the ElasticSearch mapping file, only put the specified protocols in it, to avoid a huge mapping file that can choke some software (such as Kibana). The option takes a list of wanted protocol abbreviations, separated by comma.

Example: ip,udp,dns puts only those three protocols in the mapping file.

Export all objects within a protocol into directory destdir. The available values for protocol can be listed with --export-objects help.

The objects are directly saved in the given directory. Filenames are dependent on the dissector, but typically it is named after the basename of a file. Duplicate files are not overwritten, instead an increasing number is appended before the file extension.

This interface is subject to change, adding the possibility to filter on files.

Compress the output file using the type compression format. --compress with no argument provides a list of the compression formats supported for writing. The type given takes precedence over the extension of outfile.

Like Wireshark’s Decode As…​ feature, this lets you specify how a layer type should be dissected. If the layer type in question (for example, tcp.port or udp.port for a TCP or UDP port number) has the specified selector value, packets should be dissected as the specified protocol.

Using an invalid selector or protocol will print out a list of valid selectors and protocol names, respectively.

Enable dissection of proto_name. Use a proto_name of ALL to override your chosen profile’s default disabled protocol list and temporarily enable all protocols which are enabled by default.

If a protocol is implicated in both --disable-protocol and --enable-protocol, the protocol is enabled. This allows you to temporarily disable all protocols but a list of exceptions. Example: --disable-protocol ALL --enable-protocol eth,ip

Load kerberos crypto keys from the specified keytab file. This option can be used multiple times to load keys from several files.

Example: -K krb5.keytab

Turn on name resolving only for particular types of addresses and port numbers, with name resolving for other types of addresses and port numbers turned off. This option (along with -n) can be specified multiple times; the last value given overrides earlier ones. This option and -n override the options from the preferences, including preferences set via the -o option. If both -N and -n options are not present, the values from the preferences are used, which default to -N dmN.

The argument is a string that may contain the letters:

d to enable resolution from captured DNS packets

g to enable IP address geolocation information lookup from configured MaxMind databases

m to enable MAC address resolution

n to enable network address resolution

N to enable using external resolvers (e.g., DNS) for network address resolution; no effect without n also enabled.

s to enable address resolution using SNI information found in captured handshake packets

t to enable transport-layer port number resolution

v to enable VLAN IDs to names resolution

Set the format of the packet timestamp displayed in the default time column. The format can be one of:

a absolute: The absolute time, as local time in your time zone, is the actual time the packet was captured, with no date displayed

ad absolute with date: The absolute date, displayed as YYYY-MM-DD, and time, as local time in your time zone, is the actual time and date the packet was captured

adoy absolute with date using day of year: The absolute date, displayed as YYYY/DOY, and time, as local time in your time zone, is the actual time and date the packet was captured

d delta: The delta time is the time since the previous packet was captured

dd delta_displayed: The delta_displayed time is the time since the previous displayed packet was captured

e epoch: The time in seconds since epoch (Jan 1, 1970 00:00:00)

r relative: The relative time is the time elapsed between the first packet and the current packet

u UTC: The absolute time, as UTC, is the actual time the packet was captured, with no date displayed

ud UTC with date: The absolute date, displayed as YYYY-MM-DD, and time, as UTC, is the actual time and date the packet was captured

udoy UTC with date using day of year: The absolute date, displayed as YYYY/DOY, and time, as UTC, is the actual time and date the packet was captured

.[N] Set the precision: N is the number of decimals (0 through 9). If using "." without N, automatically determine precision from trace.

The default format is relative with precision based on capture format.

Specifies how packet timestamp formats in -t which are relative times (i.e. relative, delta, and delta_displayed) are displayed. Valid choices are:

s for seconds

hms for hours, minutes, and seconds

The default format is seconds.

The preferences files contain global (system-wide) and personal preference settings. If the system-wide preference file exists, it is read first, overriding the default settings. If the personal preferences file exists, it is read next, overriding any previous values. Note: If the command line flag -o is used (possibly more than once), it will in turn override values from the preferences files.

The preferences settings are in the form prefname:value, one per line, where prefname is the name of the preference and value is the value to which it should be set; white space is allowed between : and value. A preference setting can be continued on subsequent lines by indenting the continuation lines with white space. A # character starts a comment that runs to the end of the line:

The global preferences file is looked for in the wireshark directory under the share subdirectory of the main installation directory. On macOS, this would typically be /Application/Wireshark.app/Contents/Resources/share; on other UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, this would typically be /usr/share/wireshark/preferences for system-installed packages and /usr/local/share/wireshark/preferences for locally-installed packages; on Windows, this would typically be C:\Program Files\Wireshark\preferences.

On UNIX-compatible systems, the personal preferences file is looked for in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark/preferences, (or, if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark does not exist while $HOME/.wireshark does exist, $HOME/.wireshark/preferences); this is typically $HOME/.config/wireshark/preferences. On Windows, the personal preferences file is looked for in %APPDATA%\Wireshark\preferences (or, if %APPDATA% isn’t defined, %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Wireshark\preferences).

The disabled_protos files contain system-wide and personal lists of protocols that have been disabled, so that their dissectors are never called. The files contain protocol names, one per line, where the protocol name is the same name that would be used in a display filter for the protocol:

If a protocol is listed in the global disabled_protos file it cannot be enabled by the user.

The global disabled_protos file uses the same directory as the global preferences file.

The personal disabled_protos file uses the same directory as the personal preferences file.

The disabled_protos files list only protocols that are enabled by default but have been disabled; protocols that are disabled by default (such as some postdissectors) are not listed. There are analogous enabled_protos files for protocols that are disabled by default but have been enabled.

The heuristic_protos files contain system-wide and personal lists of heuristic dissectors and indicate whether they are enabled or disabled. The files contain heuristic dissector unique short names, one per line, followed by a comma and 0 for disabled and 1 for enabled:

The global heuristic_protos file uses the same directory as the global preferences file.

The personal heuristic_protos file uses the same directory as the personal preferences file.

Entries in hosts files in the global and personal preferences directory are used to resolve IPv4 and IPv6 addresses before any other attempts are made to resolve them. The file has the standard hosts file syntax; each line contains one IP address and name, separated by whitespace. The personal hosts file, if present, overrides the one in the global directory.

Capture filter name resolution is handled by libpcap on UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, and Npcap or WinPcap on Windows. As such the Wireshark personal hosts file will not be consulted for capture filter name resolution.

If an IPv4 address cannot be translated via name resolution (no exact match is found) then a partial match is attempted via the subnets file. Both the global subnets file and personal subnets files are used if they exist.

Each line of this file consists of an IPv4 address, a subnet mask length separated only by a / and a name separated by whitespace. While the address must be a full IPv4 address, any values beyond the mask length are subsequently ignored.

An example is:

# Comments must be prepended by the # sign! 192.168.0.0/24 ws_test_network

A partially matched name will be printed as "subnet-name.remaining-address". For example, "192.168.0.1" under the subnet above would be printed as "ws_test_network.1"; if the mask length above had been 16 rather than 24, the printed address would be "ws_test_network.0.1".

The ethers files are consulted to correlate 6-byte hardware addresses to names. First the personal ethers file is tried and if an address is not found there the global ethers file is tried next.

Each line contains one hardware address and name, separated by whitespace. The digits of the hardware address are separated by colons (:), dashes (-) or periods (.). The same separator character must be used consistently in an address. The following three lines are valid lines of an ethers file:

The global ethers file is looked for in the /etc directory on UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, and in the main installation directory (for example, C:\Program Files\Wireshark) on Windows systems.

The personal ethers file is looked for in the same directory as the personal preferences file.

Capture filter name resolution is handled by libpcap on UNIX-compatible systems and Npcap or WinPcap on Windows. As such the Wireshark personal ethers file will not be consulted for capture filter name resolution.

The manuf file is used to match the 3-byte vendor portion of a 6-byte hardware address with the manufacturer’s name; it can also contain well-known MAC addresses and address ranges specified with a netmask. The format of the file is similar the ethers files, except that entries such as:

can be provided, with the 3-byte OUI and both an abbreviated and long name for a vendor, and entries such as:

can be specified, with a MAC address and a mask indicating how many bits of the address must match. The above entry, for example, has 40 significant bits, or 5 bytes, and would match addresses from 00-00-0C-07-AC-00 through 00-00-0C-07-AC-FF. The mask need not be a multiple of 8.

A global manuf file is looked for in the same directory as the global preferences file, and a personal manuf file is looked for in the same directory as the personal preferences file.

In earlier versions of Wireshark, official information from the IEEE Registration Authority was distributed in this format as the global manuf file. This information is now compiled in to speed program startup, but the internal information can be written out in this format with tshark -G manuf.

In addition to the manuf file, another file with the same format, wka, is looked for in the global directory. This file is distributed with Wireshark, and contains data about well-known MAC adddresses and address ranges assembled from various non IEEE but respected sources.

The services file is used to translate port numbers into names. Both the global services file and personal services files are used if they exist.

The file has the standard services file syntax; each line contains one (service) name and one transport identifier separated by white space. The transport identifier includes one port number and one transport protocol name (typically tcp, udp, or sctp) separated by a /.

An example is:

mydns 5045/udp # My own Domain Name Server mydns 5045/tcp # My own Domain Name Server

In earlier versions of Wireshark, official information from the IANA Registry was distributed in this format as the global services file. This information is now compiled in to speed program startup, but the internal information can be written out in this format with tshark -G services.

The ipxnets files are used to correlate 4-byte IPX network numbers to names. First the global ipxnets file is tried and if that address is not found there the personal one is tried next.

The format is the same as the ethers file, except that each address is four bytes instead of six. Additionally, the address can be represented as a single hexadecimal number, as is more common in the IPX world, rather than four hex octets. For example, these four lines are valid lines of an ipxnets file:

The global ipxnets file is looked for in the /etc directory on UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, and in the main installation directory (for example, C:\Program Files\Wireshark) on Windows systems.

The personal ipxnets file is looked for in the same directory as the personal preferences file.

The ss7pcs file is used to translate SS7 point codes to names. It is read from the personal configuration directory.

Each line in this file consists of one network indicator followed by a dash followed by a point code in decimal and a node name separated by whitespace. An example is:

The vlans file is used to translate VLAN tag IDs into names. It is read from the personal configuration directory.

Each line in this file consists of one VLAN tag ID separated by whitespace from a name. An example is:

The colorfilters files contain system-wide and personal color filters. Each line contains one filter, starting with the string displayed in the dialog box, followed by the corresponding display filter. Then the background and foreground colors are appended:

The global colorfilters file uses the same directory as the global preferences file.

The personal colorfilters file uses the same directory as the personal preferences file. It is written through the View:Coloring Rules dialog.

If the global colorfilters file exists, it is used only if the personal colorfilters file does not exist; global and personal color filters are not merged.

Wireshark looks for plugins in both a personal plugin folder and a global plugin folder.

On UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, the global plugin directory is lib/wireshark/plugins/ (on some systems substitute lib64 for lib) under the main installation directory (for example, /usr/local/lib/wireshark/plugins/). The personal plugin directory is $HOME/.local/lib/wireshark/plugins.

On macOS, if Wireshark is installed as an application bundle, the global plugin folder is instead %APPDIR%/Contents/PlugIns/wireshark.

On Windows, the global plugin folder is plugins/ under the main installation directory (for example, C:\Program Files\Wireshark\plugins\). The personal plugin folder is %APPDATA%\Wireshark\plugins (or, if %APPDATA% isn’t defined, %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Wireshark\plugins).

Lua plugins are stored in the plugin folders; compiled plugins are stored in subfolders of the plugin folders, with the subfolder name being the Wireshark minor version number (X.Y). There is another hierarchical level for each Wireshark plugin type (libwireshark, libwiretap and codecs). For example, the location for a libwireshark plugin foo.so (foo.dll on Windows) would be PLUGINDIR/X.Y/epan (libwireshark used to be called libepan; the other folder names are codecs and wiretap).

Note that a dissector plugin module may support more than one protocol; there is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between dissector plugin modules and protocols. Protocols supported by a dissector plugin module are enabled and disabled in the same way as protocols built into Wireshark.