tcpdump mailing list archives
Handling "-x" and "-xx" if the "link-layer header type" includes metadata
From: Guy Harris <guy () alum mit edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2015 16:45:35 -0700
Somebody got confused by tcpdump on OS X Yosemite defaulting to capturing on all devices simultaneously, meaning that
it got PKTAP metadata headers:
http://www.tcpdump.org/linktypes/LINKTYPE_PKTAP.html
and asked about this on SuperUser because the "tcpdump -x" and "tcpdump -xx" output wasn't what they expected, as they
weren't getting Ethernet headers:
http://superuser.com/questions/897579/what-does-tcpdump-xx-do-in-mac-os-x/897625
I think a case can be made that "tcpdump -x" should skip both metadata headers and link-layer headers; I don't see any
issues with doing that.
A case can also be made that "tcpdump -xx" should at least skip metadata headers, although there *might* be scripts,
for example, that expect to see radiotap headers dumped in hex with "tcpdump -xx", for example.
My inclination would be to have:
-x mean "skip metadata and link-layer headers";
-xx mean "skip metadata headers";
-xxx mean "dump the entire payload, skipping nothing.
Does that seem reasonable?
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- Handling "-x" and "-xx" if the "link-layer header type" includes metadata Guy Harris (Apr 03)
