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anonymous-one
Asked: 2013-10-17 04:23:37 +0800 CST

Is there a way to explicitly set the maximum number of packets tcpdump will capture before terminating?

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We have a small script that essentially does the following:

A) Capture packets using tcpdump and pipe to output file.
B) Run our own clean + sort script on output file.
C) Display results using | sort | etc etc...

So, we were wondering if there is a tcpdump parameter that sets the number of packets tcpdump will capture before exiting?

Thanks.

tcpdump

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    tcpdump -c [count] is the option you're looking for.

    -c flag, it will capture packets until it is interrupted by a SIGINT or SIGTERM signal or the specified number of packets have been processed.

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