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how to tell tcpdump to make a capture file of size 2GB

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Hello , i need to write a command where tcp dump makes a capture of size 7GB, i tried -C 7168m but i got "invalid file size" error, does this command have a size limitation? and is there a way to solve this problem keeping the captures in 1 file ?

asked 14 Jul '15, 05:32

yas1234's gravatar image

yas1234
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edited 15 Jul '15, 08:36


One Answer:

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From the tcpdump man page:

http://www.tcpdump.org/tcpdump_man.html

-C file_size = Before writing a raw packet to a savefile, check whether the file is currently larger than file_size and, if so, close the current savefile and open a new one. Savefiles after the first savefile will have the name specified with the -w flag, with a number after it, starting at 1 and continuing upward. The units of file_size are millions of bytes (1,000,000 bytes, not 1,048,576 bytes).

-W = Used in conjunction with the -C option, this will limit the number of files created to the specified number, and begin overwriting files from the beginning, thus creating a 'rotating' buffer. In addition, it will name the files with enough leading 0s to support the maximum number of files, allowing them to sort correctly. Used in conjunction with the -G option, this will limit the number of rotated dump files that get created, exiting with status 0 when reaching the limit. If used with -C as well, the behavior will result in cyclical files per timeslice.

answered 14 Jul '15, 06:17

Amato_C's gravatar image

Amato_C
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accept rate: 14%

What do you mean by "in conjunction"? Do you want to merge the separate files into one large file?

(14 Jul '15, 06:22) Amato_C