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rwpdu2silk(1)			 SiLK Tool Suite		   rwpdu2silk(1)

NAME
     rwpdu2silk - Convert NetFlow v5 records to SiLK Flow records

SYNOPSIS
       rwpdu2silk [--silk-output=PATH] [--print-statistics]
	     [--log-destination={stdout | stderr | none | PATH}]
	     [--log-flags={none | { {all | bad | default | missing
				     | record-timestamps} ...} } ]
	     [--note-add=TEXT] [--note-file-add=FILE]
	     [--compression-method=COMP_METHOD]
	     {--xargs | --xargs=FILENAME | PDUFILE [PDUFILE...]}

       rwpdu2silk --help

       rwpdu2silk --version

DESCRIPTION
     rwpdu2silk reads NetFlow v5 PDU (Protocol Data Units) records from one or
     more files, converts the records to the SiLK Flow format, and writes the
     SiLK records to the path specified by --silk-output or to the standard out-
     put when --silk-output is not provided.  Note that rwpdu2silk cannot read
     from the standard input.

     rwpdu2silk expects its input files to be a the format created by Cisco's
     NetFlow Collector: The file's size must be an integer multiple of 1464,
     where each 1464 octet chunk contains a 24 octet NetFlow v5 header and space
     for thirty 48 octet NetFlow v5 records.  The number of valid records per
     chunk is specified in the header.

     rwpdu2silk reads NetFlow v5 records from the files named on the command
     line when --xargs is not present.	If an input file name ends in ".gz", the
     file is uncompressed as it is read.  When the --xargs switch is provided,
     rwpdu2silk reads the names of the files to process from the named text file
     or from the standard input if no file name argument is provided to the
     switch.  The input to --xargs must contain one file name per line.

OPTIONS
     Option names may be abbreviated if the abbreviation is unique or is an ex-
     act match for an option.  A parameter to an option may be specified as
     --arg=param or --arg param, though the first form is required for options
     that take optional parameters.

     --silk-output=PATH
	 Write the binary SiLK Flow records to PATH, where PATH is a filename, a
	 named pipe, the keyword "stderr" to write the output to the standard
	 error, or the keyword "stdout" or "-" to write the output to the stan-
	 dard output.  If PATH names an existing file, rwpdu2silk exits with an
	 error unless the SILK_CLOBBER environment variable is set, in which
	 case PATH is overwritten.  If this switch is not given, the output is
	 written to the standard output.  Attempting to write the binary output
	 to a terminal causes rwpdu2silk to exit with an error.

     --print-statistics
	 Print, to the standard error, the number of records that were written
	 to the SiLK output file.  See also --log-destination.

     --log-destination={none | stdout | stderr | PATH}
	 Write more detailed information to the specified destination.	The de-
	 fault destination is none which suppresses messages.  Use stdout or
	 stderr to send messages to the standard output or standard error, re-
	 spectively.  Any other value is treated as a file name in which to
	 write the messages.  When an existing file is specified, rwpdu2silk ap-
	 pends any messages to the file.  Information that is written includes
	 the following:

	 *   For each input stream, the number of PDU records read, number of
	     SiLK records generated, number of missing records (based on the
	     NetFlow v5 sequence number), and number of invalid records.

	 *   Messages about each NetFlow v5 packet that was rejected due a bad
	     version number or having a record count of 0 or more than 30.

	 *   Additional messages enabled by the --log-flags switch.

     --log-flags=FLAGS
	 Write additional messages regarding the NetFlow v5 data to the
	 --log-destination, where FLAGS is a comma-separated list of names spec-
	 ifying the type messages to write.  When this switch is not specified,
	 the default value for FLAGS is "none".  This switch takes the same val-
	 ues as the log-flags setting in the sensor.conf(5) file.  This manual
	 page documents the values that are relevant for NetFlow v5 data.  Since
	 SiLK 3.10.0.

	 all Log everything.

	 bad Write messages about an individual NetFlow v5 record where the
	     packet or octet count is zero, the packet count is larger than the
	     octet count, or the duration of the flow is larger than 45 days.

	 default
	     Enable the default set of log-flags used by sensor.conf: bad, miss-
	     ing.  Despite the name, this is not the default setting for this
	     switch; none is.

	 missing
	     Examine the sequence numbers of NetFlow v5 packets and write mes-
	     sages about missing and out-of-sequence packets.

	 noneLog nothing.  It is an error to combine this log-flag name with any
	     other.  This is the default setting for --log-flags.

	 record-timestamps
	     Log the timestamps that appear on each record.  This produces a lot
	     of output, and it is primarily used for debugging.

     --note-add=TEXT
	 Add the specified TEXT to the header of the output file as an annota-
	 tion.	This switch may be repeated to add multiple annotations to a
	 file.	To view the annotations, use the rwfileinfo(1) tool.

     --note-file-add=FILENAME
	 Open FILENAME and add the contents of that file to the header of the
	 output file as an annotation.	  This switch may be repeated to add
	 multiple annotations.	Currently the application makes no effort to en-
	 sure that FILENAME contains text; be careful that you do not attempt to
	 add a SiLK data file as an annotation.

     --compression-method=COMP_METHOD
	 Specify the compression library to use when writing output files.  If
	 this switch is not given, the value in the SILK_COMPRESSION_METHOD en-
	 vironment variable is used if the value names an available compression
	 method.  When no compression method is specified, output to the stan-
	 dard output or to named pipes is not compressed, and output to files is
	 compressed using the default chosen when SiLK was compiled.  The valid
	 values for COMP_METHOD are determined by which external libraries were
	 found when SiLK was compiled.	To see the available compression methods
	 and the default method, use the --help or --version switch.  SiLK can
	 support the following COMP_METHOD values when the required libraries
	 are available.

	 noneDo not compress the output using an external library.

	 zlibUse the zlib(3) library for compressing the output, and always com-
	     press the output regardless of the destination.  Using zlib pro-
	     duces the smallest output files at the cost of speed.

	 lzo1x
	     Use the lzo1x algorithm from the LZO real time compression library
	     for compression, and always compress the output regardless of the
	     destination.  This compression provides good compression with less
	     memory and CPU overhead.

	 snappy
	     Use the snappy library for compression, and always compress the
	     output regardless of the destination.  This compression provides
	     good compression with less memory and CPU overhead.  Since SiLK
	     3.13.0.

	 bestUse lzo1x if available, otherwise use snappy if available, other-
	     wise use zlib if available.  Only compress the output when writing
	     to a file.

     --xargs
     --xargs=FILENAME
	 Read the names of the input files from FILENAME or from the standard
	 input if FILENAME is not provided.  The input is expected to have one
	 filename per line.  rwpdu2silk opens each named file in turn and reads
	 records from it as if the filenames had been listed on the command
	 line.

     --help
	 Print the available options and exit.

     --version
	 Print the version number and information about how SiLK was configured,
	 then exit the application.

ENVIRONMENT
     SILK_CLOBBER
	 The SiLK tools normally refuse to overwrite existing files.  Setting
	 SILK_CLOBBER to a non-empty value removes this restriction.

     SILK_COMPRESSION_METHOD
	 This environment variable is used as the value for --compression-method
	 when that switch is not provided.  Since SiLK 3.13.0.

SEE ALSO
     rwfileinfo(1), rwflowpack(8), sensor.conf(5), silk(7), zlib(3)

BUGS
     rwpdu2silk cannot read from the standard input.

SiLK 3.22.2			   2026-08-27			   rwpdu2silk(1)

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