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TCPPREP(1)			 Tcpreplay Suite		      TCPPREP(1)

NAME
     tcpprep - Create a tcpreplay cache cache file from a pcap file.

SYNOPSIS
     tcpprep [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION
     tcpprep  is  a  pcap(3) file pre-processor which creates a cache file which
     provides "rules" for tcprewrite(1) and tcpreplay(1) on how to  process  and
     send packets.

     The  basic  operation  of tcpreplay is to resend all packets from the input
     file(s) out a single file. Tcpprep processes a pcap file and applies a  set
     of  user-specified  rules	to  create  a  cache  file which tells tcpreplay
     whether or not to send each packet and which interface the packet should be
     sent out of.

     For   more   details,    please	see    the    Tcpreplay    Manual    at:
     http://tcpreplay.appneta.com

OPTIONS
     -d, --dbug=number
	 Enable debugging output. Range: 0 to 5. Default: 0.

	 If  configured  with  --enable-debug,	then you can specify a verbosity
	 level for debugging output. Higher numbers increase verbosity.

     -a, --auto=string
	 Auto-split mode. Cannot be  combined  with:  --cidr,  --port,	--regex,
	 --mac.

	 Tcpprep  will	try  to  automatically determine the primary function of
	 hosts based on the traffic captured and classify each host as client or
	 server. In order to do so, you must provide a hint to tcpprep as to how
	 to search for clients and servers. Valid hints are:

	 bridge
	     Bridge mode processes each packet to try to determine if the sender
	     is a client or server. Once all the packets are processed, the  re-
	     sults  are  weighed  according to the server/client ratio (--ratio)
	     and systems are assigned an interface. If tcpprep is unable to  de-
	     termine what role a system plays, tcpprep will abort.

	 router
	     Router mode works just like bridge mode, except that after weighing
	     is  done, systems which are undetermined are considered a server if
	     they fall inside a network known to contain other	servers.  Router
	     has  a greater chance of successfully splitting clients and servers
	     but is not 100% foolproof.

	 client
	     Client mode works just like bridge mode, except  that  unclassified
	     systems  are treated as clients. Client mode should always complete
	     successfully.

	 server
	     Server mode works just like bridge mode, except  that  unclassified
	     systems  are treated as servers. Server mode should always complete
	     successfully.

	 first
	     First mode works by looking at the first time each IP  is	seen  in
	     the  SRC and DST fields in the IP header. If the host is first seen
	     in the SRC field, it is a client and if it's first seen in the  DST
	     field,  it  is  marked as a server. This effectively replicates the
	     processing of the tomahawk test tool. First mode should always com-
	     plete successfully.

     -c, --cidr=string
	 CIDR-split mode. Cannot be  combined  with:  --auto,  --port,	--regex,
	 --mac.

	 Specify  a  comma delimited list of CIDR netblocks to match against the
	 source IP of each packet. Packets matching any of the CIDR's are  clas-
	 sified as servers.

	 IPv4 Example:

	     --cidr=192.168.0.0/16,172.16.0.0/12,10.0.0.0/8

	 IPv6 Example:

	     --cidr=[::ffff:0:0/96],[fe80::/16]

     -r, --regex=string
	 Regex-split  mode.  Cannot  be  combined  with: --auto, --port, --cidr,
	 --mac.

	 Specify a regular expression to match against the  source  IP	of  each
	 packet. Packets matching the regex are classified as servers.

     -p, --port
	 Port-split  mode.  Cannot  be	combined  with: --auto, --regex, --cidr,
	 --mac.

	 Specifies that TCP and UDP traffic over IPv4 and IPv6 should be classi-
	 fied as client or server based upon the destination port of the header.

     -e, --mac=string
	 Source MAC split  mode.  Cannot  be  combined	with:  --auto,	--regex,
	 --cidr, --port.

	 Specify a list of MAC addresses to match against the source MAC of each
	 packet. Packets matching one of the values are classified as servers.

     --reverse
	 Matches to be client instead of server.

	 Normally  the --mac, --regex and --cidr flags specify are used to spec-
	 ify the servers and non-IP packets are classified as clients. By  using
	 --reverse,  these  features  are  reversed  so  that  the flags specify
	 clients and non-IP packets are classified as servers.

     -C, --comment=string
	 Embedded cache file comment.

	 Specify a comment to be imbedded within the output cache file and later
	 viewed.

     --no-arg-comment
	 Do not embed any cache file comment.

	 By default, tcpprep includes the arguments passed on the  command  line
	 in  the  cache  file  comment (in addition to any user specified --com-
	 ment). If for some reason you do not wish to include this, specify this
	 option.

     -x, --include=string
	 Include only packets matching rule. Cannot be combined with: --exclude.

	 Override default of processing all packets stored in the  capture  file
	 and  only send/edit packets which match the provided rule. Rules can be
	 one of:

	 S:<CIDR1>,...
	     Source IP must match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 D:<CIDR1>,...
	     Destination IP must match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 B:<CIDR1>,...
	     Both source and destination IP must match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 E:<CIDR1>,...
	     Either IP must match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 P:<LIST>
	     Must be one of the listed packets where the list corresponds to the
	     packet number in the capture file.

		 -x P:1-5,9,15,72-

	     would process packets 1 through 5, the 9th  and  15th  packet,  and
	     packets 72 until the end of the file

	 F:'<bpf>'
	     BPF filter. See the tcpdump(8) man page for syntax.

     -X, --exclude=string
	 Exclude  any  packet matching this rule. Cannot be combined with: --in-
	 clude.

	 Override default of processing all packets stored in the  capture  file
	 and  only send/edit packets which do NOT match the provided rule. Rules
	 can be one of:

	 S:<CIDR1>,...
	     Source IP must not match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 D:<CIDR1>,...
	     Destination IP must not match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 B:<CIDR1>,...
	     Both source and destination IP must  not  match  specified  IPv4/v6
	     CIDR(s)

	 E:<CIDR1>,...
	     Either IP must not match specified IPv4/v6 CIDR(s)

	 P:<LIST>
	     Must not be one of the listed packets where the list corresponds to
	     the packet number in the capture file.

		 -x P:1-5,9,15,72-

	     would  skip packets 1 through 5, the 9th and 15th packet, and pack-
	     ets 72 until the end of the file

     -o, --cachefile=string
	 Output cache file.

     -i, --pcap=string
	 Input pcap file to process.

     -P, --print-comment=string
	 Print embedded comment in the specified cache file.

     -I, --print-info=string
	 Print basic info from the specified cache file.

     -S, --print-stats=string
	 Print statistical information about the specified cache file.

     -s, --services=string
	 Load services file for server ports. Requires: --port.

	 Uses a list of ports used by servers in the same format as of /etc/ser-
	 vices: <service_name>	      <port>/<protocol> # comment

	 Example: http		  80/tcp

     -N, --nonip
	 Send non-IP traffic out server interface.

	 By default, non-IP traffic which can not be  classified  as  client  or
	 server  is  classified  as "client". Specifying --nonip will reclassify
	 non-IP traffic as "server". Note that the meaning of this flag  is  re-
	 versed if --reverse is used.

     -R, --ratio=string
	 Ratio of client to server packets. Default: 2.0. Requires: --auto.

	 Since	a  given host may have both client and server traffic being sent
	 to/from it, tcpprep uses a ratio to weigh these packets. If  you  would
	 like  to  override the default of 2:1 server to client packets required
	 for a host to be classified as a server, specify it as a floating point
	 value.

     -m, --minmask=number
	 Minimum network mask length in auto mode. Range: 0 to 32. Default:  30.
	 Requires: --auto.

	 By  default, auto modes use a minimum network mask length of 30 bits to
	 build networks containing clients and servers. This allows you to over-
	 ride this value. Larger values will increase performance but  may  pro-
	 vide inaccurate results.

     -M, --maxmask=number
	 Maximum  network  mask length in auto mode. Range: 0 to 32. Default: 8.
	 Requires: --auto.

	 By default, auto modes use a maximum network mask length of 8	bits  to
	 build networks containing clients and servers. This allows you to over-
	 ride  this  value. Larger values will decrease performance and accuracy
	 but will provide greater chance of success.

     -v, --verbose
	 Print decoded packets via tcpdump to STDOUT.

     -A, --decode=string
	 Arguments passed to tcpdump decoder. Requires: --verbose.

	 When enabling verbose mode (-v) you may also specify one or more  addi-
	 tional  arguments  to pass to tcpdump to modify the way packets are de-
	 coded. By default, -n and -l are used. Be sure to quote  the  arguments
	 so that they are not interpreted by tcprewrite. The following arguments
	 are valid:

		 [ -aAeNqRStuvxX ]
		 [ -E spi@ipaddr algo:secret,... ]
		 [ -s snaplen ]

     -V, --version
	 Print version information.

     -h, --less-help
	 Display less usage information and exit.

     -w, --suppress-warnings
	 suppress printing warning messages.

     -H, --help
	 Display usage information and exit.

     --more-help
	 Pass the extended usage information through a pager.

     --save-opts[=string]
	 Save the current option state to a config file.

     --load-opts=string, --no-load-opts
	 Load options from a config file; --no-load-opts disables this.

OPTION PRESETS
     Any  option  that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading
     values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s). The homerc file is $$/,
     unless that is a directory; in that case .tcppreprc is searched for  within
     it.

FILES
     See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.

EXIT STATUS
     One of the following exit values will be returned:

     0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)
	 Successful program execution.

     1 (EXIT_FAILURE)
	 The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid.

     66 (EX_NOINPUT)
	 A specified configuration file could not be loaded.

     70 (EX_SOFTWARE)
	 libopts  had  an  internal  operational  error.  Please  report  it  to
	 autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you.

AUTHORS
     Copyright 2013-2026 Fred Klassen - AppNeta by Broadcom

     Copyright 2000-2012 Aaron Turner

     For support please use the tcpreplay-users@lists.sourceforge.net mailing
     list.

     The latest version of this software is always available from:
     http://tcpreplay.appneta.com/

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (C) 2000-2026 Aaron Turner and Fred Klassen, all rights reserved.
     This program is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
     version 3 or later.

BUGS
     Please send bug reports to: tcpreplay-users@lists.sourceforge.net

NOTES
     This manual page was generated from the tcpprep option definitions.

Tcpreplay Suite 		   2026-07-29			      TCPPREP(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tcpprep&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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