wireshark(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | DISSECTION OPTIONS | DIAGNOSTIC OPTIONS | INTERFACE | CAPTURE FILTER SYNTAX | DISPLAY FILTER SYNTAX | FILES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO | NOTES

WIRESHARK(1)                                                 WIRESHARK(1)

NAME         top

       wireshark - Interactively dump and analyze network traffic

SYNOPSIS         top

       wireshark [ -i <capture interface>|- ] [ -f <capture filter> ] [
       -Y <display filter> ] [ -w <outfile> ] [ options ] [ <infile> ]

       wireshark -h|--help

       wireshark -v|--version

DESCRIPTION         top

       Wireshark is a GUI network protocol analyzer. It lets you
       interactively browse packet data from a live network or from a
       previously saved capture file. Wireshark's native capture file
       formats are pcapng format and pcap format; it can read and write
       both formats.. pcap format is also the format used by tcpdump and
       various other tools; tcpdump, when using newer versions of the
       libpcap library, can also read some pcapng files, and, on newer
       versions of macOS, can read all pcapng files and can write them as
       well.

       Wireshark can also read / import the following file formats:

       •   Oracle (previously Sun) snoop and atmsnoop captures

       •   Finisar (previously Shomiti) Surveyor captures

       •   Microsoft Network Monitor captures

       •   Novell LANalyzer captures

       •   AIX’s iptrace captures

       •   Cinco Networks NetXRay captures

       •   NETSCOUT (previously Network Associates/Network General)
           Windows-based Sniffer captures

       •   Network General/Network Associates DOS-based Sniffer captures
           (compressed or uncompressed)

       •   LiveAction (previously WildPackets/Savvius)
           *Peek/EtherHelp/PacketGrabber captures

       •   RADCOM's WAN/LAN analyzer captures

       •   Viavi (previously Network Instruments) Observer captures

       •   Lucent/Ascend router debug output

       •   captures from HP-UX nettlToshiba’s ISDN routers dump output

       •   the output from i4btrace from the ISDN4BSD project

       •   traces from the EyeSDN USB S0

       •   the IPLog format output from the Cisco Secure Intrusion
           Detection System

       •   pppd logs (pppdump format)

       •   the output from VMS’s TCPIPtrace/TCPtrace/UCX$TRACE utilities

       •   the text output from the DBS Etherwatch VMS utility

       •   Visual Networks' Visual UpTime traffic capture

       •   the output from CoSine L2 debug

       •   the output from InfoVista (previously Accellent) 5View LAN
           agents

       •   Endace Measurement Systems' ERF format captures

       •   Linux Bluez Bluetooth stack hcidump -w traces

       •   Catapult DCT2000 .out files

       •   Gammu generated text output from Nokia DCT3 phones in
           Netmonitor mode

       •   IBM Series (OS/400) Comm traces (ASCII & UNICODE)

       •   Juniper Netscreen snoop files

       •   Symbian OS btsnoop files

       •   TamoSoft CommView files

       •   Tektronix K12xx 32bit .rf5 format files

       •   Tektronix K12 text file format captures

       •   Apple PacketLogger files

       •   Captures from Aethra Telecommunications' PC108 software for
           their test instruments

       •   Citrix NetScaler Trace files

       •   Android Logcat binary and text format logs

       •   Colasoft Capsa and PacketBuilder captures

       •   Micropross mplog files

       •   Unigraf DPA-400 DisplayPort AUX channel monitor traces

       •   802.15.4 traces from Daintree’s Sensor Network Analyzer

       •   MPEG-2 Transport Streams as defined in ISO/IEC 13818-1

       •   Log files from the candump utility

       •   Logs from the BUSMASTER tool

       •   Ixia IxVeriWave raw captures

       •   Rabbit Labs CAM Inspector files

       •   systemd journal files

       •   3GPP TS 32.423 trace files

       There is no need to tell Wireshark what type of file you are
       reading; it will determine the file type by itself. Wireshark is
       also capable of reading any of these file formats if they are
       compressed using gzip, LZ4, or Zstandard, if compiled with the
       appropriate support. Wireshark recognizes this directly from the
       file; the '.gz' or other extension is not required for this
       purpose.

       Like other protocol analyzers, Wireshark's main window shows 3
       views of a packet. It shows a summary line, briefly describing
       what the packet is. A packet details display is shown, allowing
       you to drill down to exact protocol or field that you interested
       in. Finally, a hex dump shows you exactly what the packet looks
       like when it goes over the wire.

       In addition, Wireshark has some features that make it unique. It
       can assemble all the packets in a TCP conversation and show you
       the ASCII (or EBCDIC, or hex) data in that conversation. Display
       filters in Wireshark are very powerful; more fields are filterable
       in Wireshark than in other protocol analyzers, and the syntax you
       can use to create your filters is richer. As Wireshark progresses,
       expect more and more protocol fields to be allowed in display
       filters.

       Packet capturing is performed with the pcap library. The capture
       filter syntax follows the rules of the pcap library. This syntax
       is different from the display filter syntax.

       Compressed file support uses (and therefore requires) the zlib
       library. If the zlib library is not present, Wireshark will
       compile, but will be unable to read compressed files.

       The pathname of a capture file to be read can be specified with
       the -r option or can be specified as a command-line argument.

OPTIONS         top

       Wireshark supports a wide variety of command line options. Most
       users will want to start it without any options and configure it
       from the application menus instead. Those users may wish to skip
       this section.

       -a|--autostop  <capture autostop condition>

           Specify a criterion that specifies when Wireshark is to stop
           writing to a capture file. The criterion is of the form
           test:value, where test is one of:

           duration:value Stop writing to a capture file after value
           seconds have elapsed. Floating point values (e.g. 0.5) are
           allowed.

           files:value Stop writing to capture files after value number
           of files were written.

           filesize:value Stop writing to a capture file after it reaches
           a size of value kB. If this option is used together with the
           -b option, Wireshark will stop writing to the current capture
           file and switch to the next one if filesize is reached. Note
           that the filesize is limited to a maximum value of 2 TB,
           although you might have problems viewing the file in the GUI
           before then if the number of packets exceeds 231 (2147483648).

           packets:value Stop writing to a capture file after it contains
           value packets. Acts the same as -c<capture packet count>.

       -b|--ring-buffer  <capture ring buffer option>

           Cause Wireshark to run in "multiple files" mode. In "multiple
           files" mode, Wireshark will write to several capture files.
           When the first capture file fills up, Wireshark will switch
           writing to the next file and so on.

           The created filenames are based on the filename given with the
           -w flag, the number of the file and on the creation date and
           time, e.g. outfile_00001_20250714120117.pcap,
           outfile_00002_20250714120523.pcap, ...

           With the files option it’s also possible to form a "ring
           buffer". This will fill up new files until the number of files
           specified, at which point Wireshark will discard the data in
           the first file and start writing to that file and so on. If
           the files option is not set, new files filled up until one of
           the capture stop conditions match (or until the disk is full).

           The criterion is of the form key:value, where key is one of:

           duration:value switch to the next file after value seconds
           have elapsed, even if the current file is not completely
           filled up. Floating point values (e.g. 0.5) are allowed.

           files:value begin again with the first file after value number
           of files were written (form a ring buffer). This value must be
           less than 100000. Caution should be used when using large
           numbers of files: some filesystems do not handle many files in
           a single directory well. The files criterion requires one of
           the other criteria to be specified to control when to go to
           the next file. It should be noted that each -b parameter takes
           exactly one criterion; to specify two criteria, each must be
           preceded by the -b option.

           filesize:value switch to the next file after it reaches a size
           of value kB. Note that the filesize is limited to a maximum
           value of 2 TB, although you might have problems viewing the
           file in the GUI before then if the number of packets exceeds
           231 (2147483648).

           interval:value switch to the next file when the time is an
           exact multiple of value seconds.

           packets:value switch to the next file after it contains value
           packets.

           Example: -b filesize:1000 -b files:5 results in a ring buffer
           of five files of size one megabyte each.

       -B|--buffer-size  <capture buffer size>

           Set capture buffer size (in MiB, default is 2 MiB). This is
           used by the capture driver to buffer packet data until that
           data can be written to disk. If you encounter packet drops
           while capturing, try to increase this size. Note that, while
           Wireshark attempts to set the buffer size to 2 MiB by default,
           and can be told to set it to a larger value, the system or
           interface on which you’re capturing might silently limit the
           capture buffer size to a lower value or raise it to a higher
           value.

           This is available on UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux,
           macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, with libpcap 1.0.0 or later,
           and on Windows. It is not available on UNIX-compatible systems
           with earlier versions of libpcap.

           This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first
           occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default capture
           buffer size. If used after an -i option, it sets the capture
           buffer size for the interface specified by the last -i option
           occurring before this option. If the capture buffer size is
           not set specifically, the default capture buffer size is used
           instead.

       -c  <capture packet count>

           Set the maximum number of packets to read when capturing live
           data. Acts the same as -a packets:<capture packet count>.

       -C  <configuration profile>

           Start with the given configuration profile.

       --capture-comment <comment>

           When performing a capture file from the command line, with the
           -k flag, add a capture comment to the output file, if
           supported by the capture format.

           This option may be specified multiple times. Note that
           Wireshark currently only displays the first comment of a
           capture file.

       -D|--list-interfaces

           Print a list of the interfaces on which Wireshark can capture,
           and exit. For each network interface, a number and an
           interface name, possibly followed by a text description of the
           interface, is printed. The interface name or the number can be
           supplied to the -i flag to specify an interface on which to
           capture. The number can be useful on Windows systems, where
           the interfaces have long names that usually contain a GUID.

       --display <X display to use>

           Specifies the X display to use. A hostname and screen
           (otherhost:0.0) or just a screen (:0.0) can be specified. This
           option is not available under macOS or Windows.

       -f  <capture filter>

           Set the capture filter expression.

           This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first
           occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default capture
           filter expression. If used after an -i option, it sets the
           capture filter expression for the interface specified by the
           last -i option occurring before this option. If the capture
           filter expression is not set specifically, the default capture
           filter expression is used if provided.

           Pre-defined capture filter names, as shown in the GUI menu
           item Capture→Capture Filters, can be used by prefixing the
           argument with "predef:". Example: -f
           "predef:MyPredefinedHostOnlyFilter"

       -F  <file format>
           When performing a capture file from the command line, with the
           -k option, set the file format of the output capture file
           written using the -w option. In situations that require the
           pcapng format, such as capturing from multiple interfaces,
           this option will be overridden. The option -F without a value
           will list the available formats. The default is the pcapng
           format (unless the default has been changed in preferences.)

       This does not support every format to which Wireshark can convert
       a file; this is intentional for security reasons. Capture in a
       supported format and then save the file in a different format if
       so desired.

       --fullscreen

           Start Wireshark in full screen mode (kiosk mode). To exit from
           fullscreen mode, open the View menu and select the Full Screen
           option. Alternatively, press the F11 key (or Ctrl + Cmd + F
           for macOS).

       -g  <packet number>
           After reading in a capture file using the -r flag, go to the
           given packet number.

       -h|--help
           Print the version number and options and exit.

       -H
           Hide the capture info dialog during live packet capture.

       -i|--interface  <capture interface>|-

           Set the name of the network interface or pipe to use for live
           packet capture.

           Network interface names should match one of the names listed
           in "wireshark -D" (described above); a number, as reported by
           "tshark -D", can also be used.

           If no interface is specified, Wireshark searches the list of
           interfaces, choosing the first non-loopback interface if there
           are any non-loopback interfaces, and choosing the first
           loopback interface if there are no non-loopback interfaces. If
           there are no interfaces at all, Wireshark reports an error and
           doesn’t start the capture.

           Pipe names should be either the name of a FIFO (named pipe) or
           "-" to read data from the standard input. On Windows systems,
           pipe names must be of the form "\\.\pipe\pipename". Data read
           from pipes must be in standard pcapng or pcap format. Pcapng
           data must have the same endianness as the capturing host.

           "TCP@<host>:<port>" causes Wireshark to attempt to connect to
           the specified port on the specified host and read pcapng or
           pcap data.

           This option can occur multiple times. When capturing from
           multiple interfaces, the capture file will be saved in pcapng
           format.

       -I|--monitor-mode

           Put the interface in "monitor mode"; this is supported only on
           IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi interfaces, and supported only on some
           operating systems.

           Note that in monitor mode the adapter might disassociate from
           the network with which it’s associated, so that you will not
           be able to use any wireless networks with that adapter. This
           could prevent accessing files on a network server, or
           resolving host names or network addresses, if you are
           capturing in monitor mode and are not connected to another
           network with another adapter.

           This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first
           occurrence of the -i option, it enables the monitor mode for
           all interfaces. If used after an -i option, it enables the
           monitor mode for the interface specified by the last -i option
           occurring before this option.

       -j
           Use after -J to change the behavior when no exact match is
           found for the filter. With this option select the first packet
           before.

       -J  <jump filter>

           After reading in a capture file using the -r flag, jump to the
           packet matching the filter (display filter syntax). If no
           exact match is found the first packet after that is selected.

       -k

           Start the capture session immediately. If the -i flag was
           specified, the capture uses the specified interface.
           Otherwise, Wireshark searches the list of interfaces, choosing
           the first non-loopback interface if there are any non-loopback
           interfaces, and choosing the first loopback interface if there
           are no non-loopback interfaces; if there are no interfaces,
           Wireshark reports an error and doesn’t start the capture.

       -l
           Turn on automatic scrolling if the packet display is being
           updated automatically as packets arrive during a capture (as
           specified by the -S flag).

       -L|--list-data-link-types
           List the data link types supported by the interface and exit.

       --list-time-stamp-types
           List time stamp types supported for the interface. If no time
           stamp type can be set, no time stamp types are listed.

       -o  <preference/recent setting>

           Set a preference or recent value, overriding the default value
           and any value read from a preference/recent file. The argument
           to the flag is a string of the form prefname:value, where
           prefname is the name of the preference/recent value (which is
           the same name that would appear in the preference/recent
           file), and value is the value to which it should be set. Since
           Ethereal 0.10.12, the recent settings replaces the formerly
           used -B, -P and -T flags to manipulate the GUI dimensions.

           If prefname is "uat", you can override settings in various
           user access tables using the form "uat:uat filename:uat
           record". uat filename must be the name of a UAT file, e.g.
           user_dlts. uat_record must be in the form of a valid record
           for that file, including quotes. For instance, to specify a
           user DLT from the command line, you would use

               -o "uat:user_dlts:\"User 0 (DLT=147)\",\"cops\",\"0\",\"\",\"0\",\"\""

       -p|--no-promiscuous-mode

           Don’t put the interface into promiscuous mode. Note that the
           interface might be in promiscuous mode for some other reason;
           hence, -p cannot be used to ensure that the only traffic that
           is captured is traffic sent to or from the machine on which
           Wireshark is running, broadcast traffic, and multicast traffic
           to addresses received by that machine.

           This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first
           occurrence of the -i option, no interface will be put into the
           promiscuous mode. If used after an -i option, the interface
           specified by the last -i option occurring before this option
           will not be put into the promiscuous mode.

       -P <path setting>

           Special path settings usually detected automatically. This is
           used for special cases, e.g. starting Wireshark from a known
           location on an USB stick.

           The criterion is of the form key:path, where key is one of:

           persconf:path path of personal configuration files, like the
           preferences files.

           persdata:path path of personal data files, it’s the folder
           initially opened. After the very first initialization, the
           recent file will keep the folder last used.

       -r|--read-file  <infile>

           Read packet data from infile, can be any supported capture
           file format (including compressed files). It’s not possible to
           use named pipes or stdin here, unlike TShark! To capture from
           a pipe or from stdin use -i -.

       -R|--read-filter  <read (display) filter>

           When reading a capture file specified with the -r flag, causes
           the specified filter (which uses the syntax of display
           filters, rather than that of capture filters) to be applied to
           all packets read from the capture file; packets not matching
           the filter are discarded.

       -s|--snapshot-length  <capture snaplen>

           Set the default snapshot length to use when capturing live
           data. No more than snaplen bytes of each network packet will
           be read into memory, or saved to disk. A value of 0 specifies
           a snapshot length of 262144, so that the full packet is
           captured; this is the default.

           This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first
           occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default snapshot
           length. If used after an -i option, it sets the snapshot
           length for the interface specified by the last -i option
           occurring before this option. If the snapshot length is not
           set specifically, the default snapshot length is used if
           provided.

       -S
           Automatically update the packet display as packets are coming
           in.

       --temp-dir <directory>

           Specifies the directory into which temporary files (including
           capture files) are to be written. The default behavior on
           UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris,
           and AIX, is to use the environment variable $TMPDIR if set,
           and the system default, typically /tmp, if it is not. On
           Windows, the %TEMP% environment variable is used, which
           typically defaults to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp.

       --time-stamp-type <type>
           Change the interface’s timestamp method. See
           --list-time-stamp-types.

       --update-interval  <interval>
           Set the length of time in milliseconds between new packet
           reports during a capture. Also sets the granularity of file
           duration conditions. The default value is 100ms.

       -v|--version
           Print the full version information and exit.

       -w  <outfile>
           Set the default capture file name, or '-' for standard output.

       -X <eXtension options>

           Specify an option to be passed to an Wireshark module. The
           eXtension option is in the form extension_key:value, where
           extension_key can be:

           lua_script:lua_script_filename tells Wireshark to load the
           given script in addition to the default Lua scripts.

           lua_scriptnum:argument tells Wireshark to pass the given
           argument to the lua script identified by 'num', which is the
           number indexed order of the 'lua_script' command. For example,
           if only one script was loaded with '-X lua_script:my.lua',
           then '-X lua_script1:foo' will pass the string 'foo' to the
           'my.lua' script. If two scripts were loaded, such as '-X
           lua_script:my.lua' and '-X lua_script:other.lua' in that
           order, then a '-X lua_script2:bar' would pass the string 'bar'
           to the second lua script, namely 'other.lua'.

           read_format:file_format tells Wireshark to use the given file
           format to read in the file (the file given in the -r command
           option).

           stdin_descr:description tells Wireshark to use the given
           description when capturing from standard input (-i -).

       -y|--linktype  <capture link type>

           If a capture is started from the command line with -k, set the
           data link type to use while capturing packets. The values
           reported by -L are the values that can be used.

           This option can occur multiple times. If used before the first
           occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default capture link
           type. If used after an -i option, it sets the capture link
           type for the interface specified by the last -i option
           occurring before this option. If the capture link type is not
           set specifically, the default capture link type is used if
           provided.

       -Y|--display-filter  <displaY filter>
           Start with the given display filter.

       -z  <statistics>

           Get Wireshark to collect various types of statistics and
           display the result in a window that updates in semi-real time.

           Some of the currently implemented statistics are:

       -z help
           Display all possible values for -z.

       -z afp,srt[,filter]

           Show Apple Filing Protocol service response time statistics.

       -z conv,type[,filter]

           Create a table that lists all conversations that could be seen
           in the capture. type specifies the conversation endpoint types
           for which we want to generate the statistics; currently the
           supported ones are:

               "eth"   Ethernet addresses
               "fc"    Fibre Channel addresses
               "fddi"  FDDI addresses
               "ip"    IPv4 addresses
               "ipv6"  IPv6 addresses
               "ipx"   IPX addresses
               "tcp"   TCP/IP socket pairs   Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported
               "tr"    Token Ring addresses
               "udp"   UDP/IP socket pairs   Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported

           If the optional filter is specified, only those packets that
           match the filter will be used in the calculations.

           The table is presented with one line for each conversation and
           displays the number of packets/bytes in each direction as well
           as the total number of packets/bytes. By default, the table is
           sorted according to the total number of packets.

           These tables can also be generated at runtime by selecting the
           appropriate conversation type from the menu
           "Tools/Statistics/Conversation List/".

       -z dcerpc,srt,name-or-uuid,major.minor[,filter]

           Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for DCERPC
           interface name or uuid, version major.minor. Data collected is
           the number of calls for each procedure, MinSRT, MaxSRT and
           AvgSRT. Interface name and uuid are case-insensitive.

           Example: -z
           dcerpc,srt,12345778-1234-abcd-ef00-0123456789ac,1.0 will
           collect data for the CIFS SAMR Interface.

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter  is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z
           dcerpc,srt,12345778-1234-abcd-ef00-0123456789ac,1.0,ip.addr==1.2.3.4
           will collect SAMR SRT statistics for a specific host.

       -z dhcp,stat[,filter]
           Show DHCP (BOOTP) statistics.

       -z expert
           Show expert information.

       -z fc,srt[,filter]

           Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for FC.
           Data collected is the number of calls for each Fibre Channel
           command, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

           Example: -z fc,srt will calculate the Service Response Time as
           the time delta between the First packet of the exchange and
           the Last packet of the exchange.

           The data will be presented as separate tables for all normal
           FC commands, Only those commands that are seen in the capture
           will have its stats displayed.

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "fc,srt,fc.id==01.02.03" will collect stats only
           for FC packets exchanged by the host at FC address 01.02.03 .

       -z h225,counter[,filter]

           Count ITU-T H.225 messages and their reasons. In the first
           column you get a list of H.225 messages and H.225 message
           reasons which occur in the current capture file. The number of
           occurrences of each message or reason is displayed in the
           second column.

           Example: -z h225,counter

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "h225,counter,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will collect stats
           only for H.225 packets exchanged by the host at IP address
           1.2.3.4 .

       -z h225,srt[,filter]

           Collect request/response SRT (Service Response Time) data for
           ITU-T H.225 RAS. Data collected is the number of calls of each
           ITU-T H.225 RAS Message Type, Minimum SRT, Maximum SRT,
           Average SRT, Minimum in Packet, and Maximum in Packet. You
           will also get the number of Open Requests (Unresponded
           Requests), Discarded Responses (Responses without matching
           request) and Duplicate Messages.

           Example: -z h225,srt

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "h225,srt,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will collect stats
           only for ITU-T H.225 RAS packets exchanged by the host at IP
           address 1.2.3.4 .

       -z io,stat

           Collect packet/bytes statistics for the capture in intervals
           of 1 second. This option will open a window with up to 5
           color-coded graphs where number-of-packets-per-second or
           number-of-bytes-per-second statistics can be calculated and
           displayed.

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           This graph window can also be opened from the
           Analyze:Statistics:Traffic:IO-Stat menu item.

       -z ldap,srt[,filter]

           Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for LDAP.
           Data collected is the number of calls for each implemented
           LDAP command, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

           Example: -z ldap,srt will calculate the Service Response Time
           as the time delta between the Request and the Response.

           The data will be presented as separate tables for all
           implemented LDAP commands, Only those commands that are seen
           in the capture will have its stats displayed.

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: use -z "ldap,srt,ip.addr==10.1.1.1" will collect
           stats only for LDAP packets exchanged by the host at IP
           address 10.1.1.1 .

           The only LDAP commands that are currently implemented and for
           which the stats will be available are: BIND SEARCH MODIFY ADD
           DELETE MODRDN COMPARE EXTENDED

       -z megaco,srt[,filter]

           Collect request/response SRT (Service Response Time) data for
           MEGACO. (This is similar to -z smb,srt). Data collected is the
           number of calls for each known MEGACO Command, Minimum SRT,
           Maximum SRT and Average SRT.

           Example: -z megaco,srt

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "megaco,srt,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will collect stats
           only for MEGACO packets exchanged by the host at IP address
           1.2.3.4 .

       -z mgcp,srt[,filter]

           Collect request/response SRT (Service Response Time) data for
           MGCP. (This is similar to -z smb,srt). Data collected is the
           number of calls for each known MGCP Type, Minimum SRT, Maximum
           SRT and Average SRT.

           Example: -z mgcp,srt

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "mgcp,srt,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will collect stats
           only for MGCP packets exchanged by the host at IP address
           1.2.3.4 .

       -z mtp3,msus[,<filter>]
           Show MTP3 MSU statistics.

       -z multicast,stat[,<filter>]
           Show UDP multicast stream statistics.

       -z rpc,programs

           Collect call/reply SRT data for all known ONC-RPC
           programs/versions. Data collected is the number of calls for
           each protocol/version, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

       -z rpc,srt,name-or-number,version[,<filter>]

           Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for
           program name/version or number/version. Data collected is the
           number of calls for each procedure, MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.
           Program name is case-insensitive.

           Example: -z rpc,srt,100003,3 will collect data for NFS v3.

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z rpc,srt,nfs,3,nfs.fh.hash==0x12345678 will collect
           NFS v3 SRT statistics for a specific file.

       -z scsi,srt,cmdset[,<filter>]

           Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for SCSI
           commandset <cmdset>.

           Commandsets are 0:SBC   1:SSC  5:MMC

           Data collected is the number of calls for each procedure,
           MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

           Example: -z scsi,srt,0 will collect data for SCSI BLOCK
           COMMANDS (SBC).

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z scsi,srt,0,ip.addr==1.2.3.4 will collect SCSI SBC
           SRT statistics for a specific iscsi/ifcp/fcip host.

       -z sip,stat[,filter]

           This option will activate a counter for SIP messages. You will
           get the number of occurrences of each SIP Method and of each
           SIP Status-Code. Additionally you also get the number of
           resent SIP Messages (only for SIP over UDP).

           Example: -z sip,stat

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "sip,stat,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will collect stats
           only for SIP packets exchanged by the host at IP address
           1.2.3.4 .

       -z smb,srt[,filter]

           Collect call/reply SRT (Service Response Time) data for SMB.
           Data collected is the number of calls for each SMB command,
           MinSRT, MaxSRT and AvgSRT.

           Example: -z smb,srt

           The data will be presented as separate tables for all normal
           SMB commands, all Transaction2 commands and all NT Transaction
           commands. Only those commands that are seen in the capture
           will have their stats displayed. Only the first command in a
           xAndX command chain will be used in the calculation. So for
           common SessionSetupAndX + TreeConnectAndX chains, only the
           SessionSetupAndX call will be used in the statistics. This is
           a flaw that might be fixed in the future.

           This option can be used multiple times on the command line.

           If the optional filter is provided, the stats will only be
           calculated on those calls that match that filter.

           Example: -z "smb,srt,ip.addr==1.2.3.4" will collect stats only
           for SMB packets exchanged by the host at IP address 1.2.3.4 .

       -z voip,calls

           This option will show a window that shows VoIP calls found in
           the capture file. This is the same window shown as when you go
           to the Statistics Menu and choose VoIP Calls.

           Example: -z voip,calls

       -z wlan,stat[,<filter>]
           Show IEEE 802.11 network and station statistics.

       -z wsp,stat[,<filter>]
           Show WSP packet counters.

DISSECTION OPTIONS         top

       -d  <layer type>==<selector>,<decode-as protocol>

           Like Wireshark’s Decode As... feature, this lets you specify
           how a layer type should be dissected. If the layer type in
           question (for example, tcp.port or udp.port for a TCP or UDP
           port number) has the specified selector value, packets should
           be dissected as the specified protocol.

           Example 1. Decode As Port

               -d tcp.port==8888,http will decode any traffic running
               over TCP port 8888 as HTTP.

           See the tshark(1) manual page for more examples.

       --disable-all-protocols
           Disable dissection of all protocols.

       --disable-protocol <proto_name>[,<proto_name>,...]
           Disable dissection of proto_name. Use a proto_name of ALL to
           override your chosen profile’s default enabled protocol list
           and temporarily disable all protocols.

       --disable-heuristic <short_name>
           Disable dissection of heuristic protocol.

       --enable-protocol <proto_name>[,<proto_name>,...]

           Enable dissection of proto_name. Use a proto_name of ALL to
           override your chosen profile’s default disabled protocol list
           and temporarily enable all protocols which are enabled by
           default.

           If a protocol is implicated in both --disable-protocol and
           --enable-protocol, the protocol is enabled. This allows you to
           temporarily disable all protocols but a list of exceptions.
           Example: --disable-protocol ALL --enable-protocol eth,ip

       --enable-heuristic <short_name>
           Enable dissection of heuristic protocol.

       -K  <keytab>

           Load kerberos crypto keys from the specified keytab file. This
           option can be used multiple times to load keys from several
           files.

           Example: -K krb5.keytab

       -n
           Disable network object name resolution (such as hostname, TCP
           and UDP port names); the -N option might override this one.

       -N  <name resolving flags>

           Turn on name resolving only for particular types of addresses
           and port numbers, with name resolving for other types of
           addresses and port numbers turned off. This option (along with
           -n) can be specified multiple times; the last value given
           overrides earlier ones. This option and -n override the
           options from the preferences, including preferences set via
           the -o option. If both -N and -n options are not present, the
           values from the preferences are used, which default to -N dmN.

           The argument is a string that may contain the letters:

           d to enable resolution from captured DNS packets

           g to enable IP address geolocation information lookup from
           configured MaxMind databases

           m to enable MAC address resolution

           n to enable network address resolution

           N to enable using external resolvers (e.g., DNS) for network
           address resolution; no effect without n also enabled.

           s to enable address resolution using SNI information found in
           captured handshake packets

           t to enable transport-layer port number resolution

           v to enable VLAN IDs to names resolution

       --only-protocols <protocols>
           Only enable dissection of these protocols, comma separated.
           Disable everything else.

       -t  (a|ad|adoy|d|dd|e|r|u|ud|udoy)[.[N]]|.[N]

           Set the format of the packet timestamp displayed in the
           default time column. The format can be one of:

           a absolute: The absolute time, as local time in your time
           zone, is the actual time the packet was captured, with no date
           displayed

           ad absolute with date: The absolute date, displayed as
           YYYY-MM-DD, and time, as local time in your time zone, is the
           actual time and date the packet was captured

           adoy absolute with date using day of year: The absolute date,
           displayed as YYYY/DOY, and time, as local time in your time
           zone, is the actual time and date the packet was captured

           d delta: The delta time is the time since the previous packet
           was captured

           dd delta_displayed: The delta_displayed time is the time since
           the previous displayed packet was captured

           e epoch: The time in seconds since epoch (Jan 1, 1970
           00:00:00)

           r relative: The relative time is the time elapsed between the
           first packet and the current packet

           u UTC: The absolute time, as UTC with a "Z" suffix, is the
           actual time the packet was captured, with no date displayed

           ud UTC with date: The absolute date, displayed as YYYY-MM-DD,
           and time, as UTC with a "Z" suffix, is the actual time and
           date the packet was captured

           udoy UTC with date using day of year: The absolute date,
           displayed as YYYY/DOY, and time, as UTC with a "Z" suffix, is
           the actual time and date the packet was captured

           .[N] Set the precision: N is the number of decimals (0 through
           9). If using "." without N, automatically determine precision
           from trace.

           The default format is relative with precision based on capture
           format.

       -u <s|hms>

           Specifies how packet timestamp formats in -t which are
           relative times (i.e. relative, delta, and delta_displayed) are
           displayed. Valid choices are:

           s for seconds

           hms for hours, minutes, and seconds

           The default format is seconds.

DIAGNOSTIC OPTIONS         top

       --log-level <level>
           Set the active log level. Supported levels in lowest to
           highest order are "noisy", "debug", "info", "message",
           "warning", "critical", and "error". Messages at each level and
           higher will be printed, for example "warning" prints
           "warning", "critical", and "error" messages and "noisy" prints
           all messages. Levels are case insensitive.

       --log-fatal <level>
           Abort the program if any messages are logged at the specified
           level or higher. For example, "warning" aborts on any
           "warning", "critical", or "error" messages.

       --log-domains <list>
           Only print messages for the specified log domains, e.g.
           "GUI,Epan,sshdump". List of domains must be comma-separated.
           Can be negated with "!" as the first character (inverts the
           match).

       --log-debug <list>
           Force the specified domains to log at the "debug" level. List
           of domains must be comma-separated. Can be negated with "!" as
           the first character (inverts the match).

       --log-noisy <list>
           Force the specified domains to log at the "noisy" level. List
           of domains must be comma-separated. Can be negated with "!" as
           the first character (inverts the match).

       --log-fatal-domains <list>
           Abort the program if any messages are logged for the specified
           log domains. List of domains must be comma-separated.

       --log-file <path>
           Write log messages and stderr output to the specified file.

INTERFACE         top

       The Wireshark User’s Guide
       <https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/> contains a
       description of the user interface. It also may be installed
       locally along with Wireshark. Pressing the F1 key will attempt to
       open the guide locally if present, falling back to the online
       guide if not.

CAPTURE FILTER SYNTAX         top

       See the manual page of pcap-filter(7) or, if that doesn’t exist,
       tcpdump(8), or, if that doesn’t exist,
       https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureFilters.

DISPLAY FILTER SYNTAX         top

       For a complete table of protocol and protocol fields that are
       filterable in Wireshark see the wireshark-filter(4) manual page.

FILES         top

       These files contain various Wireshark configuration settings.

       Preferences

           The preferences files contain global (system-wide) and
           personal preference settings. If the system-wide preference
           file exists, it is read first, overriding the default
           settings. If the personal preferences file exists, it is read
           next, overriding any previous values. Note: If the command
           line flag -o is used (possibly more than once), it will in
           turn override values from the preferences files.

           The preferences settings are in the form prefname:value, one
           per line, where prefname is the name of the preference and
           value is the value to which it should be set; white space is
           allowed between : and value. A preference setting can be
           continued on subsequent lines by indenting the continuation
           lines with white space. A # character starts a comment that
           runs to the end of the line:

               # Vertical scrollbars should be on right side?
               # TRUE or FALSE (case-insensitive).
               gui.scrollbar_on_right: TRUE

           The global preferences file is looked for in the wireshark
           directory under the share subdirectory of the main
           installation directory. On macOS, this would typically be
           /Application/Wireshark.app/Contents/Resources/share; on other
           UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, \*BSD, Solaris, and
           AIX, this would typically be /usr/share/wireshark/preferences
           for system-installed packages and
           /usr/local/share/wireshark/preferences for locally-installed
           packages; on Windows, this would typically be C:\Program
           Files\Wireshark\preferences.

           On UNIX-compatible systems, the personal preferences file is
           looked for in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark/preferences, (or, if
           $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark does not exist while
           $HOME/.wireshark does exist, $HOME/.wireshark/preferences);
           this is typically $HOME/.config/wireshark/preferences. On
           Windows, the personal preferences file is looked for in
           %APPDATA%\Wireshark\preferences (or, if %APPDATA% isn’t
           defined, %USERPROFILE%\Application
           Data\Wireshark\preferences).

           Note: Whenever the preferences are saved by using the Save
           button in the Edit:Preferences dialog box, your personal
           preferences file will be overwritten with the new settings,
           destroying any comments and unknown/obsolete settings that
           were in the file.

       Recent

           The recent file contains personal settings (mostly GUI
           related) such as the current Wireshark window size. The file
           is saved at program exit and read in at program start
           automatically. Note: The command line flag -o may be used to
           override settings from this file.

           The settings in this file have the same format as in the
           preferences files, and the same directory as for the personal
           preferences file is used.

           Note: Whenever Wireshark is closed, your recent file will be
           overwritten with the new settings, destroying any comments and
           unknown/obsolete settings that were in the file.

       Disabled (Enabled) Protocols

           The disabled_protos files contain system-wide and personal
           lists of protocols that have been disabled, so that their
           dissectors are never called. The files contain protocol names,
           one per line, where the protocol name is the same name that
           would be used in a display filter for the protocol:

               http
               tcp     # a comment

           If a protocol is listed in the global disabled_protos file it
           cannot be enabled by the user. Thus it is not displayed in the
           Analyze::Enabled Protocols dialog box.

           The global disabled_protos file uses the same directory as the
           global preferences file.

           The personal disabled_protos file uses the same directory as
           the personal preferences file.

           The disabled_protos files list only protocols that are enabled
           by default but have been disabled; protocols that are disabled
           by default (such as some postdissectors) are not listed. There
           are analogous enabled_protos files for protocols that are
           disabled by default but have been enabled.

           Note: Whenever the disabled protocols list is saved by using
           the Save button in the Analyze:Enabled Protocols dialog box,
           your personal disabled protocols file will be overwritten with
           the new settings, destroying any comments that were in the
           file.

       Heuristic Dissectors

           The heuristic_protos files contain system-wide and personal
           lists of heuristic dissectors and indicate whether they are
           enabled or disabled. The files contain heuristic dissector
           unique short names, one per line, followed by a comma and 0
           for disabled and 1 for enabled:

               quic,1
               rtcp_stun,1
               rtcp_udp,1
               rtp_stun,0
               rtp_udp,0
               tls_tcp,1

           The global heuristic_protos file uses the same directory as
           the global preferences file.

           The personal heuristic_protos file uses the same directory as
           the personal preferences file.

       Name Resolution (hosts)

           Entries in hosts files in the global and personal preferences
           directory are used to resolve IPv4 and IPv6 addresses before
           any other attempts are made to resolve them. The file has the
           standard hosts file syntax; each line contains one IP address
           and name, separated by whitespace. The personal hosts file, if
           present, overrides the one in the global directory.

           Capture filter name resolution is handled by libpcap on
           UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris,
           and AIX, and Npcap on Windows. As such the Wireshark personal
           hosts file will not be consulted for capture filter name
           resolution.

       Name Resolution (subnets)

           If an IPv4 address cannot be translated via name resolution
           (no exact match is found) then a partial match is attempted
           via the subnets file. Both the global subnets file and
           personal subnets files are used if they exist.

           Each line of this file consists of an IPv4 address, a subnet
           mask length separated only by a / and a name separated by
           whitespace. While the address must be a full IPv4 address, any
           values beyond the mask length are subsequently ignored.

           An example is:

           # Comments must be prepended by the # sign! 192.168.0.0/24
           ws_test_network

           A partially matched name will be printed as
           "subnet-name.remaining-address". For example, "192.168.0.1"
           under the subnet above would be printed as
           "ws_test_network.1"; if the mask length above had been 16
           rather than 24, the printed address would be
           "ws_test_network.0.1".

       Name Resolution (ethers)

           The ethers files are consulted to correlate 6-byte EUI-48 and
           8-byte EUI-64 hardware addresses to names. First the personal
           ethers file is tried and if an address is not found there the
           global ethers file is tried next.

           The file has a similar format to that defined by ethers(5) on
           some UNIX-like systems. Each line contains one hardware
           address and name, separated by whitespace (tabs or spaces).
           The hexadecimal digits of the hardware address are separated
           by colons (:), dashes (-) or periods (.). The same separator
           character must be used consistently in an address. A #
           indicates a comment that extends to the rest of the line. Both
           6-byte MAC and 8-byte EUI-64 addresses are supported. The
           following four lines are valid lines of an ethers file:

               ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff          Broadcast
               c0-00-ff-ff-ff-ff          TR_broadcast
               00.00.00.00.00.00          Zero_broadcast
               00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00    EUI64_zero_broadcast

           Note that this accepts a greater variety of formats than the
           file defined by ethers(5) on most UN*X systems.

           The global ethers file is looked for in the /etc directory on
           UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris,
           and AIX, and in the main installation directory (for example,
           C:\Program Files\Wireshark) on Windows systems.

           The personal ethers file is looked for in the same directory
           as the personal preferences file.

           Capture filter name resolution is handled by libpcap on
           UNIX-compatible systems and Npcap on Windows. As such the
           Wireshark personal ethers file will not be consulted for
           capture filter name resolution.

       Name Resolution (manuf)

           The manuf file is used to match the 3-byte vendor portion of a
           6-byte hardware address with the manufacturer’s name; it can
           also contain well-known MAC addresses and address ranges
           specified with a netmask. The format of the file is similar
           the ethers files, except that entries such as:

               00:00:0C      Cisco     Cisco Systems, Inc

           can be provided, with the 3-byte OUI and both an abbreviated
           and long name for a vendor, and entries such as:

               00-00-0C-07-AC/40     All-HSRP-routers

           can be specified, with a MAC address and a mask indicating how
           many bits of the address must match. The above entry, for
           example, has 40 significant bits, or 5 bytes, and would match
           addresses from 00-00-0C-07-AC-00 through 00-00-0C-07-AC-FF.
           The mask need not be a multiple of 8.

           A global manuf file is looked for in the same directory as the
           global preferences file, and a personal manuf file is looked
           for in the same directory as the personal preferences file.

           In earlier versions of Wireshark, official information from
           the IEEE Registration Authority was distributed in this format
           as the global manuf file. This information is now compiled in
           to speed program startup, but the internal information can be
           written out in this format with tshark -G manuf.

           In addition to the manuf file, another file with the same
           format, wka, is looked for in the global directory. This file
           is distributed with Wireshark, and contains data about
           well-known MAC adddresses and address ranges assembled from
           various non IEEE but respected sources.

       Name Resolution (services)

           The services file is used to translate port numbers into
           names. Both the global services file and personal services
           files are used if they exist.

           The file has the standard services file syntax; each line
           contains one (service) name and one transport identifier
           separated by white space. The transport identifier includes
           one port number and one transport protocol name (typically
           tcp, udp, or sctp) separated by a /.

           An example is:

           mydns       5045/udp     # My own Domain Name Server mydns
           5045/tcp     # My own Domain Name Server

           In earlier versions of Wireshark, official information from
           the IANA Registry was distributed in this format as the global
           services file. This information is now compiled in to speed
           program startup, but the internal information can be written
           out in this format with tshark -G services.

       Name Resolution (ipxnets)

           The ipxnets files are used to correlate 4-byte IPX network
           numbers to names. First the global ipxnets file is tried and
           if that address is not found there the personal one is tried
           next.

           The format is the same as the ethers file, except that each
           address is four bytes instead of six. Additionally, the
           address can be represented as a single hexadecimal number, as
           is more common in the IPX world, rather than four hex octets.
           For example, these four lines are valid lines of an ipxnets
           file:

               C0.A8.2C.00              HR
               c0-a8-1c-00              CEO
               00:00:BE:EF              IT_Server1
               110f                     FileServer3

           The global ipxnets file is looked for in the /etc directory on
           UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris,
           and AIX, and in the main installation directory (for example,
           C:\Program Files\Wireshark) on Windows systems.

           The personal ipxnets file is looked for in the same directory
           as the personal preferences file.

       Name Resolution (ss7pcs)

           The ss7pcs file is used to translate SS7 point codes to names.
           It is read from the personal configuration directory.

           Each line in this file consists of one network indicator
           followed by a dash followed by a point code in decimal and a
           node name separated by whitespace. An example is:

               2-1234 MyPointCode1

       Name Resolution (vlans)

           The vlans file is used to translate VLAN tag IDs into names.
           It is read from the personal configuration directory.

           Each line in this file consists of one VLAN tag ID separated
           by whitespace from a name. An example is:

               123    Server-Lan
               2049   HR-Client-LAN

       Capture Filters

           The cfilters files contain system-wide and personal capture
           filters. Each line contains one filter, starting with the
           string displayed in the dialog box in quotation marks,
           followed by the filter string itself:

               "HTTP" port 80
               "DCERPC" port 135

           The global cfilters file uses the same directory as the global
           preferences file.

           The personal cfilters file uses the same directory as the
           personal preferences file. It is written through the
           Capture:Capture Filters dialog.

           If the global cfilters file exists, it is used only if the
           personal cfilters file does not exist; global and personal
           capture filters are not merged.

       Display Filters

           The dfilters files contain system-wide and personal display
           filters. Each line contains one filter, starting with the
           string displayed in the dialog box in quotation marks,
           followed by the filter string itself:

               "HTTP" http
               "DCERPC" dcerpc

           The global dfilters file uses the same directory as the global
           preferences file.

           The personal dfilters file uses the same directory as the
           personal preferences file. It is written through the
           Analyze:Display Filters dialog.

           If the global dfilters file exists, it is used only if the
           personal dfilters file does not exist; global and personal
           display filters are not merged.

       Display Filter Macros

           The dmacros files contain system-wide and personal display
           filter macros. Each line contains one filter, starting with
           the string displayed in the dialog box in quotation marks,
           followed by the macro expression itself:

               "private_ipv6" ipv6 && $1 == fc00::/7
               "private_ethernet" $1[0] & 0x0F == 2
               "private_ipv4" $1 == 192.168.0.0/16 or $1 == 172.16.0.0/12 or $1 == 10.0.0.0/8

           The global dmacros file uses the same directory as the global
           preferences file.

           The personal dmacros file uses the same directory as the
           personal preferences file. It is written through the
           Analyze:Display Filter Macros dialog.

           If the global dmacros file exists, it is used only if the
           personal dmacros file does not exist; global and personal
           display filters are not merged.

           Prior to Wireshark 4.4, a dfilter_macros file with a somewhat
           different syntax was used. That file is looked for at startup
           if a dmacros file is not found and used to migrate to the new
           format.

       Color Filters (Coloring Rules)

           The colorfilters files contain system-wide and personal color
           filters. Each line contains one filter, starting with the
           string displayed in the dialog box, followed by the
           corresponding display filter. Then the background and
           foreground colors are appended:

               # a comment
               @tcp@tcp@[59345,58980,65534][0,0,0]
               @udp@udp@[28834,57427,65533][0,0,0]

           The global colorfilters file uses the same directory as the
           global preferences file.

           The personal colorfilters file uses the same directory as the
           personal preferences file. It is written through the
           View:Coloring Rules dialog.

           If the global colorfilters file exists, it is used only if the
           personal colorfilters file does not exist; global and personal
           color filters are not merged.

       Plugins

           Wireshark looks for plugins in both a personal plugin folder
           and a global plugin folder.

           On UNIX-compatible systems, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD,
           Solaris, and AIX, the global plugin directory is
           lib/wireshark/plugins/ (on some systems substitute lib64 for
           lib) under the main installation directory (for example,
           /usr/local/lib/wireshark/plugins/). The personal plugin
           directory is $HOME/.local/lib/wireshark/plugins.

           On macOS, if Wireshark is installed as an application bundle,
           the global plugin folder is instead
           %APPDIR%/Contents/PlugIns/wireshark.

           On Windows, the global plugin folder is plugins/ under the
           main installation directory (for example, C:\Program
           Files\Wireshark\plugins\). The personal plugin folder is
           %APPDATA%\Wireshark\plugins (or, if %APPDATA% isn’t defined,
           %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Wireshark\plugins).

           Lua plugins are stored in the plugin folders; compiled plugins
           are stored in subfolders of the plugin folders, with the
           subfolder name being the Wireshark minor version number (X.Y).
           There is another hierarchical level for each Wireshark plugin
           type (libwireshark, libwiretap and codecs). For example, the
           location for a libwireshark plugin foo.so (foo.dll on Windows)
           would be PLUGINDIR/X.Y/epan (libwireshark used to be called
           libepan; the other folder names are codecs and wiretap).

               Note

               On UNIX-compatible systems, Lua plugins (but not binary
               plugins) may also be placed in
               $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark/plugins, (or, if
               $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark does not exist while
               $HOME/.wireshark does exist, $HOME/.wireshark/plugins.)

           Note that a dissector plugin module may support more than one
           protocol; there is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence
           between dissector plugin modules and protocols. Protocols
           supported by a dissector plugin module are enabled and
           disabled in the same way as protocols built into Wireshark.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       WIRESHARK_CONFIG_DIR

           This environment variable overrides the location of personal
           configuration files. On UNIX-compatible systems, such as
           Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, it defaults to
           $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wireshark (or, if that directory doesn’t
           exist but $HOME/.wireshark does exist, $HOME/.wireshark); this
           is typically $HOME/.config/wireshark. On Windows, it defaults
           to %APPDATA%\Wireshark (or, if %APPDATA% isn’t defined,
           %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Wireshark). Available since
           Wireshark 3.0.

       WIRESHARK_DEBUG_WMEM_OVERRIDE
           Setting this environment variable forces the wmem framework to
           use the specified allocator backend for all allocations,
           regardless of which backend is normally specified by the code.
           This is mainly useful to developers when testing or debugging.
           See README.wmem in the source distribution for details.

       WIRESHARK_RUN_FROM_BUILD_DIRECTORY
           This environment variable causes the plugins and other data
           files to be loaded from the build directory (where the program
           was compiled) rather than from the standard locations. It has
           no effect when the program in question is running with root
           (or setuid) permissions on UNIX-compatible systems, such as
           Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX.

       WIRESHARK_DATA_DIR
           This environment variable causes the various data files to be
           loaded from a directory other than the standard locations. It
           has no effect when the program in question is running with
           root (or setuid) permissions on UNIX-compatible systems.

       WIRESHARK_EXTCAP_DIR
           This environment variable causes the various extcap programs
           and scripts to be run from a directory other than the standard
           locations. It has no effect when the program in question is
           running with root (or setuid) permissions on UNIX-compatible
           systems.

       WIRESHARK_PLUGIN_DIR
           This environment variable causes the various plugins to be
           loaded from a directory other than the standard locations. It
           has no effect when the program in question is running with
           root (or setuid) permissions on UNIX-compatible systems.

       ERF_RECORDS_TO_CHECK
           This environment variable controls the number of ERF records
           checked when deciding if a file really is in the ERF format.
           Setting this environment variable a number higher than the
           default (20) would make false positives less likely.

       IPFIX_RECORDS_TO_CHECK
           This environment variable controls the number of IPFIX records
           checked when deciding if a file really is in the IPFIX format.
           Setting this environment variable a number higher than the
           default (20) would make false positives less likely.

       WIRESHARK_ABORT_ON_DISSECTOR_BUG
           If this environment variable is set, Wireshark will call
           abort(3) when a dissector bug is encountered. abort(3) will
           cause the program to exit abnormally; if you are running
           Wireshark in a debugger, it should halt in the debugger and
           allow inspection of the process, and, if you are not running
           it in a debugger, it will, on some OSes, assuming your
           environment is configured correctly, generate a core dump
           file. This can be useful to developers attempting to
           troubleshoot a problem with a protocol dissector.

       WIRESHARK_ABORT_ON_TOO_MANY_ITEMS
           If this environment variable is set, Wireshark will call
           abort(3) if a dissector tries to add too many items to a tree
           (generally this is an indication of the dissector not breaking
           out of a loop soon enough). abort(3) will cause the program to
           exit abnormally; if you are running Wireshark in a debugger,
           it should halt in the debugger and allow inspection of the
           process, and, if you are not running it in a debugger, it
           will, on some OSes, assuming your environment is configured
           correctly, generate a core dump file. This can be useful to
           developers attempting to troubleshoot a problem with a
           protocol dissector.

       WIRESHARK_QUIT_AFTER_CAPTURE
           Cause Wireshark to exit after the end of the capture session.
           This doesn’t automatically start a capture; you must still use
           -k to do that. You must also specify an autostop condition,
           e.g. -c or -a duration:.... This means that you will not be
           able to see the results of the capture after it stops; it’s
           primarily useful for testing.

       WIRESHARK_LOG_LEVEL
           This environment variable controls the verbosity of diagnostic
           messages to the console. From less verbose to most verbose
           levels can be critical, warning, message, info, debug or
           noisy. Levels above the current level are also active. Levels
           critical and error are always active.

       WIRESHARK_LOG_FATAL
           Sets the fatal log level. Fatal log levels cause the program
           to abort. This level can be set to Error, critical or warning.
           Error is always fatal and is the default.

       WIRESHARK_LOG_DOMAINS
           This environment variable selects which log domains are
           active. The filter is given as a case-insensitive comma
           separated list. If set only the included domains will be
           enabled. The default domain is always considered to be
           enabled. Domain filter lists can be preceded by '!' to invert
           the sense of the match.

       WIRESHARK_LOG_DEBUG
           List of domains with debug log level. This sets the level of
           the provided log domains and takes precedence over the active
           domains filter. If preceded by '!' this disables the debug
           level instead.

       WIRESHARK_LOG_NOISY
           Same as above but for noisy log level instead.

AUTHORS         top

       Wireshark would not be the powerful, featureful application it is
       without the generous contributions of hundreds of developers.

       A complete list of authors can be found in the AUTHORS file in
       Wireshark’s source code repository.

SEE ALSO         top

       wireshark-filter(4), tshark(1), editcap(1), pcap(3), dumpcap(1),
       mergecap(1), text2pcap(1), pcap-filter(7) or tcpdump(8)

NOTES         top

       This is the manual page for Wireshark 4.5.0. The latest version of
       Wireshark can be found at https://www.wireshark.org/.

       HTML versions of the Wireshark project man pages are available at
       https://www.wireshark.org/docs/man-pages/.

       The Wireshark’s User Guide is available at
       https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/. This page is
       part of the wireshark (Interactively dump and analyze network
       traffic) project. Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://www.wireshark.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see
       ⟨https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/issues⟩. This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2025-08-11.) If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

                                2025-03-07                   WIRESHARK(1)

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