Audience
Network administrators seeking a tool to monitor and analyze their network traffic
About tcpdump
Tcpdump is a powerful command-line packet analyzer that allows users to display the contents of network packets transmitted or received over a network to which the computer is attached. It operates on most Unix-like systems, including Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and macOS, utilizing the libpcap library for network traffic capture. Tcpdump can read packets from a network interface card or from a previously created saved packet file, and it provides options to write packets to standard output or a file. Users can apply BPF-based filters to limit the number of packets processed, enhancing usability on networks with high traffic volumes. The tool is distributed under the BSD license, making it free software. In many operating systems tcpdump is available as a native package or port, which simplifies installation of updates and long-term maintenance.