DUMP1090-MUTABILITY(1)

📦 version 1.15~20180310.4a16df3, in debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

okay bestie, gather round 💖 you just cracked open the manual page for dump1090-mutability, which lives in section 1 — User Commands — of your friendly neighbourhood man pages. She's giving radio girlie, she's giving plane-spotting main character energy, and she is about to decode SO many aircraft for you. 🛩️✨

✨ NAME ✨

dump1090-mutability — Mode-S decoder. That's the whole name section, short and iconic, no notes. 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

dump1090-mutability
dump1090-mutability --interactive
dump1090-mutability --ifile file

Three ways to show up to the function: no flags at all, interactive mode, or reading straight from a file. Pick your fighter. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So basically dump1090-mutability receives and decodes Mode S packets using the Realtek RTL2832 software defined radio interface. Cheap USB dongle, but make it aviation. 📡

She's got range too, literally and figuratively: she can decode multiple frame types, and she can even correct bit errors using the embedded 24-bit CRC. Not me being obsessed with a CRC. 🙈

And then where do the results go? Your call, bestie:

  • a text client 👀
  • the built-in HTTP server 🌐
  • or forwarded off to other locations for collection 📦

💜 OPTIONS 💜

The supported options are as follows:

  • --device-index index — Select RTL device (default: 0)
  • --gain db — Set gain (default: max gain. Use -10 for auto-gain)
  • --enable-agc — Enable the Automatic Gain Control (default: off)
  • --freq hz — Set frequency (default: 1090 Mhz)
  • --ifile filename — Read data from file (use - for stdin)
  • --interactive — Display received in a textual table, in real-time. live updates, we love to see it ✨
  • --interactive-rows num — Max number of rows in interactive mode (default: 15)
  • --interactive-ttl sec — Remove from list if idle for sec (default: 60)
  • --interactive-rtl1090 — Display flight table in RTL1090 format
  • --raw — Show only messages hex values
  • --net — Enable networking
  • --modeac — Enable decoding of SSR Modes 3/A & 3/C
  • --net-beast — TCP raw output in Beast binary format
  • --net-only — Enable just networking, no RTL device or file used
  • --net-http-port port — HTTP server port (default: 8080)
  • --net-ri-port port — TCP raw input listen port (default: 30001)
  • --net-ro-port port — TCP raw output listen port (default: 30002)
  • --net-sbs-port port — TCP BaseStation output listen port (default: 30003)
  • --net-bi-port port — TCP Beast input listen port (default: 30004)
  • --net-bo-port port — TCP Beast output listen port (default: 30005)
  • --net-ro-size size — TCP raw output minimum size (default: 0)
  • --net-ro-rate rate — TCP raw output memory flush rate (default: 0)
  • --net-heartbeat rate — TCP heartbeat rate in seconds (default: 60; 0 to disable)
  • --net-buffer n — TCP buffer size 64Kb * (2^n) (default: n=0, 64Kb)
  • --lat latitude — Reference/receiver latitude for surface posn (opt)
  • --lon longitude — Reference/receiver longitude for surface posn (opt)
  • --fix — Enable single-bits error correction using CRC
  • --no-fix — Disable single-bits error correction using CRC
  • --no-crc-check — Disable messages with broken CRC (discouraged)
  • --phase-enhance — Enable phase enhancement
  • --aggressive — More CPU for more messages (two bits fixes, ...)
  • --mlat — display raw messages in Beast ascii mode
  • --stats — With --ifile print stats at exit. No other output
  • --onlyaddr — Show only ICAO addresses (testing purposes)
  • --metric — Use metric units (meters, km/h, ...)
  • --snip level — Strip IQ file removing samples level
  • --debug flags — Debug mode (verbose)
  • --quiet — Disable output to stdout.
  • --ppm error — Set receiver error in parts per million (default 0)
  • --help — Show help

🌈 DIAGNOSTICS 🌈

Debug mode is the little visual bestie that helps you improve the detection algorithm, or figure out why the program is simply not working for a given input. It's giving "the algorithm is not algorithming, let's investigate." 🔍

In this mode, messages are displayed in an ASCII-art style graphical representation, where the individual magnitude bars sampled at 2MHz are displayed. Yes, bars. In a terminal. Art. 🎨

An index shows the sample number, where 0 is the sample where the first Mode S peak was found. Some additional background noise is also added before the first peak to provide some context.

Select frames to log using the following flags:

  • d — Log frames decoded with errors
  • D — Log frames decoded with zero errors
  • c — Log frames with bad CRC
  • C — Log frames with good CRC
  • p — Log frames with bad preamble
  • n — Log network debugging info
  • j — Log frames to frames.js, loadable by debug.html

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

The most basic usage is with no flags, which will open the first found rtl-sdr device and begin printing out hex dumps of the received packets. Most people will either run this in interactive mode or as a daemon.

Interactive mode

dump1090-mutability --interactive

Daemon mode

dump1090-mutability --net --quiet &

You can also use dump1090-mutability as a network hub for multiple receivers by using

dump1090-mutability --net-only

💀 BUGS 💀

Report bugs with the program to the project's github page https://github.com/mutability/dump1090/ — do not suffer in silence, bestie, they wanna know. 🫶

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Dump1090 was originally written by Salvatore Sanfilippo antirez@gmail.com. This version is now maintained by Oliver Jowett oliver@mutability.co.uk. This manpage was prepared for Debian by Matthew Ernisse mernisse@ub3rgeek.net. Legends, all of them. 💖

And that's the whole page, bestie — dated 17 August 2014, filed under DUMP1090-MUTABILITY(1), and honestly? Still iconic. Go decode some planes. ✈️🌈💅

📦 where this page comes from