FLOW-CAT(1)

💖 FLOW-CAT(1) — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, welcome to FLOW-CAT(1), section 1 of the manual, and no cap this one is a whole vibe. it's the flow-tools classic, and it's about to make concatenating flow files feel like a group chat glow-up. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

flow-cat — concatenate flow files. that's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly. 💅

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

flow-cat [ -aghmp ]  [ -b big|little ]  [ -C comment ]  [ -d debug_level
]  [ -o filename ]  [ -t start_time ]  [ -T start_time ]  [ -z z_level ]
[ file|directory... ]

yes she takes all of those flags, she's highkey versatile, and you're gonna love her for it. 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so flow-cat processes files and/or directories of files that are chillin' in the flow-tools format. the resulting concatenated data set gets written to standard output, or to a file if you hit it with -o.

and listen — if file is a single dash (-), or if it's just... not there at all? flow-cat will read from standard input. she's flexible like that, main character energy fr fr. 😌

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -a — do NOT ignore filenames that begin with tmp. she sees them, she processes them, she does not skip. 👀
• -b big|little — byte order of the output. pick your endianness, bestie.
• -C Comment — add a comment. drop a lil note, like a sticky note but for flows. 🍓
• -d debug_level — enable debugging. when things are giving mystery, this is your girl.
• -g — sort the file list by capture start time before processing. chronological queen. 👑
• -h — display help. when in doubt, ask for help, that's growth. 🌱
• -m — disable the use of mmap(). no memory mapping today, we're doing it the other way.
• -p — preload headers. use this to preserve meta information such as lost flows. lowkey important, don't sleep on it. 😤
• -o file — write to file instead of standard out. redirect your destiny. 💫
• -t start_time — select flow files up to start_time. if you use it with -T, you get files between start_time and end_time. 💖
• -T end_time — select flow files after end_time. if you use it with -t, you get files between start_time and end_time. matching set, obsessed. 🎀
• -z z_level — configure the compression level to z_level. 0 is disabled (no compression), 9 is highest compression. glow-up levels, pick your intensity. 🔥
• file|directory... — process the files and/or directory. that's your input, bestie, hand it over. 🫴

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⏰ TIME/DATE PARSING ⏰

start_time and end_time parsing is implemented with getdate.y — a commonly used function that processes free-form time date specifications. like, you can just talk to it and it gets it. iykyk.

example usage borrowed from cvs:

1 month ago 2 hours ago 400000 seconds ago last year last Monday yesterday a fortnight ago 3/31/92 10:00:07 PST January 23, 1987 10:05pm 22:00 GMT

she's multilingual in time and honestly? iconic. 🕰️✨

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

example the first: concatenate all flow files begining with ft-v05.2001-05.01, then use flow-print to display the results.

flow-cat ft-v05.2001-05-01.* | flow-print

example the second: concatenate flow files in /flows/krc4, and store the output in compressed.flows at compression level 9 (best). the headers are preloaded so various metadata such as the flow count is correct in the result. filenames begining with tmp — which are typically in-progress flow files from flow-capture — are not processed.

flow-cat -p -z9 /flows/krc4 > compressed.flows

see how easy that was? slay. 💅

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💀 BUGS 💀

None known.

(not a single one. she's flawless. periodt. 👑)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Mark Fullmer <maf@splintered.net>

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• flow-tools(1)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this version of FLOW-CAT(1) came from flow-tools, dated 26 Август 2010 — so go forth, concatenate responsibly, and remember: you're doing amazing. mwah. 💖🎀🦋✨