STRATO(1)

📦
version 4.6.6 · 4 versions
, in alpine 3.24

✨ strato(1) ✨

hiii bestie 🫶 welcome to the strato(1) manual page — yes, that's section 1 of the manual, we're doing this 💅. Grab a snack, this one's a whole saga, but it's actually so good. no cap.

🌸 NAME 🌸

strato — Dump and analyze system calls and event logs. that's it, that's the whole vibe ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

strato [ -i <capture source>|- ] [ -f <capture filter> ] [ -2 ]
[ -r <infile> ] [ -w <outfile>|- ] [ options ] [ <filter> ]

strato -h|--help

strato -v|--version

look at her go 😭 three whole forms. iconic.

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so strato is a system call and log analyzer, and she is that girl. She lets you capture system call and log events from a live source, or read events from a previously saved capture file — and then she either prints a decoded form of those events to the standard output, or writes the packets to a file. Her native capture file format is scap format, which is also the format used by Stratoshark, Falco, sysdig and various other tools. so she's fluent in the friendship group's language, obviously 🧚

Without any options set, strato will work much like sysdig. She'll use the libscap and libsinsp to capture traffic from the first available source, and she displays a summary line on the standard output for each received packet. effortless 💅

When you run her with the -r option, specifying a capture file to read from, strato will again work much like sysdig — reading packets from the file and displaying a summary line on the standard output for each packet read. She is able to detect, read and write the same capture files that are supported by Stratoshark 🎀 The input file doesn't need a specific filename extension; the file format and an optional gzip, Zstandard, or LZ4 compression will be automatically detected. (she just knows, iykyk.) Near the beginning of the DESCRIPTION section of wireshark(1) or https://www.wireshark.org/docs/man-pages/wireshark.html there's a detailed description of the way Wireshark handles this — which is the same way strato handles this. matching energy, always 🌈

Compressed file support uses (and therefore requires) the zlib library. If the zlib library is not present when compiling strato, it will be possible to compile it, but the resulting program will be unable to read compressed files 😭 Similarly, LZ4 and ZStandard also require their respective libraries. no library, no compression support — the rules are the rules.

When displaying events on the standard output, strato writes, by default, a summary line containing the fields specified by the preferences file (which are also the fields displayed in the packet list pane in Wireshark) — although if she's writing packets as she captures them, rather than writing packets from a saved capture file, she won't show the "frame number" field 👀 (future knowledge only, bestie.)

  • If the -V option is specified, she instead writes a view of the details of the packet, showing all the fields of all protocols in the packet 💜
  • If the -O option is specified, she'll only show the full details for the protocols specified, and show only the top-level detail line for all other protocols. Use the output of strato -G protocols to find the abbreviations of the protocols you can specify 👑
  • If the -P option is specified with either the -V or the -O options, both the summary line for the entire packet and the details will be displayed 🎀

Packet capturing is performed with the pcap library. That library supports specifying a filter expression; packets that don't match that filter are discarded 🗑️ The -f option is used to specify a capture filter. The syntax of a capture filter is defined by the pcap library; this syntax is different from the display filter syntax described below, and the filtering mechanism is limited in its abilities. she's talented but she's not magic.

Display filters in strato, which allow you to select which packets are to be decoded or written to a file, are very powerful 🔥 more fields are filterable in strato than in other protocol analyzers, and the syntax you can use to create your filters is richer. As strato progresses, expect more and more protocol fields to be allowed in display filters. Display filters use the same syntax as display and color filters in Wireshark; a display filter is specified with the -Y option ⭐

Display filters can be specified when capturing or when reading from a capture file. But wait — plot twist — note that capture filters are much more efficient than display filters 🫠 and it may be more difficult for strato to keep up with a busy network if a display filter is specified for a live capture, so you might be more likely to lose packets if you're using a display filter. she's doing her best, ok??

A capture or display filter can either be:

  • specified with the -f or -Y option, respectively, in which case the entire filter expression must be specified as a single argument (which means that if it contains spaces, it must be quoted 📝), or
  • specified with command-line arguments after the option arguments, in which case all the arguments after the filter arguments are treated as a filter expression.

If the filter is specified with command-line arguments after the option arguments, it's a capture filter if a capture is being done (i.e., if no -r option was specified) and a display filter if a capture file is being read (i.e., if a -r option was specified). context is everything, bestie 💅

If the -w option is specified when capturing packets or reading from a capture file, strato does not display packets on the standard output. Instead, she writes the packets to a capture file with the name specified by the -w option. Note that display filters are currently not supported when capturing and saving the captured packets 🙈 (fr fr, that's just how it is right now.)

If you want to write the decoded form of packets to a file, run strato without the -w option, and redirect its standard output to the file — do not use the -w option. two completely different lanes, don't mix them up 💀

If you want the packets to be displayed to the standard output and also saved to a file:

  • specify the -P option in addition to the -w option to have the summary line displayed,
  • specify the -V option in addition to the -w option to have the details of the packet displayed, and
  • specify the -O option, with a list of protocols, to have the full details of the specified protocols and the top-level detail line for all other protocols to be displayed.

If the -P option is used together with the -V or -O option, the summary line will be displayed along with the detail lines 🎀✨

When writing packets to a file, strato, by default, writes the file in pcapng format, and writes all of the packets she sees to the output file. The -F option can be used to specify the format in which to write the file. The list of available file formats is displayed by the -F option without a value. However, for a live capture, you can only specify a file format supported by dumpcap(1) — viz. pcapng or pcap 💅 The --compress option can be used to specify a compression method as well; the list of supported compression methods for writing can be displayed by the --compress method without an argument. If the --compress option is not given, then the desired compression method, if any, is deduced from the extension of the filename given as argument to the -w option. she reads the room (and the file extension) 🦋

When capturing packets, strato writes to the standard error an initial line listing the interfaces from which packets are being captured and, if packet information isn't being displayed to the terminal, writes a continuous count of packets captured to the standard output 📊

  • If the -q option is specified, neither the continuous count nor the packet information will be displayed; instead, at the end of the capture, a count of packets captured will be displayed.
  • If the -Q option is specified, neither the initial line, nor the packet information, nor any packet counts will be displayed.
  • If the -q or -Q option is used, the -P, -V, or -O option can be used to cause the corresponding output to be displayed even though other output is suppressed 👑

When reading packets, the -q and -Q options will suppress the display of the packet summary or details; this would be used if -z options are specified in order to display statistics, so that only the statistics, not the packet information, is displayed 📈

The -G option is a special mode that simply causes strato to dump one of several types of internal glossaries and then exit. short king behaviour, honestly.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

💫 the big list, part one 💫

  • -2 — Perform a two-pass analysis. This causes strato to buffer output until the entire first pass is done, but allows her to fill in fields that require future knowledge, such as 'response in frame #' fields 👀 Also permits reassembly frame dependencies to be calculated correctly. This requires the ability to seek backwards on the input, and as such cannot be used with live captures or when reading from a pipe or FIFO 🚫 (no rewind button = no two-pass, sorry bestie.)
  • -a, --autostop <capture autostop condition> — Specify a criterion that specifies when strato 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, strato will stop writing to the current capture file and switch to the next one if filesize is reached. When reading a capture file, strato will stop reading the file after the number of bytes read exceeds this number (the complete packet will be read, so more bytes than this number may be read). Note that the filesize is limited to a maximum value of 2 TB, although you might have problems before then if the number of packets exceeds exceeds 232 (4294967296) 💀 yes we said it twice, it's in the original, don't come for me.
    • packets:value — switch to the next file after it contains value packets. This does not include any packets that do not pass the display filter, so it may differ from -c<capture packet count> 🎯
  • -A <user>:<password> — Specify a user and a password when strato captures from a rpcap:// interface where authentication is required 🔐 This option is available with libpcap with enabled remote support.
  • -b, --ring-buffer <capture ring buffer option> — Cause strato to run in "multiple files" mode. In "multiple files" mode, strato will write to several capture files. When the first capture file fills up, strato will switch writing to the next file and so on 🔄

The created filenames are based on the filename given with the -w option, the number of the file and on the creation date and time, e.g. outfile_00001_20260714120117.pcap, outfile_00002_20260714120523.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 strato 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 disk is full arc, we've all been there.)

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

  • duration:value — peaces out to the next file once value seconds have gone by, even if the current file is still half-empty (no cap on the dramatics). Floating point values like 0.5 are totally allowed, slay.
  • files:value — ring buffer energy: after value files have been written, it loops back around to the first file. This value has to be less than 100000. > ⚠️ Be careful with big numbers of files, bestie — some filesystems do not handle a huge pile of files in a single directory well. Also the files criterion needs either duration, interval or filesize specified so it knows when to move to the next file. And heads up: each -b parameter takes exactly one criterion, so if you want two criteria you gotta write -b before each one. One per -b, periodt.
  • filesize:value — bounces to the next file once it hits a size of value kB. Ngl the filesize is capped at a max of 2 TB, though you might hit trouble even before that if the number of packets exceeds exceeds 232 (4294967296) — yes it says "exceeds" twice in the source, it's iconic, leave her alone 💀.
  • interval:value — switches to the next file when the time lands on an exact multiple of value seconds. Like, use 3600 to roll a fresh file every hour, on the hour. Iconic scheduling behaviour.
  • packets:value — next file after this one contains value packets. Simple. Clean. Ate.
  • printname:filename — prints the name of the most recently written file to filename after that file gets closed. filename can be stdout or - for standard output, or stderr for standard error. 🫶
  • nametimenum:value — picks between two save filename templates. If value is 1, the running file number part comes before the start time part — that's the original and default behaviour (e.g. log_00001_20260714164426.pcap). If value is greater than 1, the start time part comes before the running number part (e.g. log_20210828164426_00001.pcap). The latter makes alphabetical sorting order equal to creation time order, and keeps related multiple file sets in the same directory close to each other. Lowkey the second one is the main character.

Example time, bestie — strato -b filesize:1000 -b files:5 gives you a ring buffer of five files of size one megabyte each. 💅

  • -B, --buffer-size <capture buffer size> — sets the capture buffer size (in MiB, default is 2 MiB). The capture driver uses this to buffer packet data until it can be written to disk. If you're seeing packet drops while capturing, try bumping this size up. Note that while strato 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 you're capturing on might silently limit the capture buffer size to a lower value — or raise it to a higher one. Rude but true.

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 isn't set specifically, the default capture buffer size is used instead.

  • -c <capture packet count> — sets the maximum number of packets to read when capturing live data. If you're reading a capture file, it sets the maximum number of packets to read. Heads up: this includes any packets that do not pass the display filter, so it may differ from -a packets:<capture packet count>. Sneaky difference, ik.
  • -C <configuration profile> — runs with the given configuration profile. If it's used together with --global-profile, then the global profile with the associated name gets used instead.
  • -D, --list-interfaces — prints a list of the interfaces strato can capture on, then exits. For each network interface you get a number and an interface name, possibly followed by a text description of the interface. You can hand the interface name or the number to the -i flag to pick an interface to capture on. The number is especially useful on Windows systems, where interfaces have long names that usually contain a GUID. 🪟
  • -e <field> — adds a field to the list of fields to display if -T ek|fields|json|pdml is selected. This option can be used multiple times on the command line. At least one field must be provided if the -T fields option is selected. Column types may be used, prefixed with "_ws.col.". Prefixing the field name with an at sign (@) will display the data as hex bytes. ✨

Example: strato -T fields -e frame.number -e ip.addr -e udp -e _ws.col.info

Fields are separated by tab characters by default. -E controls the format of the printed fields. Giving a protocol rather than a single field will print the protocol summary (subtree label) from the packet details as a single field. If the protocol summary contains only the protocol name (e.g. "Hypertext Transfer Protocol") then the protocol filter name ("http") will be printed instead.

  • -E <field print option> — sets an option controlling the printing of fields when -T fields is selected.

The options are:

  • bom=y|n — if y, prepend the output with the UTF-8 byte order mark (hexadecimal ef, bb, bf). Defaults to n.
  • header=y|n — if y, print a list of the field names given using -e as the first line of the output; the field name will be separated using the same character as the field values. Defaults to n.
  • separator=/t|/s|<character> — set the separator character to use for fields. If /t, a tab gets used (this is the default); if /s, a single space gets used. Otherwise any character that can be accepted by the command line as part of the option may be used.
  • occurrence=f|l|a — select which occurrence to use for fields that have multiple occurrences. If f the first occurrence gets used, if l the last occurrence gets used, and if a all occurrences get used (this is the default).
  • aggregator=,|/s|<character> — set the aggregator character to use for fields that have multiple occurrences. If , a comma gets used (this is the default), if /s a single space gets used. Otherwise any character that can be accepted by the command line as part of the option may be used.
  • quote=d|s|n — set the quote character to use to surround fields. d uses double-quotes, s single-quotes, n no quotes (the default). If the quote character appears in a field value, it will be escaped by being duplicated. 🎀
  • escape=y|n — if y, the whitespace control characters (tab, line feed, carriage return, form feed, and vertical tab), backspace, and the backslash will be replaced in field values by C-style escapes, e.g. "\n" for line feed. If n, field value strings will be printed as-is. Defaults to y.
  • -f <capture filter> — sets 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 isn't set specifically, the default capture filter expression is used if one was 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: strato -f "predef:MyPredefinedHostOnlyFilter"

  • -F <file format> — sets the file format of the output capture file written using the -w option. The output written with -w is raw packet data, not text, so there is no -F option to request text output. 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). 🧚
  • -g — causes the output file(s) to be created with group-read permission (meaning the output file(s) can be read by other members of the calling user's group). Sharing is caring.
  • -G <report type> — makes strato dump one of several types of glossaries and then exit. The glossary type is now mandatory; previous versions generated the fields report by default when no type was given. With one exception, the reports reflect the current configuration, including whatever you gave with a -C option or as modified by other command line options. Using the report type of help lists all the current report types. 👑

The available report types include:

  • column-formats — dumps the column formats understood by strato. There's one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1: format string (e.g. "%rD")
    • Field 2: text description of format string (e.g. "Dest port (resolved)")
    • Field 3: field abbreviation used for the column text (e.g. "_ws.col.res_dst_port")
    • This report is followed by a usage example that demonstrates how to change the columns by overriding the gui.column.format preference value with -o.
  • currentprefs — dumps a copy of the current preferences file to stdout.
  • decodes — dumps the "layer type"/"decode as" associations to stdout. There's one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1: layer type, e.g. "tcp.port"
    • Field 2: selector in decimal
    • Field 3: "decode as" name, e.g. "http"
  • defaultprefs — dumps a default preferences file to stdout. This report is unaffected by other command line arguments.
  • dissectors — dumps a list of registered dissectors to stdout. There's one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1: dissector name
    • Field 2: dissector description
  • dissector-tables — dumps a list of dissector tables to stdout. There's one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1: dissector table name, e.g. "tcp.port"
    • Field 2: name used for the dissector table in the GUI
    • Field 3: type (textual representation of the ftenum type, or "heuristic")
    • Field 4: base for display (for integer types)
    • Field 5: protocol name
    • Field 6: "decode as" support (for non-heuristic tables)
  • elastic-mapping[,filter] — dumps the ElasticSearch mapping file to stdout. Fields falling in the default case (string) won't be mapped.

filter is, like, an optional list of comma separated protocol filter names 💅 and what it does is limit the generated mapping file to just those protocols — which slaps, because otherwise you'd get a huge mapping file that can literally choke some software (such as Kibana 😭). E.g.

strago -G elastic-mapping,ip,udp,dns
  • enterprises — Dumps the IANA Private Enterprise Number (PEN) table. cute little table, no cap.
  • fieldcount — Dumps the number of header fields to stdout. that's it, that's the whole vibe.
  • fields[,prefix] — Dumps the contents of the registration database to stdout ✨. An independent program can take this output and format it into nice tables or HTML or whatever — honestly the icon behaviour. There is one record per line. Each record is either a protocol or a header field, differentiated by the first field. The fields are tab-delimited.

Protocols

  • Field 1 — 'P'
  • Field 2 — descriptive protocol name
  • Field 3 — protocol abbreviation

Header Fields

  • Field 1 — 'F'
  • Field 2 — descriptive field name
  • Field 3 — field abbreviation
  • Field 4 — type (textual representation of the ftenum type)
  • Field 5 — parent protocol abbreviation
  • Field 6 — base for display (for integer types); "parent bitfield width" for FT_BOOLEAN
  • Field 7 — bitmask: format: hex: 0x....
  • Field 8 — blurb describing field

An optional search prefix argument can be given to fields, in which case the output is limited to protocols and fields whose abbreviation starts with the search prefix 🎀.

Search Output

  • Field 1 — protocol or field abbreviation
  • Field 2 — descriptive protocol or field name
  • folders — Dumps various folders used by strato 🗂️. This is essentially the same data reported in Wireshark's About | Folders tab. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1 — Folder type (e.g "Personal configuration:")
    • Field 2 — Folder location (e.g. "/home/vagrant/.config/wireshark/")
  • ftypes — Dumps the "ftypes" (fundamental types) understood by strato 🧚. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1 — FTYPE (e.g "FT_IPv6")
    • Field 2 — text description of type (e.g. "IPv6 address")
  • heuristic-decodes — Dumps the heuristic decodes currently installed 🔥. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1 — heuristic dissector table name (e.g. "tcp")
    • Field 2 — name of heuristic decoder (e.g. "ucp")
    • Field 3 — heuristic enabled (e.g. "T" or "F")
    • Field 4 — heuristic enabled by default (e.g. "T" or "F")
    • Field 5 — heuristic short name (e.g. "ucp_tcp")
    • Field 6 — heuristic display name (e.g. "UCP over TCP")
  • help — Displays the available report types. the literal "help me help you" moment 🫶.
  • manuf — Dumps the MAC address lookup table in manuf format.
  • plugins — Dumps the plugins currently installed 💖. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1 — plugin library/Lua script/extcap executable (e.g. "gryphon.so")
    • Field 2 — plugin version (e.g. 0.0.4)
    • Field 3 — plugin type ("dissector", "tap", "file type", etc.)
    • Field 4 — full path to plugin file
  • protocols — Dumps the protocols in the registration database to stdout 🌈. An independent program can take this output and format it into nice tables or HTML or whatever. There is one record per line. The fields are tab-delimited.
    • Field 1 — protocol name
    • Field 2 — protocol short name
    • Field 3 — protocol filter name
    • Field 4 — protocol enabled (e.g. "T" or "F")
    • Field 5 — protocol enabled by default (e.g. "T" or "F")
    • Field 6 — protocol can toggle (e.g. "T" or "F")
  • services — Dumps the TCP, UDP, and SCTP transport service (port) table 👑
  • values — Dumps the value_strings, range_strings or true/false strings for fields that have them 🍓. There is one record per line. Fields are tab-delimited. There are three types of records: Value String, Range String and True/False String. The first field, 'V', 'R' or 'T', indicates the type of record.

Value Strings

  • Field 1 — 'V'
  • Field 2 — field abbreviation to which this value string corresponds
  • Field 3 — Integer value
  • Field 4 — String

Range Strings

  • Field 1 — 'R'
  • Field 2 — field abbreviation to which this range string corresponds
  • Field 3 — Integer value: lower bound
  • Field 4 — Integer value: upper bound
  • Field 5 — String

True/False Strings

  • Field 1 — 'T'
  • Field 2 — field abbreviation to which this true/false string corresponds
  • Field 3 — True String
  • Field 4 — False String
  • -h|--help — Print the version number and options and exit. baby's first flag, we love a safe exit 😌.
  • -H <input hosts file> — Read a list of entries from a "hosts" file, which will then be written to a capture file 📝. Implies -W n. Can be called multiple times.

The "hosts" file format is documented at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file).

  • -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 "strato -D" (described above); a number, as reported by "strato -D", can also be used.

If no interface is specified, strato 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, strato reports an error and doesn't start the capture. bestie really said "no interfaces, no service" 💀.

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 strato 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.

  • -j <protocol match filter> — Protocol match filter used for ek|json|jsonraw|pdml output file types. Only the protocol's parent node is included. Child nodes are only included if explicitly specified in the filter 👀.

Example: strato -T json -j "ip ip.flags http"

  • -J <protocol match filter> — Protocol top level filter used for ek|json|jsonraw|pdml output file types. The protocol's parent node and all child nodes are included 🌸. Lower-level protocols must be explicitly specified in the filter.

Example: strato -T pdml -J "tcp http"

  • -l — Flush the standard output after the information for each packet is printed 🚿. (This is not, strictly speaking, line-buffered if -V was specified; however, it is the same as line-buffered if -V wasn't specified, as only one line is printed for each packet, and, as -l is normally used when piping a live capture to a program or script, so that output for a packet shows up as soon as the packet is seen and dissected, it should work just as well as true line-buffering. We do this as a workaround for a deficiency in the Microsoft Visual C++ C library.) This also sets --update-interval to 0 ms.

This may be useful when piping the output of strato to another program, as it means that the program to which the output is piped will see the dissected data for a packet as soon as strato sees the packet and generates that output, rather than seeing it only when the standard output buffer containing that data fills up. no more waiting around, we're impatient and proud 💅.

  • -L|--list-data-link-types — List the data link types supported by the interface and exit. The reported link types can be used for the -y option ⭐.
  • -o <preference>:<value> — Set a preference value, overriding the default value and any value read from a preference file 🎀. The argument to the option is a string of the form prefname:value, where prefname is the name of the preference (which is the same name that would appear in the preference file), and value is the value to which it should be set.
Note strato does not save preferences, so use this for temporary changes for a single execution 🙈. To permanently set a preference, change it in the Wireshark GUI or edit the preference file directly, creating multiple configuration profiles if you need different preference sets for different occasions.
  • -O <protocols> — Similar to the -V option, but causes strato to only show a detailed view of the comma-separated list of protocols specified, and show only the top-level detail line for all other protocols, rather than a detailed view of all protocols 👑. Use the output of "strato -G protocols" to find the abbreviations of the protocols you can specify.
  • -P|--print — Decode and display the packet summary or details, even if writing raw packet data using the -w option, and even if packet output is otherwise suppressed with -Q 🔥. main character energy: it prints anyway.
  • -q — When capturing packets, don't display the continuous count of packets captured that is normally shown when saving a capture to a file; instead, just display, at the end of the capture, a count of packets captured 🤫. On systems that support the SIGINFO signal, such as various BSDs, you can cause the current count to be displayed by typing your "status" character (typically control-T, although it might be set to "disabled" by default on at least some BSDs, so you'd have to explicitly set it to use it).

When reading a capture file, or when capturing and not saving to a file, don't print packet information; this is useful if you're using a -z option to calculate statistics and don't want the packet information printed, just the statistics 🧮.

  • -Q —

Ok so the last option blurb wasn't done yet — finishing that thought, bestie 💅:

  • -q — when you're capturing packets, this shuts up the standard-error chatter: no initial message telling you which interfaces the capture is happening on, no continuous packet count while saving to a file, and no final "here's how many packets we got" message. Only actual errors make it to stderr. Ngl this outputs even less than the -q option itself would — so the interface name, the total packet count, and the end-of-capture notice never hit stderr. And when you're reading a capture file (or capturing without saving to a file), it also won't print packet info — which is chef's kiss if you're using a -z option to calculate stats and you want just the stats, not the packet noise. ✨
  • -r, --read-file <infile> — reads packet data from infile, and it can be literally any supported capture file format (compressed files included, we love a zip 🎀). You can use named pipes or stdin (-) here, but only with certain capture file formats — specifically: the ones that can be read without seeking backwards. iykyk.
Tip 💡 — reading a live capture from the standard out of another process through a pipe can circumvent restrictions that apply to strato during live capture, such as file formats or compression. Sneaky but legit.
  • -R, --read-filter <Read filter> — makes the filter you give it (which uses read/display filter syntax, not capture filter syntax) get applied during the first pass of analysis. Packets that don't match the filter are simply not considered for future passes. Only makes sense with multiple passes, see -2. For regular filtering on a single-pass dissect, use -Y instead. 🦋
Heads up fr fr: forward-looking fields like 'response in frame #' can't be used with this filter, because they won't have been calculated yet when the filter is applied. 😭
  • -s, --snapshot-length <capture snaplen> — sets the default snapshot length to use when capturing live data. No more than snaplen bytes of each network packet get read into memory, or saved to disk. A value of 0 specifies a snapshot length of 262144, so the full packet is captured — and that's the default, periodt. 💜

This option can occur multiple times, which is lowkey powerful: if you use it before the first occurrence of the -i option, it sets the default snapshot length. If you use it after an -i option, it sets the snapshot length for the interface specified by the last -i option occurring before this option. And if the snapshot length isn't set specifically? The default snapshot length is used if provided.

  • -S <separator> — sets the line separator to be printed between packets. Cute and simple. 🎀
  • -T ek|fields|json|jsonraw|pdml|ps|psml|tabs|text — sets the format of the output when you're viewing decoded packet data. The options are one of:
    • ek — newline delimited JSON format for bulk import into Elasticsearch. It can be used with -j or -J to specify which protocols to include, or with -x to include raw hex-encoded packet data. If -P is specified it'll print the packet summary only; with both -P and -V it prints the packet summary and packet details. If neither -P nor -V are used it prints the packet details only. Example of usage to import data into Elasticsearch:
strato -T ek -j "http tcp ip" -P -V -x -r file.pcap > file.json
curl -H "Content-Type: application/x-ndjson" -XPOST http://elasticsearch:9200/_bulk --data-binary "@file.json"

Elastic requires a mapping file to be loaded as template for packets-* index in order to convert Wireshark types to elastic types. This file can be auto-generated with the command "strato -G elastic-mapping". Since the mapping file can be huge, protocols can be selected by using the option --elastic-mapping-filter:

strato -G elastic-mapping --elastic-mapping-filter ip,udp,dns

or by adding the filter directly to the -G elastic-mapping option:

strato -G elastic-mapping,ip,udp,dns
  • fields — the values of fields specified with the -e option, in a form specified by the -E option. For example,
strato -T fields -E separator=, -E quote=d

would generate comma-separated values (CSV) output suitable for importing into your favorite spreadsheet program. 📊 slay.

  • json — JSON file format. It can be used with -j or -J to specify which protocols to include, or with -x option to include raw hex-encoded packet data. Example of usage:
strato -T json -r file.pcap
strato -T json -j "http tcp ip" -x -r file.pcap
  • jsonraw — JSON file format including only raw hex-encoded packet data. It can be used with -j or -J to specify which protocols to include. Example of usage:
strato -T jsonraw -r file.pcap
strato -T jsonraw -j "http tcp ip" -x -r file.pcap
  • pdml — Packet Details Markup Language, an XML-based format for the details of a decoded packet. This information is equivalent to the packet details printed with the -V option. Using the --color option will add color attributes to pdml output — these attributes are nonstandard, just so you know. 🌈
  • ps — PostScript for a human-readable one-line summary of each of the packets, or a multi-line view of the details of each of the packets, depending on whether the -V option was specified.
  • psml — Packet Summary Markup Language, an XML-based format for the summary information of a decoded packet. This information is equivalent to the information shown in the one-line summary printed by default. Using the --color option will add color attributes to pdml output — these attributes are nonstandard. (Yes, the page says pdml here too. We're just the messengers 🫶)
  • tabs — similar to the default text report, except the human-readable one-line summary of each packet will include an ASCII horizontal tab (0x09) character as a delimiter between each column. Tab girlies rise 👑
  • text — text of a human-readable one-line summary of each of the packets, or a multi-line view of the details of each of the packets, depending on whether the -V option was specified. This is the default.
  • --temp-dir <directory> — specifies the directory into which temporary files (capture files included) 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. 🗂️
  • -U <tap name> — PDUs export, exports PDUs from infile to outfile according to the tap name given. Use -Y to filter. 🔥

Enter an empty tap name "" or a tap name of ? to get a list of available names. Free list, no cap.

  • -v, --version — print the full version information and exit. Main character moment, honestly. ⭐
  • -V — causes strato to print a view of the packet details. 💖
  • -w <outfile> | - — write raw packet data to outfile, or to the standard output if outfile is '-'. The -F and --compress options can be used to control the file format and compression method. If the latter is not given, then the extension may be used to deduce the desired compression algorithm, if supported — e.g. a gzip archive for '.gz'. 🎀
Note — -w provides raw packet data, not text. If you want text output you need to redirect stdout (e.g. using '>'), don't use the -w option for this. For real, this trips everyone up. 💀
  • -W <file format option> — save extra information in the file if the format supports it. For example,
strato -F pcapng -W n

will save host name resolution records along with captured packets.

Future versions of strato may automatically change the capture format to pcapng as needed. (Future us is so organized.)

The argument is a string that may contain the following letter:

  • n — write network address resolution information (pcapng only)
  • -x — causes strato to print a hex and ASCII dump of the packet data after printing the summary and/or details, if either are also being displayed. 🦋
  • --hexdump <hexoption> — causes strato to print a hex and ASCII dump of the packet data, with the ability to select which data sources to dump, how to format or exclude the ASCII dump text, and whether to print the frame timestamp as preamble. Obsessed with the flexibility ngl. 💅

This option (and -x) can occur multiple times on the command line, and the hex dump will only be printed once. In the case of conflicting options, the last options given will be used. The possible <hexoption> values are:

  • all — enable hexdump, generate hexdump blocks for all data sources associated with each frame. Used to negate earlier use of --hexdump frames. The -x option displays all data sources by default.
  • frames — enable hexdump, generate hexdump blocks only for the frame data. Use this option to exclude from hexdump output any hexdump blocks for secondary data sources such as 'Bitstring tvb', 'Reassembled TCP', 'De-chunked entity body', etc.
  • ascii — enable hexdump, with undelimited ASCII dump text. Used to negate earlier use of --hexdump delimit or --hexdump noascii. The -x option displays undelimited ASCII dump text by default.
  • delimit — enable hexdump with the ASCII dump text delimited with '|' characters. This is useful to unambiguously determine the last of the hex byte text and start of the ASCII dump text.
  • noascii — enable hexdump without printing any ASCII dump text. 🙈
  • time — enable hexdump and print each frame timestamp as preamble. The -t option can be used to change the timestamp format. ⏰
  • notime — enable hexdump without print each frame timestamp as preamble. (Yes, that's how it's phrased. We keep the lore.)
  • help — display --hexdump specific help then exit. 🫶

The use of --hexdump <hexoption> is particularly useful to generate output that can be used to create a pcap or pcapng file from a capture file type such as Microsoft NetMon 2.x which strato and Wireshark can read but can not directly do a "Save as" nor export packets from. That's the whole ~vibe~ of it.

Examples:

Generate hexdump output, with only the frame data source, with delimited ASCII dump text, and with each frame hex block preceded by a human readable timestamp in the local time zone that is directly usable by the text2pcap utility:

strato ... --hexdump frames --hexdump delimit --hexdump time -t ad \
    | text2pcap -t 'ISO' - MYNEWPCAPNG

...okay so if you want a hexdump where the only data source is the frame data, with the default ASCII dump text and no delimiter, and every frame's hex block gets a human-readable timestamp in UTC that text2pcap can eat directly with its -a option — do this:

strato ... --hexdump frames --hexdump time -t ud \
    | text2pcap -a -t 'ISO' - MYNEWPCAPNG

And if you'd rather have no ASCII dump text at all, with each frame's hex block fronted by an epoch timestamp that's also directly usable by text2pcap — then:

strato ... --hexdump frames --hexdump noascii --hexdump time -t e \
    | text2pcap -t %s.%f - MYNEWPCAPNG
  • -X <eXtension options> — bestie, this is the "pass a lil something extra to a strato module" flag 💅. The eXtension option is shaped like extension_key:value, and extension_key can be any of these:
    • lua_script:lua_script_filename — tells strato to load the script you named, in addition to the default Lua scripts. 🧚
    • lua_scriptnum:argument — tells strato to pass your 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. And if two scripts were loaded — say -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'. iykyk ✨
    • read_format:file_format — tells strato to use the given file format to read in the file (the file you gave with the -r command option). If you provide no file_format argument, or an invalid one, it'll produce a list of available file formats to use. Like so:
strato -r rtcp_broken.pcapng -X read_format:"MIME Files Format" -V

and that'll display the internal file structure and allow access to the file-pcapng fields. 🫶

  • -Y, --display-filter <displaY filter> — makes the specified filter (and heads up: this uses the syntax of read/display filters, not capture filters) get applied before printing a decoded form of packets or writing packets to a file. Packets matching the filter are printed or written to file; packets that the matching packets depend upon (e.g., fragments) are not printed but are written to file; packets that don't match the filter and aren't depended upon get discarded rather than printed or written. 💀

Use this instead of -R for filtering using single-pass analysis. If you're doing two-pass analysis (see -2) then only packets matching the read filter (if there is one) will be checked against this filter.

  • -M <auto session reset> — automatically resets the internal session when it reaches the specified number of packets. For example:
strato -M 100000

will reset session every 100000 packets. 🎀

Just so you know: this feature does not support -2 two-pass analysis. 🙈
  • -z <statistics> — gets strato to collect various types of statistics and display the result after it finishes reading the capture file. Use the -q option if you're reading a capture file and only want the statistics printed, not any per-packet info.

Statistics are calculated independently of the normal per-packet output, unaffected by the main display filter. However, most have their own optional filter parameter, and only packets that match that filter (and any capture filter or read filter) will be used in the calculations. 🌸

Heads up, the -z proto option is different — it doesn't cause statistics to be gathered and printed when the capture is complete, it modifies the regular packet summary output to include the values of fields specified with the option. So therefore you must not use the -q option (that would suppress the printing of the regular packet summary output), and you must also not use the -V option (that would cause packet detail information rather than packet summary information to be printed). No cap. ⭐

Some of the currently implemented statistics are:

  • -z help — display all possible values for -z. 👑
  • -z container_io,tree[,filter] — calculate file I/O statistics for containers.
  • -z expert[,error|,warn|,note|,chat|,comment][,filter] — collects information about all expert info, and will display them in order, grouped by severity.

Example: -z expert,sip will show expert items of all severity for frames that match the sip protocol. 🌈

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

Example: -z "expert,note,tcp" will only collect expert items for frames that include the tcp protocol, with a severity of note or higher.

  • --capture-comment <comment> — add a capture comment to the output file, if it's supported by the output file format. 🦋

This option may be specified multiple times. Note that Wireshark currently only displays the first comment of a capture file. (first one gets main character energy, the rest are just... there 😭)

  • --list-time-stamp-types — list the time stamp types supported for the interface. If no time stamp type can be set, no time stamp types are listed.
  • --time-stamp-type <type> — change the interface's timestamp method. ✨
  • --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.
  • --color — enable coloring of packets according to standard Wireshark color filters. On Windows, colors are limited to the standard console character attribute colors. Other platforms require a terminal that handles 24-bit "true color" terminal escape sequences. See https://wiki.wireshark.org/ColoringRules for more information on configuring color filters. 💅
  • --no-duplicate-keys — if a key appears multiple times in an object, only write it a single time with as value a json array containing all the separate values. (Only works with -T json)
  • --elastic-mapping-filter <protocol>,<protocol>,... — when generating the ElasticSearch mapping file, only put the specified protocols in it, to avoid a huge mapping file that can choke some software (such as Kibana). The option takes a list of wanted protocol abbreviations, separated by comma. 🍓

Example: ip,udp,dns puts only those three protocols in the mapping file.

  • --export-objects <protocol>,<destdir> — export all objects within a protocol into the directory destdir. The available values for protocol can be listed with --export-objects help.

The objects are directly saved in the given directory. Filenames are dependent on the dissector, but typically it's named after the basename of a file. Duplicate files are not overwritten — instead an increasing number is appended before the file extension. 💖

This interface is subject to change, adding the possibility to filter on files. So like, don't get too attached to it exactly as-is. 🙈
  • --print-timers — output JSON containing elapsed times for each pass strato does to process a capture file, and the sum elapsed time for all passes. The per-pass output contains the total elapsed time and aggregate counters for per-packet operations (dissection and filtering). 🔥
  • --compress <type> — compress the output file using the type compression format. --compress with no argument provides a list of the compression formats supported for writing. The type you give takes precedence over the extension of outfile. 🎀

💅 DISSECTION OPTIONS 💅

Okay bestie, this whole cluster is about telling the dissectors exactly what to do — like Wireshark’s Decode As... feature, but make it command-line. 💖

  • -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.

Example 2. Decode As Port Range

-d tcp.port==8888-8890,http

will decode any traffic running over TCP ports 8888, 8889 or 8890 as HTTP.

Example 3. Decode As Port Range via Length

-d tcp.port==8888:3,http

will decode any traffic running over the three TCP ports 8888, 8889 or 8890 as HTTP.

Using an invalid selector or protocol will print out a list of valid selectors and protocol names, respectively.

Example 4. Decode As List of Selectors

-d .

is a quick way to get a list of valid selectors.

Example 5. Decode As List of Values for a Selector

-d ethertype==0x0800,.

is a quick way to get a list of protocols that can be selected with an ethertype.

  • --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
⚠️ Caution: In tshark single-pass mode, external resolution and geolocation lookup is performed synchronously. For live captures, which are always in single-pass mode, this makes it more difficult for dissection to keep up with a busy network, possibly leading to dropped packets. 😭
  • --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 🩺

These are the “what is this program even doing” knobs, and honestly they ate. 🔥

  • --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.

🌸 FILES 🌸

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).

🌈 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.

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 only ever list protocols that are enabled by default but have been turned off — protocols that ship disabled (like some postdissectors) do not show up in there at all. And yes bestie, there's a mirror situation: the analogous enabled_protos files exist for protocols that are disabled by default but that you've gone and enabled. 💅

✨ Heuristic Dissectors ✨

The heuristic_protos files are where the system-wide and personal lists of heuristic dissectors live, and they also tell you whether each one is enabled or disabled. Each file contains heuristic dissector unique short names, one per line, then a comma, then 0 for disabled or 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 chills in 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 inside the global and personal preferences directories get used to resolve IPv4 and IPv6 addresses before any other attempts are made to resolve them. The file has the standard hosts file syntax: every line is one IP address and one name, separated by whitespace. And if the personal hosts file is there, it overrides the one in the global directory. 👑

Capture filter name resolution is handled by libpcap on UNIX-compatible systems — think Linux, macOS, *BSD, Solaris, and AIX — and by Npcap on Windows. Which means, sadly, the Wireshark personal hosts file will not be consulted for capture filter name resolution. 😭

🦋 Name Resolution (subnets) 🦋

If an IPv4 address can't be translated via name resolution (no exact match, rip), then a partial match is attempted through the subnets file. Both the global subnets file and personal subnets files get used if they exist. ✨

Each line of this file is an IPv4 address, a subnet mask length with only a / between them, and a name separated by whitespace. The address has to be a full IPv4 address, but any values beyond the mask length are just ignored afterwards. 🙈

An example is:

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

A partially matched name prints out as "subnet-name.remaining-address". So for example, "192.168.0.1" under the subnet above would print as "ws_test_network.1" — and if that mask length had been 16 instead of 24, the printed address would be "ws_test_network.0.1". Math is giving, honestly. 🧮

🎀 Name Resolution (ethers) 🎀

The ethers files get consulted to correlate 6-byte EUI-48 and 8-byte EUI-64 hardware addresses to names. The personal ethers file is tried first, and if the address isn't found there, the global ethers file is tried next. 🕵️

The format is similar to what ethers(5) defines on some UNIX-like systems. Every line is one hardware address and one name, separated by whitespace (tabs or spaces). The hex digits of the hardware address are separated by colons (:), dashes (-) or periods (.). And heads up — the same separator character must be used consistently in an address. A # starts a comment that runs to the rest of the line. Both 6-byte MAC and 8-byte EUI-64 addresses are supported. These four lines are all 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. Iconic of it, tbh.

The global ethers file is looked for in the /etc directory on UNIX-compatible systems — like 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. So again — the Wireshark personal ethers file will not be consulted for capture filter name resolution. 💀

⭐ Name Resolution (manuf) ⭐

The manuf file matches the 3-byte vendor portion of a 6-byte hardware address against the manufacturer's name. It can also hold well-known MAC addresses and address ranges specified with a netmask. Format's similar to the ethers files, except you can provide entries like:

00:00:0C      Cisco     Cisco Systems, Inc

...with the 3-byte OUI plus both an abbreviated and a long name for a vendor. And entries like:

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

...with a MAC address and a mask saying how many bits of the address must match. That entry up there has 40 significant bits, or 5 bytes, and it would match addresses from 00-00-0C-07-AC-00 through 00-00-0C-07-AC-FF. The mask doesn't even have to 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 info from the IEEE Registration Authority was distributed in this format as the global manuf file. That info is now compiled in to speed up program startup — but you can still write the internal info out in this format with tshark -G manuf. 🏃‍♀️💨

On top of the manuf file, another file with the same format, wka, is looked for in the global directory. That one ships with Wireshark and contains data about well-known MAC addresses and address ranges assembled from various non-IEEE but respected sources. Respect where respect is due. 🫶

💜 Name Resolution (services) 💜

The services file translates port numbers into names. Both the global services file and personal services files are used if they exist. 🔍

Standard services file syntax, bestie: every line has one (service) name and one transport identifier separated by white space. The transport identifier is one port number plus one transport protocol name (typically tcp, udp, or sctp) with a / between them.

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 info from the IANA Registry was distributed in this format as the global services file. It's now compiled in to speed up program startup, but the internal info can be written out in this format with tshark -G services. ✨

🌸 Name Resolution (ipxnets) 🌸

The ipxnets files correlate 4-byte IPX network numbers to names. The global ipxnets file is tried first, and if that address isn't found there, the personal one is tried next. 🔄

Format is the same as the ethers file, except each address is four bytes instead of six. Bonus: the address can also be written as a single hexadecimal number — way 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 — 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 translates SS7 point codes into names. It's read from the personal configuration directory. 📖

Every line in this file is one network indicator, then a dash, then a point code in decimal, then a node name separated by whitespace. An example is:

2-1234 MyPointCode1

🧚 Name Resolution (vlans) 🧚

The vlans file translates VLAN tag IDs into names. It's read from the personal configuration directory too. 🗂️

Every line here is one VLAN tag ID separated by whitespace from a name. An example is:

123    Server-Lan
2049   HR-Client-LAN

👑 Color Filters (Coloring Rules) 👑

The colorfilters files hold system-wide and personal color filters. Every line is one filter: it starts with the string displayed in the dialog box, then the corresponding display filter, then the background and foreground colors get appended onto the end:

# 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, and it's 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. No blending, no combining, it's one or the other. 💅

🔥 Plugins 🔥

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

On UNIX-compatible systems — 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). 🪟

So like, Lua plugins live in the plugin folders, and the compiled ones go in subfolders of those plugin folders — and the subfolder name is literally the Wireshark minor version number (X.Y). ✨ There's another hierarchical level for each Wireshark plugin type (libwireshark, libwiretap and codecs). So for example, the location for a libwireshark plugin foo.so (foo.dll on Windows) would be PLUGINDIR/X.Y/epan (fun fact bestie: 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.)

Also key to know: 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 get enabled and disabled in exactly the same way as protocols built into Wireshark. No cap. 🦋

🌈 OUTPUT 🌈

okay so strato uses UTF-8 to represent strings internally. But sometimes the output might not be valid — like, a dissector might generate invalid UTF-8 character sequences. Programs reading strato output should expect UTF-8 and be prepared for invalid output. 💅

If strato detects that it's writing to a TTY on a UNIX-compatible system, such as Linux, macOS, \*BSD, Solaris, and AIX, and the locale does not support UTF-8, output will be re-encoded to match the current locale.

If strato detects that it's writing to the console on Windows, dissection output will be encoded as UTF-16LE. Other output will be UTF-8. If extended characters don't display properly in your terminal you might try setting your console code page to UTF-8 (chcp 65001) and using a modern terminal application if possible. 🫶

💜 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 💜

  • 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, strato will call abort(3) when a dissector bug is encountered. abort(3) will cause the program to exit abnormally; if you're running strato in a debugger, it should halt in the debugger and allow inspection of the process, and, if you're 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, strato 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're running strato in a debugger, it should halt in the debugger and allow inspection of the process, and, if you're 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_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.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

wireshark-filter(4), stratoshark(1), editcap(1), dumpcap(1)

🌸 NOTES 🌸

This is the manual page for strato 0.9.5. strato is part of the Stratoshark distribution. The latest version of Stratoshark can be found at https://stratoshark.org/. 💖

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

👑 AUTHORS 👑

strato uses the same dissection code as Stratoshark and Wireshark, as well as using many other modules from Stratoshark and Wireshark; see the list of authors in the Wireshark man page for a list of authors of that code. 🫶

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎉💅 This little masterpiece is the manual page for strato 0.9.5, dated 2026-05-24 — go forth and dissect, periodt. ⭐💜

📦 where this page comes from