README

Fri May 25, 2001

Shawn Ostermann
ostermann@cs.ohiou.edu

tcptrace is a TCP connection analysis tool.  It can tell you detailed
information about TCP connections by sifting through dump files.  The
dump file formats supported are:
   Standard tcpdump format (you need the pcap library)
   Sun's snoop format
   Macintosh Etherpeek format
   HP/NetMetrix protocol analysis format
   NS simulator output format
   NetScout
   NLANR Tsh Format

To see the graphs, you'll also need Tim Shepard's xplot program,
available at http://www.xplot.org

I've switched to using "./configure" to set up the Makefile.  That
seems to have eased portability problems a great deal.  Just say
"./configure" and then "make" to build the program.

Most of the rest of the Docs are on the web.  Check out:
  http://www.tcptrace.org/


Supported Platforms
-------------------

The program is developed here at OU on Sparc machines running Solaris
8.  Our intention is that it also run under common Unix variants.  In
particular, we try to test each release on the following platforms:
  NetBSD	
  FreeBSD	
  Linux		
  Darwin/OSX (Mac)
  Tru64 (Alpha)

We appreciate feedback and fixes on these or other platforms and will
attempt to modify the program to work on other platforms if we can get
enough help from people with access to those platforms and the changes
are not too "esthetically disagreeable".

Running the program
-------------------

Some simple examples:

0) What are the args and what do they mean???
     tcptrace 

1) Run the program quickly over a dump file
     tcptrace dumpfile

2) Get longer output
     tcptrace -l dumpfile

3) Generate lots of pretty plot files (you need xplot to see them)
     tcptrace -G dumpfile

4) Print the segment contents as you go
     tcptrace -p dumpfile

5) Print progress info (useful for large files)
     tcptrace -t dumpfile

Of course, you can chain arguments together until you get just what
you want.  


Let me know what you think....

Shawn