tcpreplay-edit(1)
| TCPREPLAY(1) | Tcpreplay Suite | TCPREPLAY(1) |
NAME
tcpreplay - Replay network traffic stored in pcap files
SYNOPSIS
tcpreplay [OPTION]... <pcap_file(s)> | <pcap_dir(s)>
DESCRIPTION
tcpreplay is a tool for replaying network traffic from files saved with tcpdump or other tools which write pcap(3) files.
The basic operation of tcpreplay is to resend all packets from the input file(s) at the speed at which they were recorded, or a specified data rate, up to as fast as the hardware is capable.
Optionally, the traffic can be split between two interfaces, written to files, filtered and edited in various ways, providing the means to test firewalls, NIDS and other network devices.
On Linux, raw IP (layer 3 only) interfaces such as WireGuard and tun are supported automatically: any layer 2 header in the input file (Ethernet including VLAN tags, Linux SLL, loopback, ...) is stripped and packets are sent as bare IPv4/IPv6. Non-IP packets such as ARP cannot be sent on these interfaces and are reported as failed.
For more details, please see the Tcpreplay Manual at: <http://tcpreplay.appneta.com>
OPTIONS
-r, --portmap=string
Specify a list of comma delimited port mappings consisting of colon delimited port number pairs. Each colon delimited port pair consists of the port to match followed by the port number to rewrite.
Examples:
--portmap=80:8000 --portmap=8080:80 # 80->8000 and 8080->80 --portmap=8000,8080,88888:80 # 3 different ports become 80 --portmap=8000-8999:80 # ports 8000 to 8999 become 80
-s, --seed=number
Causes the source and destination IPv4/v6 addresses to be pseudo randomized but still maintain client/server relationships. Since the randomization is deterministic based on the seed, you can reuse the same seed value to recreate the traffic.
-N, --pnat=string
Takes a comma delimited series of colon delimited CIDR netblock pairs. Each netblock pair is evaluated in order against the IP addresses. If the IP address in the packet matches the first netblock, it is rewritten using the second netblock as a mask against the high order bits.
IPv4 Example:
--pnat=192.168.0.0/16:10.77.0.0/16,172.16.0.0/12:10.1.0.0/24
IPv6 Example:
--pnat=[2001:db8::/32]:[dead::/16],[2001:db8::/32]:[::ffff:0:0/96]
-S, --srcipmap=string
Works just like the --pnat option, but only affects the source IP addresses in the IPv4/v6 header.
-D, --dstipmap=string
Works just like the --pnat option, but only affects the destination IP addresses in the IPv4/v6 header.
-e, --endpoints=string
Takes a pair of colon delimited IPv4/v6 addresses which will be used to rewrite all traffic to appear to be between the two IP addresses.
IPv4 Example:
--endpoints=172.16.0.1:172.16.0.2
IPv6 Example:
--endpoints=[2001:db8::dead:beef]:[::ffff:0:0:ac:f:0:2]
--tcp-sequence=number
Change all TCP sequence numbers, and related sequence-acknowledgement numbers. They will be shifted by a random amount based on the provided seed.
-b, --skipbroadcast
By default --seed, --pnat and --endpoints will rewrite broadcast and multicast IPv4/v6 and MAC addresses. Setting this flag will keep broadcast/multicast IPv4/v6 and MAC addresses from being rewritten.
-C, --fixcsum
Causes each IPv4/v6 packet to have their checksums recalculated and fixed. Automatically enabled for packets modified with --seed, --pnat, --endpoints or --fixlen.
--fixhdrlen
By default, tcpreplay will send packets with the original packet length, However, you may want the packet length revised to minimum packet size. Using this option, tcpreplay will rewrite (fix) the packet length, and recalculate checksums when packet length changes. Caution: undesired packet changes may occur when this option is specified.
-m, --mtu=number
Override the default 1500 byte MTU size for determining the maximum padding length (--fixlen=pad) or when truncating (--mtu-trunc).
--mtu-trunc
Similar to --fixlen, this option will truncate data in packets from Layer 3 and above to be no larger then the MTU.
-E, --efcs
Note, this option is pretty dangerous! We do not actually check to see if a FCS actually exists in the frame, we just blindly delete the last 4 bytes. Hence, you should only use this if you know know that your OS provides the FCS when reading raw packets.
--ttl=string
Allows you to modify the TTL/Hop Limit of all the IPv4/v6 packets. Specify a number to hard-code the value or +/-value to increase or decrease by the value provided (limited to 1-255).
Examples:
--ttl=10 --ttl=+7 --ttl=-64
--tos=number
Allows you to override the TOS (also known as DiffServ/ECN) value in IPv4.
--tclass=number
Allows you to override the IPv6 Traffic Class field.
--flowlabel=number
Allows you to override the 20bit IPv6 Flow Label field. Has no effect on IPv4 packets.
-F, --fixlen=string
Packets may be truncated during capture if the snaplen is smaller then the packet. This option allows you to modify the packet to pad the packet back out to the size stored in the IPv4/v6 header or rewrite the IP header total length to reflect the stored packet length.
pad
trunc
del
--fuzz-seed=number
This fuzzing was designed as to test layer 7 protocols such as voip protocols. It modifies randomly 1 out of X packets (where X = --fuzz-factor) in order for stateful protocols to cover more of their code. The random fuzzing actions focus on data start and end because it often is the part of the data application protocols base their decisions on.
Possible fuzzing actions list: * drop packet * reduce packet size * edit packet Bytes:
* Not all Bytes have the same probability of appearance in real life.
Replace with 0x00, 0xFF, or a random byte with equal likelihood.
* Not all Bytes have the same significance in a packet.
Replace the start, the end, or the middle of the packet with equal likelihood.
--fuzz-factor=number
Sets the ratio of for --fuzz-seed option. By default this value is 8, which means 1 in 8 packets are modified by fuzzing. Note that this ratio is based on the random number generated by the supplied fuzz seed. Therefore by default you cannot expect that exactly every eighth packet will be modified.
--skipl2broadcast
By default, editing Layer 2 addresses will rewrite broadcast and multicast MAC addresses. Setting this flag will keep broadcast/multicast MAC addresses from being rewritten.
--dlt=string
By default, no DLT (data link type) conversion will be made. To change the DLT type of the output pcap, select one of the following values:
enet
hdlc
jnpr_eth
pppserial
user
--enet-dmac=string
Takes a pair of comma deliminated ethernet MAC addresses which will replace the destination MAC address of outbound packets. The first MAC address will be used for the server to client traffic and the optional second MAC address will be used for the client to server traffic.
Example:
--enet-dmac=00:12:13:14:15:16,00:22:33:44:55:66
--enet-smac=string
Takes a pair of comma deliminated ethernet MAC addresses which will replace the source MAC address of outbound packets. The first MAC address will be used for the server to client traffic and the optional second MAC address will be used for the client to server traffic.
Example:
--enet-smac=00:12:13:14:15:16,00:22:33:44:55:66
--enet-subsmac=string
Allows you to rewrite ethernet MAC addresses of packets. It takes comma delimited pair or MACs address and rewrites all occurrences of the first MAC with the value of the second MAC. Example:
--enet-subsmac=00:12:13:14:15:16,00:22:33:44:55:66
--enet-mac-seed=number
Allows you to randomize ethernet MAC addresses of packets, mostly like what --seed option does for IPv4/IPv6 addresses.
--enet-mac-seed-keep-bytes=number
Keep some bytes untouched when usinging --enet-mac-seed option.
--enet-vlan=string
Allows you to rewrite ethernet frames to add a 802.1q header to standard 802.3 ethernet headers or remove the 802.1q VLAN tag information.
add
Note that you will be allowed to run this option multiple times to create more than 2 VLAN headers, however those packets will be valid. At most you should have 2 X 802.1q VLAN tags, or outer an 802.1ad and an inner 802.1q VLAN tag.
del
--enet-vlan-tag=number
Mandatory when --enet-vlan=add is used on packets that are not already VLAN tagged.
--enet-vlan-cfi=number
When omitted, the CFI bit of an existing VLAN header is preserved; a newly added tag on a previously untagged packet defaults to 0 (a one-time notice is printed).
--enet-vlan-pri=number
When omitted, the priority of an existing VLAN header is preserved; a newly added tag on a previously untagged packet defaults to 0 (a one-time notice is printed).
--enet-vlan-proto=string
Allows you to specify the protocol of the added VLAN tags.
802.1q
802.1ad
--hdlc-control=number
The Cisco HDLC header has a 1 byte "control" field. Apparently this should always be 0, but if you can use any 1 byte value.
--hdlc-address=number
The Cisco HDLC header has a 1 byte "address" field which has two valid values:
0x0F
0xBF
You can however specify any single byte value.
--user-dlt=number
Set the DLT value of the output pcap file.
--user-dlink=string
Provide a series of comma deliminated hex values which will be used to rewrite or create the Layer 2 header of the packets. The first instance of this argument will rewrite both server and client traffic, but if this argument is specified a second time, it will be used for the client traffic.
Example:
--user-dlink=01,02,03,04,05,06,00,1A,2B,3C,4D,5E,6F,08,00
-d, --dbug=number
If configured with --enable-debug, then you can specify a verbosity level for debugging output. Higher numbers increase verbosity.
-q, --quiet
Print nothing except the statistics at the end of the run
-T, --timer=string
Allows you to select the packet timing method to use:
nano
select
ioport
gtod [default]
--maxsleep=number
Set a limit for the maximum number of milliseconds that tcpreplay will sleep between packets. Effectively prevents long delays between packets without effecting the majority of packets. Default is disabled.
-v, --verbose
-A, --decode=string
When enabling verbose mode (-v) you may also specify one or more additional arguments to pass to tcpdump to modify the way packets are decoded. By default, -n and -l are used. Be sure to quote the arguments like: -A "-axxx" so that they are not interpreted by tcpreplay. Please see the tcpdump(1) man page for a complete list of options.
-K, --preload_pcap
This option loads the specified pcap(s) into RAM before starting to send in order to improve replay performance while introducing a startup performance hit. Preloading can be used with or without --loop. This option also suppresses flow statistics collection for every iteration, which can significantly reduce memory usage. Flow statistics are predicted based on options supplied and statistics collected from the first loop iteration.
-c, --cachefile=string
If you have a pcap file you would like to use to send bi-directional traffic through a device (firewall, router, IDS, etc) then using tcpprep you can create a cachefile which tcpreplay will use to split the traffic across two network interfaces.
-2, --dualfile
If you captured network traffic using a network tap, then you can end up with two pcap files- one for each direction. This option will replay these two files at the same time, one on each interface and inter-mix them using the timestamps in each.
-i, --intf1=string
Required network interface used to send either all traffic or traffic which is marked as 'primary' via tcpprep. Primary traffic is usually client-to-server or inbound (RX) on khial virtual interfaces.
-I, --intf2=string
Optional network interface used to send traffic which is marked as 'secondary' via tcpprep. Secondary traffic is usually server-to-client or outbound (TX) on khial virtual interfaces. Generally, it only makes sense to use this option with --cachefile.
-w, --write=string
Optional pcap file name used to receive traffic.
--include=string
Override default of processing all packets stored in the capture file and only send packets that are part of a supplied list of packet numbers.
-x P:1-5,9,15,72-
would skip packets 1 through 5, the 9th and 15th packet, and packets 72 until the end of the file
--exclude=string
Override default of processing all packets stored in the capture file and only send packets that are NOT part of a supplied list of packet numbers.
-x P:1-5,9,15,72-
would skip packets 1 through 5, the 9th and 15th packet, and packets 72 until the end of the file
--listnics
-l, --loop=number
--loopdelay-ms=number
--loopdelay-ns=number
By default, tcpreplay will use loop delay with microsecond accuracy (loopdelay-ms). In order to use loop delay with nanosecond accuracy you need to use nano packet timing mode.
--pktlen
By default, tcpreplay will send packets based on the size of the "snaplen" stored in the pcap file which is usually the correct thing to do. However, occasionally, tools will store more bytes then told to. By specifying this option, tcpreplay will ignore the snaplen field and instead try to send packets based on the original packet length. Bad things may happen if you specify this option.
-L, --limit=number
By default, tcpreplay will send all the packets. Alternatively, you can specify a maximum number of packets to send.
--duration=number
By default, tcpreplay will send all the packets. Alternatively, you can specify a maximum number of seconds to transmit.
-x, --multiplier=string
Specify a value to modify the packet replay speed. Examples:
2.0 will replay traffic at twice the speed captured
0.7 will replay traffic at 70% the speed captured
-p, --pps=string
Specify a value to regulate the packet replay to a specific packet-per-second rate. Examples:
200 will replay traffic at 200 packets per second
0.25 will replay traffic at 15 packets per minute
-M, --mbps=string
Specify a floating point value for the Mbps rate that tcpreplay should send packets at.
-t, --topspeed
-o, --oneatatime
Allows you to step through one or more packets at a time.
--pps-multi=number
When trying to send packets at very high rates, the time between each packet can be so short that it is impossible to accurately sleep for the required period of time. This option allows you to send multiple packets at a time, thus allowing for longer sleep times which can be more accurately implemented.
--loss=string
Set to a percentage between 0 and 100 to simulate packet loss at send. Loss is random: each packet is independently dropped with the given probability, not on a fixed pattern (e.g. not every Nth packet), so the actual number dropped will vary slightly run to run. Dropped packets are not sent and are not counted as failed.
Examples:
25 will drop approximately one quarter of packets, chosen at random
100 will drop every packet (nothing will be sent)
--unique-ip
Ensure IPv4 and IPv6 packets will be unique for each --loop iteration. This is done in a way that will not alter packet CRC, and therefore will generally not affect performance. This option will significantly increase the flows/sec over generated over multiple loop iterations.
--unique-ip-loops=string
Number of --loop iterations before a new unique IP is assigned. Default is 1. Assumes both --loop and --unique-ip.
--netmap
This feature will detect netmap capable network drivers on Linux and BSD systems. If detected, the network driver is bypassed for the execution duration, and network buffers will be written to directly. This will allow you to achieve full line rates on commodity network adapters, similar to rates achieved by commercial network traffic generators. Note that bypassing the network driver will disrupt other applications connected through the test interface. See INSTALL for more information.
This feature can also be enabled by specifying an interface as 'netmap:<intf>' or 'vale:<intf>. For example 'netmap:eth0' specifies netmap over interface eth0.
--nm-delay=number
Number of seconds to delay after netmap is loaded. Required to ensure interfaces are fully up before netmap transmit. Requires netmap option. Default is 10 seconds.
--no-flow-stats
Suppress the collection and printing of flow statistics. This option may improve performance when not using --preload-pcap option, otherwise its only function is to suppress printing.
The flow feature will track and print statistics of the flows being sent. A flow is loosely defined as a unique combination of a 5-tuple, i.e. source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port and protocol.
If --loop is specified, the flows from one iteration to the next will not be unique, unless the packets are altered. Use --unique-ip or tcpreplay-edit to alter packets between iterations.
--flow-expiry=number
This option will track and report flow expirations based on the flow idle times. The timestamps within the pcap file are used to determine the expiry, not the actual timestamp of the packets are replayed. For example, a value of 30 suggests that if no traffic is seen on a flow for 30 seconds, any subsequent traffic would be considered a new flow, and thereby will increment the flows and flows per second (fps) statistics.
This option can be used to optimize flow timeout settings for flow products. Setting the timeout low may lead to flows being dropped when in fact the flow is simply slow to respond. Configuring your flow timeouts too high may increase resources required by your flow product.
Note that using this option while replaying at higher than original speeds can lead to inflated flows and fps counts.
Default is 0 (no expiry) and a typical value is 30-120 seconds.
-P, --pid
--stats=number
Note that timed delays are a "best effort" and long delays between sending packets may cause equally long delays between printing statistics.
-W, --suppress-warnings
--xdp
This feature will detect AF_XDP capable network drivers on Linux systems that have 'libxdp-dev' and 'libbpf-dev' installed. If detected, the network stack is bypassed and packets are sent directly to an eBPF enabled driver directly. This will allow you to achieve full line rates on commodity network adapters, similar to rates achieved by commercial network traffic generators.
--xdp-queue=number
An AF_XDP socket is bound to a single hardware queue. Queue 0 is used by default; on a multi-queue adapter you may need a different one, since the queue must exist on the adapter and traffic steering may not use queue 0. If the queue does not exist the socket cannot be created.
--xdp-no-fallback
By default, if an AF_XDP socket cannot be set up on the interface - the driver has no XDP support at all, or the requested queue does not exist - tcpreplay warns and replays using its default injection method instead of failing. Use this to make that case a hard error, which is what you want when benchmarking: a silent change of injection method would change what is being measured.
--io-uring
This feature is available on Linux systems with a kernel that supports io_uring and 'liburing-dev' installed. Packets are still sent through a PF_PACKET raw socket, but sends are submitted asynchronously through an io_uring submission queue, which reduces per-packet syscall overhead and lets the kernel process transmissions while tcpreplay prepares the next packet.
--raw
By default, tcpreplay injects packets with PF_PACKET, which writes directly to the network driver below the IP stack. This means locally-generated netfilter/iptables rules (and anything else hooked into the normal Linux IP stack) never see the traffic, even when replaying it on the same host that has those rules configured.
This option instead sends each packet’s IP header and payload through a PF_INET raw IP (SOCK_RAW) socket bound to the interface given by --intf1/--intf2, so the kernel’s normal IP stack — including netfilter/iptables — processes it like any other locally-generated packet.
The trade-off is L2 fidelity: the kernel builds its own Ethernet framing for the outgoing packet, so the source/destination MAC addresses from the capture are not reproduced, and only IPv4 packets are currently supported. This option is Linux-only and requires appropriate privileges to open a raw socket (typically root or CAP_NET_RAW).
-V, --version
-h, --less-help
-H, --help
--more-help
--save-opts[=string]
--load-opts=string, --no-load-opts
OPTION PRESETS
Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s). The homerc file is $$/, unless that is a directory; in that case .tcpreplayrc is searched for within it.
FILES
See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.
EXIT STATUS
One of the following exit values will be returned:
0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)
1 (EXIT_FAILURE)
66 (EX_NOINPUT)
70 (EX_SOFTWARE)
AUTHORS
Copyright 2013-2026 Fred Klassen - AppNeta by Broadcom
Copyright 2000-2012 Aaron Turner
For support please use the <tcpreplay-users@lists.sourceforge.net> mailing list.
The latest version of this software is always available from: <http://tcpreplay.appneta.com/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2000-2026 Aaron Turner and Fred Klassen, all rights reserved. This program is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later.
BUGS
Please send bug reports to: <tcpreplay-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
NOTES
This manual page was generated from the tcpreplay option definitions.
| 2026-08-15 | Tcpreplay Suite |
