Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] newbie question, tshark input from stdin

From: Jaap Keuter <jaap.keuter@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 08:33:05 +0100
Hi,

That's probably because -r refers to a file (which you can seek through), while
-i refers to a 'stream' (which you cannot seek). Now, tcpdump is single pass
while *shark has multi pass capability *for files*. Categorizing pipes in *shark
as files would open up that multi pass option, which it cannot handle, while
tcpdump would never do that so it can access a pipe as a file.

Thanks,
Jaap


On 02/04/2014 04:22 PM, Christopher Maynard wrote:
> Evan Huus <eapache@...> writes:
> 
>> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 5:43 PM, Christopher Maynard
>> <Christopher.Maynard@...> wrote:
>>> Evan Huus <eapache <at> ...> writes:
>>>
>>>> The -i flag is for specifying a network interface for live capture (eg
>>>> eth0) and so doesn't accept "-" to signify stdin.
>>>
>>> The tshark man page[1] would disagree.  I just tested this with 1.10.5 and
>>> it worked as documented:
>>
>> Whoops, yes, you're right, I made a false assumption.
> 
> Does anyone know why dumpcap, tshark and Wireshark read from a pipe using
> "-i -" and not "-r -"?  It seems more intuitive to me to use "-r" than "-i"
> and it would match tcpdump's syntax[1].  I suppose either "-r -" or "-i -"
> could be allowed?
> 
> - Chris
> 
> [1]: http://www.tcpdump.org/tcpdump_man.html
>