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Command Line Options

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Command Line Options

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The following command line options are available for Packetbeat. To use these options, you need to start Packetbeat in the foreground.

Run ./packetbeat -h to see the full list of options from the command line.

Packet-Beat Specific Options

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These command line options are specific to Packetbeat:

-I <file>: Pass a pcap file as input to Packetbeat instead of reading packets from the network. This option is useful only for testing Packetbeat. Example: -I ~/pcaps/network_traffic.pcap.
-O: Read packets one by one by pressing Enter after each. This option is useful only for testing Packetbeat.
-devices: Print the list of devices that are available for sniffing.
-dump <file>: Write all captured packets to a file. This option is useful for troubleshooting Packetbeat.
-l <n>: Read the pcap file n number of times. Use this option in combination with the -I option. For an infinite loop, use 0. The -l option is useful only for testing Packetbeat.
-t: Read the packets from the pcap file as fast as possible without sleeping. Use this option in combination with the -I option. The -t option is useful only for testing Packetbeat.
-waitstop <n>: Wait an additional n seconds before exiting.

Other Options

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These command line options from libbeat are also available for Packetbeat:

-E <setting>=<value>

Override a specific configuration setting. For example:

sudo ./packetbeat -c packetbeat.yml -E name=mybeat

This setting is applied to the currently running Packetbeat process. The Packetbeat configuration file is not changed.

-N

Disable the publishing of events to the defined output. This option is useful only for testing the Beat.

-c <file>

Pass the location of a configuration file for the Beat.

-configtest

Test the configuration file and then exit. This option is useful for troubleshooting the configuration of a Beat.

-cpuprofile <output file>

Write CPU profile data to the specified file. This option is useful for troubleshooting the Beat.

-d <selectors>

Enable debugging for the specified selectors. For the selectors, you can specify a comma-separated list of components, or you can use -d "*" to enable debugging for all components. For example, -d "publish" displays all the "publish" related messages.

-e

Log to stderr and disable syslog/file output.

-httpprof [<host>]:<port>

Start http server for profiling. This option is useful for troubleshooting and profiling the Beat.

-memprofile <output file>

Write memory profile data to the specified output file. This option is useful for troubleshooting the Beat.

-path.config

Set the default location for configuration (e.g. the Elasticsearch template). See the Directory Layout section for details.

-path.data

Set the default location for data files. See the Directory Layout section for details.

-path.home

Set the default location for miscellaneous files. See the Directory Layout section for details.

-path.logs

Set the default location for log files. See the Directory Layout section for details.

-setup

Load the sample Kibana dashboards. By default, this downloads an archive file containing the Beats dashboards from the elastic.co website. See the Dashboards section for more details and more options.

-v

Enable verbose output to show INFO-level messages.

-version

Display the Beat version and exit.

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