BITTWIST(1) General Commands Manual BITTWIST(1)

bittwist -- pcap based ethernet packet generator

bittwist [ -dvh ] [ -i interface ] [ -s length ] [ -l loop ] [ -c count ] [ -p pps ] [ -t gap ] [ -r rate ] pcap-file(s)

This document describes the bittwist program, the pcap(3) based Ethernet packet generator. Bittwist is designed to work under Ethernet II (IEEE 802.3) network with an MTU of up to 1500 bytes on 10Mbps (10Base-T), 100Mbps (100BASE-TX), or 1000Mbps (1000BASE-T) link speed. Packets are generated from saved tcpdump(1) capture file referred to as trace file in this document. Some familiarity with tcpdump(1) and its basic options are assumed in this document. Since bittwist uses functions provided by pcap(3) library, e.g. pcap_open_live() and pcap_sendpacket(), to write packets onto the network, it may require that you have special privileges, e.g. read access to /dev/bpf* on BSD or root access on Linux, to generate packets or to enumerate network devices with, for example, the -d flag.

Bittwist will, if not run with the -s flag, inject each packet up to its actual length (on-wire) instead of its captured length. If the captured length is less than the actual length, bittwist will pad the packet with zeros up to its actual length prior to injection. Bittwist will, if not run with the -p, -t, or -r flag, inject packets from a trace file based on the captured intervals, in particular, the timestamp difference between two adjacent packets, except for the first packet in a trace file, which is always injected immediately. Bittwist is designed to not to interfere with the packet data; it merely read a packet and inject it as is onto the network. If modification is desired prior to injection of a packet, you can use the bittwiste(1) program, which does just that.

Print a list of network interfaces available.
Print timestamp for each packet.
Print timestamp and hex data for each packet.
Send pcap-file(s) out onto the network through interface.
Packet length to send (in bytes). Set length to:
0 : Send the actual packet length. This is the default.
-1 : Send the captured length.
or any other value from 14 to 1514.
Send pcap-file(s) out onto the network for loop times. Set loop to 0 to send pcap-file(s) until stopped. To stop, type Control-C.
Send up to count packets. Default is to send all packets from pcap-file(s).
Send pps packets per second. Value for pps must be between 1 to 1000000.
Set inter-packet gap in seconds, ignoring the captured interval between packets in pcap-file(s). Value for gap must be between 1 to 86400.
Limit the sending to rate Mbps. Value for rate must be between 0 to 10000. This flag is intended to set the desired packet throughput. If you want to send packets at line rate of 1000 Mbps, try -r 1000. If you want to send packets without rate limit, try -r 0. This flag is typically used with -l 0 to send pcap-file(s) until stopped.
Print version information and usage.

bittwiste(1), pcap(3), tcpdump(1)

File your bug report and send to:

Addy Yeow <ayeowch@gmail.com>

Make sure you are using the latest stable version before submitting your bug report.

If you run bittwist with -r flag, pcap_sendpacket() may return an error with the following error string:

send: No buffer space available

We recommend that you adjust the value for -r flag to limit the packet throughput to a lower level that is supported by your interface, e.g. start from -r 10 to inject packets at a maximum rate of 10Mbps and adjust the value accordingly.

Copyright (C) 2006 - 2023 Addy Yeow <ayeowch@gmail.com>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

Original author and current maintainer:

Addy Yeow

The current version is available from https://bittwist.sourceforge.io

6 July 2023