Ubuntu Manpage: iptstate - A top-like display of IP Tables state table entries

NAME

       iptstate - A top-like display of IP Tables state table entries

SYNOPSIS

       iptstate [<options>]

DESCRIPTION

       iptstate displays information held in the IP Tables state table in real-time in a top-like
       format.  Output can be sorted by any field, or any field reversed.  Users  can  choose  to
       have the output only print once and exit, rather than the top-like system. Refresh rate is
       configurable, IPs can be resolved to names, output can be formatted, the  display  can  be
       filtered, and color coding are among some of the many features.

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

-c, --no-color
Toggle color-code by protocol

-C, --counters
Toggle display of bytes/packets counters

-d, --dst-filter IP
Only show states with a destination of IP Note, that this must be an IP, hostname
matching is not yet supported.

-D --dstpt-filter port
Only show states with a destination port of port

-h, --help
Show help message

-l, --lookup
Show hostnames instead of IP addresses. Enabling this will also enable -L to
prevent an ever-growing number of DNS requests.

-m, --mark-truncated
Mark truncated hostnames with a '+'

-o, --no-dynamic
Toggle dynamic formatting

-L, --no-dns
Skip outgoing DNS lookup states

-f, --no-loopback
Filter states on loopback

-p, --no-scroll
No scrolling (don't use a "pad"). See SCROLLING AND PADS for more information.

-r, --reverse
Reverse sort order

-R, --rate seconds
Refresh rate, followed by rate in seconds. Note that this is for statetop mode, and
not applicable for single-run mode (--single).

-1, --single
Single run (no curses)

-b, --sort column
This determines what column to sort by. Options:
S Source Port
d Destination IP (or Name)
D Destination Port
p Protocol
s State
t TTL
b Bytes
P Packets
To sort by Source IP (or Name), don't use -b. Sorting by bytes/packets is only
available for kernels that support it, and only when compiled against
libnetfilter_conntrack (the default).

-s, --src-filter IP
Only show states with a source of IP. Note, that this must be an IP, hostname
matching is not yet supported.

-S, --srcpt-filter port
Only show states with a source port of port

-t, --totals
Toggle display of totals

INTERACTIVE OPTIONS

As of version 2.0, all command-line options are now available interactively using the same
key as the short-option. For example, --sort is also -b, so while iptstate is running,
hitting b will change the sorting to the next column. Similarly, t toggles the display of
totals, and so on.

There are also extra interactive options: B - change sorting to previous column (opposite
of b); q - quit; and x - delete the currently highlighted state from the netfilter
conntrack table.

Additionally, the following keys are used to navigate within iptstate:

Up or j - Move up one line

Down or k - Move down one line

Left or h - Move left one column

Right or l - Move right one column

PageUp or ^u - Move up one page

PageDown or ^d - Move down one page

Home - Go to the top

End - Go to the end

In many cases, iptstate needs to prompt you in order to change something. For example, if
you want to set or change the source-ip filter, when you hit s, iptstate will pop up a
prompt at the top of the window to ask you what you want to set it to.

Note that like many UNIX applications, ctrl-G will tell iptstate "nevermind" - it'll
remove the prompt and forget you ever hit s.

In most cases, a blank response means "clear" - clear the source IP filter, for example.

At anytime while iptstate is running, you can hit h to get to the interactive help which
will display all the current settings to you as well give you a list of all interactive
commands available.

While running, space will immediately update the display. Iptstate should gracefully
handle all window resizes, but if it doesn't, you can force it to re-calculate and re-draw
the screen with a ctrl-L.

Note that hitting l to enable hostname resolution while in interactive mode will also
enable L to skip all DNS entries (to prevent an ever-growing number of DNS requests).

SCROLLING AND PADS

       For almost any user, there is no reason to turn off scrolling. The ability  to  turn  this
       off  -  and  especially  the  ability  to  toggle  this  interactively  - is done more for
       theoretical completeness than anything else.

       But, nonetheless, here are the details. Typically in a curses  application  you  create  a
       "window."  Windows  don't  scroll,  however. They are, at most, the size of your terminal.
       Windows provide double-buffering to make refreshing as  fast  and  seemless  as  possible.
       However, to enable scrolling, one has to use "pads" instead of windows. Pads can be bigger
       than the current terminal. Then all necessary data is written to the pad, and  "scrolling"
       becomes a function of just showing the right part of that pad on the screen.

       However,  pads  do  not  have  the double-buffering feature that windows have. Thus, there
       _might_ be some case where for some user using some very strange machine, having scrolling
       enabled  could cause poor refreshing. Given the nature of the way iptstate uses the screen
       though, I find this highly unlikely. In addition, the scrolling method uses a little  more
       memory.  However,  iptstate  is not a memory intensive application, so this shouldn't be a
       problem even on low-memory systems.

       Nonetheless, if this does negatively affect you, the option to turn it off is there.

EXIT STATUS

       Anything other than 0 indicates and error. A list of current exit statuses are below:

       0      Success

       1      Bad command-line arguments

       2      Error communicating with the netfilter subsystem.

       3      Terminal too narrow

BUGS

       We don't support filtering on resolved names, and we don't support filtering on  networks.
       IPv6 support is new and the dynamic formatting doesn't yet always handle IPv6 addresses as
       well as it should.

BUG REPORTS

       All bugs should be reported to Phil Dibowitz <phil AT ipom DOT com>. Please see the README
       and  BUGS  for more information on bug reports. Please read the WISHLIST before sending in
       features you hope to see.

NOTES

       iptstate does a lot of work to try to fit everything on the screen in an easy-to-read way.
       However,  in  some  cases, hostnames may need to be truncated (in lookup mode). Similarly,
       IPv6 addresses may need to be truncated. The truncation of names happens  from  the  right
       for  source  because  you  most  likely  know  your own domain name, and from the left for
       destination because knowing your users are connection  to  "mail.a."  doesn't  help  much.
       However, for addresses, this is reversed.

       iptstate  does  not  automatically  handle  window-resizes  while  in the interactive help
       screen. If you do resize while in this window, you should return to the main  window,  hit
       ctrl-L  to  re-calculate  and  re-draw  the screen, and then, if you choose, return to the
       interactive help.

       iptstate currently uses libnetfilter_conntrack to access the  netfilter  connection  state
       table. However, older versions read out of /proc/net/ip_conntrack, and the current version
       can still be compiled to do this. This deprecated method can be racy on SMP  systems,  and
       can  hurt  performance  on very heavily loaded firewalls. This deprecated method should be
       avoided - support will be removed in future versions.

AUTHOR

       iptstate was written by Phil Dibowitz <phil AT ipom DOT com>
       http://www.phildev.net/iptstate/

                                            JUNE 2012                                 IPTSTATE(8)