Provided by: snort_2.9.7.0-5build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       Snort - open source network intrusion detection system

SYNOPSIS

       snort  [-bCdDeEfHIMNOpqQsTUvVwWxXy?]  [-A alert-mode ] [-B address-conversion-mask ] [-c rules-file ] [-F
       bpf-file ] [-g group-name ] [-G id ] [-h home-net ] [-i interface ] [-k checksum-mode ] [-K  logging-mode
       ]  [-l  log-dir  ] [-L bin-log-file ] [-m umask ] [-n packet-count ] [-P snap-length ] [-r tcpdump-file ]
       [-R name ] [-S variable=value ] [-t chroot_directory ] [-u user-name ]  [-Z  pathname  ]  [--logid  id  ]
       [--perfmon-file  pathname  ]  [--pid-path  pathname  ]  [--snaplen  snap-length  ] [--help ] [--version ]
       [--dynamic-engine-lib file  ]  [--dynamic-engine-lib-dir  directory  ]  [--dynamic-detection-lib  file  ]
       [--dynamic-detection-lib-dir  directory  ]  [--dump-dynamic-rules directory ] [--dynamic-preprocessor-lib
       file ] [--dynamic-preprocessor-lib-dir directory ] [--dynamic-output-lib file ] [--dynamic-output-lib-dir
       directory ] [--alert-before-pass ] [--treat-drop-as-alert  ]  [--treat-drop-as-ignore  ]  [--process-all-
       events  ]  [--enable-inline-test  ]  [--create-pidfile  ]  [--nolock-pidfile  ] [--no-interface-pidfile ]
       [--disable-attribute-reload-thread ] [--pcap-single= tcpdump-file ]  [--pcap-filter=  filter  ]  [--pcap-
       list=  list  ] [--pcap-dir= directory ] [--pcap-file= file ] [--pcap-no-filter ] [--pcap-reset ] [--pcap-
       reload ] [--pcap-show ] [--exit-check count ] [--conf-error-out ] [--enable-mpls-multicast  ]  [--enable-
       mpls-overlapping-ip  ]  [--max-mpls-labelchain-len  ] [--mpls-payload-type ] [--require-rule-sid ] [--daq
       type ] [--daq-mode mode ] [--daq-var name=value ] [--daq-dir dir ] [--daq-list  [dir]  ]  [--dirty-pig  ]
       [--cs-dir dir ] [--ha-peer ] [--ha-out file ] [--ha-in file ] expression

DESCRIPTION

       Snort  is  an  open  source  network  intrusion detection system, capable of performing real-time traffic
       analysis and packet logging on IP networks.  It can perform protocol analysis, content searching/matching
       and can be used to detect a variety of attacks and probes, such as buffer overflows, stealth port  scans,
       CGI attacks, SMB probes, OS fingerprinting attempts, and much more.  Snort uses a flexible rules language
       to describe traffic that it should collect or pass, as well as a detection engine that utilizes a modular
       plugin  architecture.  Snort also has a modular real-time alerting capability, incorporating alerting and
       logging plugins for syslog, a ASCII text files, UNIX sockets or XML.

       Snort has three primary uses.  It can be used as a straight packet  sniffer  like  tcpdump(1),  a  packet
       logger  (useful  for  network  traffic  debugging,  etc),  or as a full blown network intrusion detection
       system.

       Snort logs packets in tcpdump(1) binary format or in Snort's decoded  ASCII  format  to  a  hierarchy  of
       logging directories that are named based on the IP address of the "foreign" host.

OPTIONS

       -A alert-mode
              Alert  using  the  specified  alert-mode.  Valid alert modes include fast, full, none, and unsock.
              Fast writes alerts to the default "alert" file in a single-line, syslog style alert message.  Full
              writes the alert to the "alert" file with the full decoded header as well as  the  alert  message.
              None turns off alerting.  Unsock is an experimental mode that sends the alert information out over
              a UNIX socket to another process that attaches to that socket.

       -b     Log  packets in a tcpdump(1) formatted file.   All packets are logged in their native binary state
              to a tcpdump formatted log file named with the snort start timestamp and "snort.log".  This option
              results in much faster operation of the program
               since it doesn't have to spend time in the packet binary->text converters.   Snort  can  keep  up
              pretty  well  with  100Mbps networks in '-b' mode.  To choose an alternate name for the binary log
              file, use the '-L' switch.

       -B address-conversion-mask
              Convert all IP addresses in home-net to addresses specified by address-conversion-mask.   Used  to
              obfuscate  IP  addresses  within binary logs. Specify home-net with the '-h' switch.  Note this is
              not the same as $HOME_NET.

       -c config-file
              Use the rules located in file config-file.

       -C     Print the character data from the packet payload only (no hex).

       -d     Dump the application layer data when displaying packets in verbose or packet logging mode.

       -D     Run Snort in daemon mode.  Alerts are sent to /var/log/snort/alert unless otherwise specified.

       -e     Display/log the link layer packet headers.

       -E     *WIN32 ONLY* Log alerts to the Windows Event Log.

       -f     Activate PCAP line buffering

       -F bpf-file
              Read BPF filters from bpf-file.  This is handy for people running Snort as a SHADOW replacement or
              with a love Of super complex BPF filters.  See the "expressions" section of this man page for more
              info on writing BPF filters.

       -g group
              Change the group/GID Snort runs under to group after initialization.  This switch allows Snort  to
              drop root privileges after it's initialization phase has completed as a security measure.

       -G id  Use id as a base event ID when logging events.

       -h home-net
              Set  the "home network" to home-net.  The format of this address variable is a network prefix plus
              a CIDR block, such as 192.168.1.0/24.  Once this variable is set, all decoded packet logging  will
              be  done relative to the home network address space.  This is useful because of the way that Snort
              formats its ASCII log data.  With this value set to the local network, all decoded output will  be
              logged  into  decode  directories  with the address of the foreign computer as the directory name,
              which is very useful during traffic analysis. This option does not change "$HOME_NET" in IDS mode.

       -H     Force hash tables to be deterministic instead of using a random number generator for  the  seed  &
              scale.  Useful for testing and generating repeatable results with the same traffic.

       -i interface
              Sniff packets on interface.

       -I     Print out the receiving interface name in alerts.

       -k checksum-mode
              Tune  the  internal  checksum  verification  functionality  with alert-mode.  Valid checksum modes
              include all, noip, notcp, noudp, noicmp, and none.  All activates checksum  verification  for  all
              supported  protocols.   Noip  turns  off  IP  checksum verification, which is handy if the gateway
              router is already dropping packets that fail their  IP  checksum  checks.   Notcp  turns  off  TCP
              checksum   verification,  all  other  checksum  modes  are  on.   noudp  turns  off  UDP  checksum
              verification.  Noicmp turns off ICMP checksum verification.  None turns off  the  entire  checksum
              verification subsystem.

       -K logging-mode
              Select  a  packet  logging mode.  The default is pcap.  logging-mode.  Valid logging modes include
              pcap, ascii, and none.  Pcap logs packets through the pcap library  into  pcap  (tcpdump)  format.
              Ascii  logs  packets in the old "directories and files" format with packet printouts in each file.
              None Turns off packet logging.

       -l log-dir
              Set the output logging directory to log-dir.  All plain text alerts and packet logs go  into  this
              directory.    If  this  option  is  not  specified,  the  default  logging  directory  is  set  to
              /var/log/snort.

       -L binary-log-file
              Set the filename of the binary log file to binary-log-file.  If  this  switch  is  not  used,  the
              default name is a timestamp for the time that the file is created plus "snort.log".

       -m umask
              Set the file mode creation mask to umask

       -M     Log console messages to syslog when not running daemon mode.  This switch has no impact on logging
              of alerts.

       -n packet-count
              Process packet-count packets and exit.

       -N     Turn off packet logging.  The program still generates alerts normally.

       -O     Obfuscate  the  IP addresses when in ASCII packet dump mode.  This switch changes the IP addresses
              that get printed to the screen/log file to "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx".  If the homenet  address  switch  is
              set  (-h),  only  addresses  on the homenet will be obfuscated while non- homenet IPs will be left
              visible.  Perfect for posting to your favorite security mailing list!

       -p     Turn off promiscuous mode sniffing.

       -P snap-length
              Set the packet snaplen to snap-length.  By default, this is set to 1514.

       -q     Quiet operation.  Don't display banner and initialization information.

       -Q     Enable inline mode operation.

       -r tcpdump-file
              Read the tcpdump-formatted file tcpdump-file.  This will cause Snort to read and process the  file
              fed  to  it.  This is useful if, for instance, you've got a bunch of SHADOW files that you want to
              process for content, or even if you've got a bunch of reassembled packet fragments which have been
              written into a tcpdump formatted file.

       -R name
              Use name as a suffix to the snort pidfile.

       -s     Send  alert  messages  to  syslog.   On  linux  boxen,  they  will  appear   in   /var/log/secure,
              /var/log/messages on many other platforms.

       -S variable=value
              Set  variable name "variable" to value "value".  This is useful for setting the value of a defined
              variable name in a Snort rules file to a command line  specified  value.   For  instance,  if  you
              define  a  HOME_NET  variable  name inside of a Snort rules file, you can set this value from it's
              predefined value at the command line.

       -t chroot
              Changes Snort's root directory to chroot after initialization.  Please  note  that  all  log/alert
              filenames are relative to the chroot directory if chroot is used.

       -T     Snort  will  start up in self-test mode, checking all the supplied command line switches and rules
              files that are handed to it and indicating that everything is ready to proceed.  This  is  a  good
              switch to use if daemon mode is going to be used, it verifies that the Snort configuration that is
              about to be used is valid and won't fail at run time. Note, Snort looks for either /etc/snort.conf
              or  ./snort.conf.   If  your  config lives elsewhere, use the -c option to specify a valid config-
              file.

       -u user
              Change the user/UID Snort runs under to user after initialization.

       -U     Changes the timestamp in all logs to be in UTC

       -v     Be verbose.  Prints packets out to the console.  There is one big problem with verbose mode:  it's
              slow.  If you are doing IDS work with Snort, don't use the '-v' switch, you WILL drop packets.

       -V     Show the version number and exit.

       -w     Show management frames if running on an 802.11 (wireless) network.

       -W     *WIN32 ONLY* Enumerate the network interfaces available.

       -x     Exit if Snort configuration problems occur such as duplicate gid/sid or flowbits without Stream5.

       -X     Dump the raw packet data starting at the link layer.  This switch overrides the '-d' switch.

       -y     Include the year in alert and log files

       -Z pathname
              Set the perfmonitor preprocessor path/filename to pathname.

       -?     Show the program usage statement and exit.

       --logid id
              Same as -G.

       --perfmon-file pathname
              Same as -Z.

       --pid-path directory
              Specify the directory for the Snort PID file.

       --snaplen snap-length
              Same as -P.

       --help Same as -?

       --version
              Same as -V

       --dynamic-engine-lib file
              Load a dynamic detection engine shared library specified by file.

       --dynamic-engine-lib-dir directory
              Load all dynamic detection engine shared libraries specified from directory.

       --dynamic-detection-lib file
              Load a dynamic detection rules shared library specified by file.

       --dynamic-detection-lib-dir directory
              Load all dynamic detection rules shared libraries specified from directory.

       --dump-dynamic-rules directory
              Create  stub  rule files from all loaded dynamic detection rules libraries.  Files will be created
              in directory.  This is required to be done prior to running snort using those detection rules  and
              the generated rules files must be included in snort.conf.

       --dynamic-preprocessor-lib file
              Load a dynamic preprocessor shared library specified by file.

       --dynamic-preprocessor-lib-dir directory
              Load all dynamic preprocessor shared libraries specified from directory.

       --alert-before-pass
              Process alert, drop, sdrop, or reject before pass.  Default is pass before alert, drop, etc.

       --treat-drop-as-alert
              Converts drop, sdrop, and reject rules into alert rules during startup.

       --treat-drop-as-ignore
              Use drop, sdrop, and reject rules to ignore session traffic when not inline.

       --process-all-events
              Process all triggered events in group order, per Rule Ordering configuration.  Default stops after
              first group.

       --enable-inline-test
              Enable Inline-Test Mode Operation.

       --pid-path directory
              Specify the path for Snort's PID file.

       --create-pidfile
              Create PID file, even when not in Daemon mode.

       --nolock-pidfile
              Do not try to lock Snort PID file.

       --no-interface-pidfile
              Do not include the interface name in Snort PID file

       --pcap-single=tcpdump-file
              Same as -r.  Added for completeness.

       --pcap-filter=filter
              Shell  style filter to apply when getting pcaps from file or directory.  This filter will apply to
              any --pcap-file or --pcap-dir arguments following.  Use  --pcap-no-filter  to  delete  filter  for
              following  --pcap-file  or  --pcap-dir arguments or specify --pcap-filter again to forget previous
              filter and to apply to following --pcap-file or --pcap-dir arguments.

       --pcap-list="list"
              A space separated list of pcaps to read.

       --pcap-dir=directory
              A directory to recurse to look for pcaps.  Sorted in ascii order.

       --pcap-file=file
              File that contains a list of pcaps to read.  Can specify path to pcap or directory to  recurse  to
              get pcaps.

       --pcap-no-filter
              Reset to use no filter when getting pcaps from file or directory.

       --pcap-reset
              If  reading multiple pcaps, reset snort to post-configuration state before reading next pcap.  The
              default, i.e. without this option, is not to reset state.

       --pcap-show
              Print a line saying what pcap is currently being read.

       --exit-check=count
              Signal termination after <count> callbacks from DAQ_Acquire(), showing  the  time  it  takes  from
              signaling until DAQ_Stop() is called.

       --conf-error-out
              Same as -x.

       --require-rule-sid
              Require an SID for every rule to be correctly threshold all rules.

       --daq <type>
              Select packet acquisition module (default is pcap).

       --daq-mode <mode>
              Select the DAQ operating mode.

       --daq-var <name=value>
              Specify extra DAQ configuration variable.

       --daq-dir <dir>
              Tell Snort where to find desired DAQ.

       --daq-list [<dir>]
              List packet acquisition modules available in dir.

       --cs-dir <dir>
              Tell Snort to use control socket and create the socket in dir.

        expression
              selects  which  packets will be dumped.  If no expression is given, all packets on the net will be
              dumped.  Otherwise, only packets for which expression is `true' will be dumped.

              The expression consists of one or more primitives.  Primitives usually consist of an id  (name  or
              number) preceded by one or more qualifiers.  There are three different kinds of qualifier:

              type   qualifiers  say  what  kind  of  thing the id name or number refers to.  Possible types are
                     host, net and port.  E.g., `host foo', `net  128.3',  `port  20'.   If  there  is  no  type
                     qualifier, host is assumed.

              dir    qualifiers  specify a particular transfer direction to and/or from id.  Possible directions
                     are src, dst, src or dst and src and dst.  E.g., `src foo', `dst net 128.3',  `src  or  dst
                     port  ftp-data'.   If  there  is  no dir qualifier, src or dst is assumed.  For `null' link
                     layers (i.e. point to point protocols such as slip) the inbound and outbound qualifiers can
                     be used to specify a desired direction.

              proto  qualifiers restrict the match to a particular protocol.  Possible protos are: ether,  fddi,
                     ip,  arp,  rarp,  decnet, lat, sca, moprc, mopdl, tcp and udp.  E.g., `ether src foo', `arp
                     net 128.3', `tcp port 21'.  If there is no proto qualifier, all protocols  consistent  with
                     the  type  are  assumed.   E.g.,  `src foo' means `(ip or arp or rarp) src foo' (except the
                     latter is not legal syntax), `net bar' means `(ip or arp or rarp) net bar'  and  `port  53'
                     means `(tcp or udp) port 53'.

              [`fddi' is actually an alias for `ether'; the parser treats them identically as meaning ``the data
              link  level  used on the specified network interface.''  FDDI headers contain Ethernet-like source
              and destination addresses, and often contain Ethernet-like packet types,  so  you  can  filter  on
              these  FDDI  fields  just  as with the analogous Ethernet fields.  FDDI headers also contain other
              fields, but you cannot name them explicitly in a filter expression.]

              In addition to the above, there are some  special  `primitive'  keywords  that  don't  follow  the
              pattern: gateway, broadcast, less, greater and arithmetic expressions.  All of these are described
              below.

              More  complex  filter  expressions  are  built  up  by  using the words and, or and not to combine
              primitives.  E.g., `host foo and not port ftp and not port ftp-data'.  To save  typing,  identical
              qualifier  lists  can  be  omitted.  E.g., `tcp dst port ftp or ftp-data or domain' is exactly the
              same as `tcp dst port ftp or tcp dst port ftp-data or tcp dst port domain'.

              Allowable primitives are:

              dst host host
                     True if the IP destination field of the packet is host, which may be either an address or a
                     name.

              src host host
                     True if the IP source field of the packet is host.

              host host
                     True if either the IP source or destination of the packet is host.  Any of the  above  host
                     expressions can be prepended with the keywords, ip, arp, or rarp as in:
                          ip host host
                     which is equivalent to:
                          ether proto \ip and host host
                     If host is a name with multiple IP addresses, each address will be checked for a match.

              ether dst ehost
                     True  if  the  ethernet  destination  address  is  ehost.   Ehost may be either a name from
                     /etc/ethers or a number (see ethers(3N) for numeric format).

              ether src ehost
                     True if the ethernet source address is ehost.

              ether host ehost
                     True if either the ethernet source or destination address is ehost.

              gateway host
                     True if the packet used host as a  gateway.   I.e.,  the  ethernet  source  or  destination
                     address was host but neither the IP source nor the IP destination was host.  Host must be a
                     name and must be found in both /etc/hosts and /etc/ethers.  (An equivalent expression is
                          ether host ehost and not host host
                     which can be used with either names or numbers for host / ehost.)

              dst net net
                     True  if  the  IP destination address of the packet has a network number of net. Net may be
                     either a name from /etc/networks or a network number (see networks(4) for details).

              src net net
                     True if the IP source address of the packet has a network number of net.

              net net
                     True if either the IP source or destination address of the packet has a network  number  of
                     net.

              net net mask mask
                     True if the IP address matches net with the specific netmask.  May be qualified with src or
                     dst.

              net net/len
                     True  if  the IP address matches net a netmask len bits wide.  May be qualified with src or
                     dst.

              dst port port
                     True if the packet is ip/tcp or ip/udp and has a destination port value of port.  The  port
                     can  be  a  number or a name used in /etc/services (see tcp(4P) and udp(4P)).  If a name is
                     used, both the port number and protocol are checked.  If a  number  or  ambiguous  name  is
                     used, only the port number is checked (e.g., dst port 513 will print both tcp/login traffic
                     and udp/who traffic, and port domain will print both tcp/domain and udp/domain traffic).

              src port port
                     True if the packet has a source port value of port.

              port port
                     True if either the source or destination port of the packet is port.  Any of the above port
                     expressions can be prepended with the keywords, tcp or udp, as in:
                          tcp src port port
                     which matches only tcp packets whose source port is port.

              less length
                     True if the packet has a length less than or equal to length.  This is equivalent to:
                          len <= length.

              greater length
                     True if the packet has a length greater than or equal to length.  This is equivalent to:
                          len >= length.

              ip proto protocol
                     True if the packet is an ip packet (see ip(4P)) of protocol type protocol.  Protocol can be
                     a  number  or one of the names icmp, igrp, udp, nd, or tcp.  Note that the identifiers tcp,
                     udp, and icmp are also keywords and must be escaped via backslash (\), which is \\  in  the
                     C-shell.

              ether broadcast
                     True if the packet is an ethernet broadcast packet.  The ether keyword is optional.

              ip broadcast
                     True  if  the packet is an IP broadcast packet.  It checks for both the all-zeroes and all-
                     ones broadcast conventions, and looks up the local subnet mask.

              ether multicast
                     True if the packet is an ethernet multicast packet.  The ether keyword is  optional.   This
                     is shorthand for `ether[0] & 1 != 0'.

              ip multicast
                     True if the packet is an IP multicast packet.

              ether proto protocol
                     True  if the packet is of ether type protocol.  Protocol can be a number or a name like ip,
                     arp, or rarp.  Note these identifiers are also keywords and must be escaped  via  backslash
                     (\).   [In  the case of FDDI (e.g., `fddi protocol arp'), the protocol identification comes
                     from the 802.2 Logical Link Control (LLC) header, which is usually layered on  top  of  the
                     FDDI  header.   Tcpdump  assumes,  when filtering on the protocol identifier, that all FDDI
                     packets include an LLC header, and that the LLC header is in so-called SNAP format.]

              decnet src host
                     True if the DECNET source address is host, which may be an address of the form  ``10.123'',
                     or  a DECNET host name.  [DECNET host name support is only available on Ultrix systems that
                     are configured to run DECNET.]

              decnet dst host
                     True if the DECNET destination address is host.

              decnet host host
                     True if either the DECNET source or destination address is host.

              ip, arp, rarp, decnet
                     Abbreviations for:
                          ether proto p
                     where p is one of the above protocols.

              lat, moprc, mopdl
                     Abbreviations for:
                          ether proto p
                     where p is one of the above protocols.  Note that Snort does  not  currently  know  how  to
                     parse these protocols.

              tcp, udp, icmp
                     Abbreviations for:
                          ip proto p
                     where p is one of the above protocols.

              expr relop expr
                     True  if  the  relation  holds,  where  relop is one of >, <, >=, <=, =, !=, and expr is an
                     arithmetic expression composed of integer constants (expressed in standard C  syntax),  the
                     normal  binary  operators  [+,  -,  *, /, &, |], a length operator, and special packet data
                     accessors.  To access data inside the packet, use the following syntax:
                          proto [ expr : size ]
                     Proto is one of ether, fddi, ip, arp, rarp, tcp, udp, or icmp, and indicates  the  protocol
                     layer  for the index operation.  The byte offset, relative to the indicated protocol layer,
                     is given by expr.  Size is optional and indicates the number  of  bytes  in  the  field  of
                     interest;  it  can  be either one, two, or four, and defaults to one.  The length operator,
                     indicated by the keyword len, gives the length of the packet.

                     For example, `ether[0] & 1 != 0' catches all multicast traffic.  The  expression  `ip[0]  &
                     0xf  !=  5'  catches  all  IP  packets  with options. The expression `ip[6:2] & 0x1fff = 0'
                     catches only unfragmented datagrams and frag zero of fragmented datagrams.  This  check  is
                     implicitly  applied to the tcp and udp index operations.  For instance, tcp[0] always means
                     the first byte of the TCP header,  and  never  means  the  first  byte  of  an  intervening
                     fragment.

              Primitives may be combined using:

                     A parenthesized group of primitives and operators (parentheses are special to the Shell and
                     must be escaped).

                     Negation (`!' or `not').

                     Concatenation (`&&' or `and').

                     Alternation (`||' or `or').

              Negation  has  highest  precedence.   Alternation  and  concatenation  have  equal  precedence and
              associate left to right.  Note that explicit and tokens, not juxtaposition, are now  required  for
              concatenation.

              If an identifier is given without a keyword, the most recent keyword is assumed.  For example,
                   not host vs and ace
              is short for
                   not host vs and host ace
              which should not be confused with
                   not ( host vs or ace )

              Expression  arguments can be passed to Snort as either a single argument or as multiple arguments,
              whichever is more convenient.  Generally, if the expression contains Shell metacharacters,  it  is
              easier  to  pass it as a single, quoted argument.  Multiple arguments are concatenated with spaces
              before being parsed.

READING PCAPS

       Instead of having Snort listen on an interface, you can give it a packet capture  to  read.   Snort  will
       read  and analyze the packets as if they came off the wire.  This can be useful for testing and debugging
       Snort.

       Read a single pcap

            $ snort -r foo.pcap
            $ snort --pcap-single=foo.pcap

       Read pcaps from a file

            $ cat foo.txt
            foo1.pcap
            foo2.pcap
            /home/foo/pcaps

            $ snort --pcap-file=foo.txt

            This will read foo1.pcap, foo2.pcap and all files under /home/foo/pcaps.  Note that Snort  will  not
            try to determine whether the files under that directory are really pcap files or not.

       Read pcaps from a command line list

            $ snort --pcap-list="foo1.pcap foo2.pcap foo3.pcap"

            This will read foo1.pcap, foo2.pcap and foo3.pcap.

       Read pcaps under a directory

            $ snort --pcap-dir="/home/foo/pcaps"

            This will include all of the files under /home/foo/pcaps.

       Using filters

            $ cat foo.txt
            foo1.pcap
            foo2.pcap
            /home/foo/pcaps

            $ snort --pcap-filter="*.pcap" --pcap-file=foo.txt
            $ snort --pcap-filter="*.pcap" --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps

            The  above  will  only include files that match the shell pattern "*.pcap", in other words, any file
            ending in ".pcap".

            $ snort --pcap-filter="*.pcap --pcap-file=foo.txt \
            > --pcap-filter="*.cap" --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps

            In the above, the first filter "*.pcap" will only be applied to the pcaps in the file "foo.txt" (and
            any directories that are recursed in that file).  The addition of the  second  filter  "*.cap"  will
            cause  the  first  filter to be forgotten and then applied to the directory /home/foo/pcaps, so only
            files ending in ".cap" will be included from that directory.

            $ snort --pcap-filter="*.pcap --pcap-file=foo.txt \
            > --pcap-no-filter --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps

            In this example, the first filter will be applied to foo.txt, then no filter will be applied to  the
            files found under /home/foo/pcaps, so all files found under /home/foo/pcaps will be included.

            $ snort --pcap-filter="*.pcap --pcap-file=foo.txt \
            > --pcap-no-filter --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps \
            > --pcap-filter="*.cap" --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps2

            In  this example, the first filter will be applied to foo.txt, then no filter will be applied to the
            files found under /home/foo/pcaps, so all files found under /home/foo/pcaps will be  included,  then
            the filter "*.cap" will be applied to files found under /home/foo/pcaps2.

       Resetting state

            $ snort --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps --pcap-reset

            The  above  example  will  read all of the files under /home/foo/pcaps, but after each pcap is read,
            Snort will be reset to a post-configuration state, meaning all buffers will be  flushed,  statistics
            reset, etc.  For each pcap, it will be like Snort is seeing traffic for the first time.

       Printing the pcap

            $ snort --pcap-dir=/home/foo/pcaps --pcap-show

            The  above example will read all of the files under /home/foo/pcaps and will print a line indicating
            which pcap is currently being read.

RULES

       Snort uses a simple but flexible rules language to describe network packet signatures and associate  them
       with actions.  The current rules document can be found at http://www.snort.org/snort-rules.

NOTES

       The  following  signals  have  the  specified  effect  when  sent to the daemon process using the kill(1)
       command:

       SIGHUP Causes the daemon to close all opened files and restart.  Please note that this will only work  if
              the  full  pathname is used to invoke snort in daemon mode, otherwise snort will just exit with an
              error message being sent to syslogd(8).

       SIGUSR1
              Causes the program to dump its current packet statistical information to the console or syslogd(8)
              if in daemon mode.

       SIGUSR2
              Causes the program to rotate Perfmonitor statistical information to the console or  syslogd(8)  if
              in daemon mode.

       SIGURG Causes the program to reload attribute table.

       SIGCHLD
              Used internally.

       Please  refer  to  manual  for  more details. Any other signal might cause the daemon to close all opened
       files and exit.

HISTORY

       Snort has been freely available under the GPL license since 1998.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Snort returns a 0 on a successful exit, 1 if it exits on an error.

BUGS

       After consulting the BUGS file included  with  the  source  distribution,  send  bug  reports  to  snort-
       devel@lists.sourceforge.net

AUTHOR

       Martin Roesch <roesch@snort.org>

SEE ALSO

       tcpdump(1), pcap(3)

                                                  December 2011                                         SNORT(8)