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
-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.
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
There are no known bugs at this time.
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. The truncation of names in lookup mode
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.
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.
SEE ALSO
iptables(8)
AUTHOR
iptstate was written by Phil Dibowitz <phil AT ipom DOT com>
http://www.phildev.net/iptstate/
SEPTEMBER 2009 IPTSTATE(8)