1tcpstates(8) System Manager's Manual tcpstates(8)
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6 tcpstates - Trace TCP session state changes with durations. Uses Linux
7 eBPF/bcc.
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10 tcpstates [-h] [-T] [-t] [-w] [-s] [-D PORTS] [-L PORTS] [-Y] [-4 | -6]
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13 This tool traces TCP session state changes while tracing, and prints
14 details including the duration in each state. This can help explain the
15 latency of TCP connections: whether the time is spent in the ESTAB‐
16 LISHED state (data transfer), or initialization state (SYN_SENT), etc.
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18 This tool works using the sock:inet_sock_set_state tracepoint, which
19 was added to Linux 4.16. Linux 4.16 also included extra state transi‐
20 tions so that all TCP transitions could be observed by this tracepoint.
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22 Only TCP state changes are traced, so it is expected that the overhead
23 of this tool is much lower than typical send/receive tracing.
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25 Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.
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28 CONFIG_BPF and bcc, and the sock:inet_sock_set_state tracepoint.
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31 -h Print usage message.
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33 -s Comma separated values output (parseable).
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35 -t Include a timestamp column (seconds).
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37 -T Include a time column (HH:MM:SS).
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39 -w Wide column output (fits IPv6 addresses).
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41 -L PORTS
42 Comma-separated list of local ports to trace (filtered in-ker‐
43 nel).
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45 -D PORTS
46 Comma-separated list of destination ports to trace (filtered in-
47 kernel).
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49 -Y Log session state changes to the systemd journal.
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51 -4 Trace IPv4 family only.
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53 -6 Trace IPv6 family only.
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56 Trace all TCP sessions, and show all state changes:
57 # tcpstates
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59 Include a timestamp column, and wide column output:
60 # tcpstates -tw
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62 Trace connections to local ports 80 and 81 only:
63 # tcpstates -L 80,81
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65 Trace connections to remote port 80 only:
66 # tcpstates -D 80
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68 Trace IPv4 family only:
69 # tcpstates -4
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71 Trace IPv6 family only:
72 # tcpstates -6
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75 TIME Time of the change, in HH:MM:SS format.
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77 TIME(s)
78 Time of the change, in seconds.
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80 C-PID The current on-CPU process ID. This may show the process that
81 owns the TCP session if the state change executes in synchronous
82 process context, else it is likely to show the kernel (asynchro‐
83 nous state change).
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85 C-COMM The current on-CPU process name. This may show the process that
86 owns the TCP session if the state change executes in synchronous
87 process context, else it is likely to show the kernel (asynchro‐
88 nous state change).
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90 IP IP address family (4 or 6)
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92 LADDR Local IP address.
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94 RADDR Remote IP address.
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96 LPORT Local port.
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98 RPORT Remote port.
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100 OLDSTATE
101 Previous TCP state.
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103 NEWSTATE
104 New TCP state.
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106 MS Duration of this state.
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109 This traces the kernel TCP set state function, which should be called
110 much less often than send/receive tracing, and therefore have lower
111 overhead. The overhead of the tool is relative to the rate of new TCP
112 sessions: if this is high, over 10,000 per second, then there may be
113 noticeable overhead just to print out 10k lines of formatted output per
114 second.
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116 You can find out the rate of new TCP sessions using "sar -n TCP 1", and
117 adding the active/s and passive/s columns.
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119 As always, test and understand this tools overhead for your types of
120 workloads before production use.
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123 This is from bcc.
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125 https://github.com/iovisor/bcc
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127 Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion _examples.txt file
128 containing example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.
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131 Linux
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134 Unstable - in development.
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137 Brendan Gregg
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140 tcpaccept(8), tcpconnect(8), tcptop(8), tcplife(8)
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144USER COMMANDS 2018-03-20 tcpstates(8)