# netsniff-ng/netsniff-ng

A Swiss army knife for your daily Linux network plumbing.

Repository: https://github.com/netsniff-ng/netsniff-ng
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/netsniff-ng
Homepage: http://netsniff-ng.org
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: networking, linux, packet-sniffer, packet-generator, packet-capture, toolkit, performance
Last push: 2025-06-11T10:08:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 34/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 26, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5647, "days_push": 448, "days_rel": 603, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1421, forks 256 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:40.662490+00:00)

## What it is
netsniff-ng is a free, high-performance Linux networking toolkit written in C, often described as a Swiss army knife for network packets. It uses zero-copy mechanisms (RX_RING/TX_RING) for fast packet capture, replay, and generation, and bundles utilities like trafgen, ifpps, flowtop, astraceroute, and bpfc.

## Use cases
- capture packets to pcap files with zero-copy performance on Linux
- replay pcap captures onto a network interface
- generate high-volume network traffic for testing
- compile Berkeley Packet Filters for sniffing
- monitor kernel networking statistics in a top-like view
- trace routes with autonomous system information
- inspect netfilter connection tracking live
- debug and audit network protocols

## When to choose
- you need maximum packet capture or generation throughput on Linux via zero-copy
- you want a multi-tool CLI suite for network debugging, auditing, or reconnaissance
- you work with pcap files and need fast capture/replay without a GUI
- you need BPF filter compilation and disassembly tooling

## When to avoid
- you need a graphical packet analyzer like Wireshark
- you are on a non-Linux platform (it is Linux-only)
- you need the experimental tools (mausezahn, curvetun) in production
- you want a high-level API or library to embed in applications

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: networking, security, developer-tools, monitoring
- domain: networking, security, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: packet-sniffer, packet-generator, packet-capture, zero-copy, pcap, bpf, network-analysis, network-toolkit, trafgen, traceroute, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- netsniff-ng/netsniff-ng (main) score 34

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:40.662490+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:37:46.737009+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/netsniff-ng/netsniff-ng (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:40.662490+00:00, sha b910beebf906)
  - homepage: http://netsniff-ng.org (fetched 2026-08-29T11:50:01.328909+00:00, sha 69cdc797f5fd)
  - site_page: http://netsniff-ng.org/faq.html (fetched 2026-08-29T11:50:01.338251+00:00, sha fba5a1459c78)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.