{"id":16667,"date":"2024-03-15T13:25:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T13:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/how-can-you-limit-the-file-size-in-tcpdump-on-linux\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T04:52:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T04:52:47","slug":"how-can-you-limit-the-file-size-in-tcpdump-on-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/how-can-you-limit-the-file-size-in-tcpdump-on-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"How can you limit the file size in tcpdump on Linux?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Linux, you can limit the size of the tcpdump output file by using the following parameters with the tcpdump command.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. -C : specifies the maximum size of each output file. The file size can be specified in kilobytes (K), megabytes (M), or gigabytes (G). For example, using -C 10M will limit the size of each output file to 10 megabytes.<\/li>\n
  2. -W : specifies the maximum number of output files. Once the specified number of files is reached, tcpdump will automatically overwrite the oldest file.<\/li>\n
  3. -G : specifies the maximum lifespan of the output file. You can use seconds (s) or minutes (m) as units. For example, using -G 10m will limit the lifespan of the output file to 10 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here’s an example command that limits the size of each output file to 10 megabytes and keeps a maximum of 3 files.<\/p>\n

    tcpdump -C 10M -W 3 -w output.pcap\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
    This command will generate an output file named output.pcap, and will create a new file once the size reaches 10 megabytes, keeping a maximum of 3 files.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    In Linux, you can limit the size of the tcpdump output file by using the following parameters with the tcpdump command. -C : specifies the maximum size of each output file. The file size can be specified in kilobytes (K), megabytes (M), or gigabytes (G). For example, using -C 10M will limit the size of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[453,1402,299,1404,1403],"class_list":["post-16667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-development","tag-guide","tag-programming","tag-technology","tag-tutorial"],"yoast_head":"\nHow can you limit the file size in tcpdump on Linux? - Blog - Silicon Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about how can you limit the file size in tcpdump on linux?. 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