Provided by: scamper_20211212-1.2build1_amd64 
NAME
scamper — parallel Internet measurement utility
SYNOPSIS
scamper [-?Dv] [-c command] [-p pps] [-w window] [-M monitorname] [-l listname] [-L listid] [-C cycleid]
[-o outfile] [-F firewall] [-n nameserver] [-d debugfile] [-e pidfile] [-O options]
[-i IPs | -I cmds | -f file | -P [ip:]port | -R name:port | -U unix-dom]
DESCRIPTION
The scamper utility provides the ability to execute Internet measurement techniques to IPv4 and IPv6
addresses, in parallel, to fill a specified packets-per-second rate. Currently, scamper supports the
well-known traceroute and ping techniques, DNS, as well as MDA traceroute, alias resolution, some parts
of tbit, sting, and neighbour discovery.
scamper has five modes of operation. First, scamper can be supplied a list of one or more addresses on
the command line with the -i option. scamper will then execute a command with each of the supplied
addresses, in parallel, and output the results as each task completes. Second, scamper can be supplied a
list of one or more addresses in a listfile, one address per line, using the -f option. Third, scamper
can be supplied a list of one or more complete commands on the command line with the -I option. Fourth,
scamper can be instructed to listen on an IP address and port specified with the -P option, or on a unix
domain socket specified with the -U option, where it can take commands dynamically. Finally, scamper can
be instructed to connect to a remote host and port specified with the -R option, where it will be
supplied with commands dynamically.
For most modules, scamper must be run as root.
The options are as follows:
-? prints a list of command line options and a synopsis of each.
-v causes scamper to output version information and exit.
-D With this option set, scamper will detach and become a daemon. Use with the -P or -U options.
-c command
specifies the command for scamper to use by default. The current choices for this option are:
- dealias: use Ally, Mercator, or Radargun-style probing to infer which IP addresses belong to
the same system.
- host: issue simple DNS queries to a domain name server.
- neighbourdisc: issue an IPv4 ARP or IPv6 Neighbour discovery query to determine the layer-2
address of an IP address on the same network.
- ping: conduct simple delay measurements with various probe types.
- trace: conduct classic and Paris-style traceroute probing, which infers a single path
towards a destination.
- tracelb: use the multipath discovery algorithm (MDA) to infer the presence of load-balanced
paths towards a destination.
- sniff: capture a subset of packets arriving at the host using a subset of tcpdump-style
filter expressions.
- sting: use the sting method to infer one-way packet loss with a TCP receiver.
- tbit: use techniques from the TCP behavior inference tool (TBIT) to infer properties of a
TCP receiver.
scamper uses trace by default. The options for each of these commands are documented in their
own sections of this manual page.
-p pps specifies the target packets-per-second rate for scamper to reach. By default, this value is 20.
-w window
specifies the maximum number of tasks that may be probed in parallel. A value of zero places no
upper limit. By default, zero is used.
-M monitorname
specifies the canonical name of machine where scamper is run. This value is used when recording
the output in a warts output file.
-l listname
specifies the name of the list when run from the command line. This value is used when recording
the output in a warts output file.
-L listid
specifies the numerical id of the list when run from the command line. This value is used when
recording the output in a warts output file.
-C cycleid
specifies the numerical cycle id to begin with when run from the command line. This value is
used when recording the output in a warts output file.
-o outfile
specifies the default output file to write measurement results to. By default, stdout is used.
-F firewall
specifies that scamper may use the firewall in measurements that require it (tbit and sting).
scamper supports two firewall types: IPFW, and PF. To use the IPFW firewall, pass
ipfw:<start>-<end>, where <start> is the first rule scamper can use, and <end> is the last. To
use the PF firewall, pass pf:<anchor>:<num>, where <anchor> is the anchor for scamper to use, and
<num> specifies the number of rules scamper is allowed to use.
-n nameserver
specifies the nameserver for scamper to use. By default, scamper uses the first nameserver
specified in /etc/resolv.conf
-d debugfile
specifies a filename to write debugging messages to. By default, no debugfile is used, though
debugging output is sent to stderr if scamper is built for debugging.
-e pidfile
specifies a file to write scamper's process ID to. If scamper is built with privilege
separation, the ID of the unprivileged process is written.
-O options
allows scamper's behaviour to be further tailored. The options are case insensitive. The
current choices for this option are:
- text: output results in plain text. Suitable for interactive use.
- warts: output results in warts format. Suitable for archiving measurement results and for
use by researchers as it records details that cannot be easily represented with the text
option.
- json: output results in json format. Suitable for processing measurement results with a
scripting language. A better approach is to output results in warts format, and to use
sc_warts2json(1).
- planetlab: tell scamper it is running on a planetlab system. Necessary to use planetlab's
safe raw sockets.
- rawtcp: tell scamper to use IPPROTO_RAW socket to send IPv4 TCP probes, rather than a
datalink socket.
- ICMP-rxerr: tell scamper to use IP_RECVERR or IPV6_RECVERR to receive ICMP responses, rather
than raw sockets. This is useful on Linux systems that have these sockets, and scamper does
not have the permissions to obtain a raw socket. This option currently only works with the
trace command.
- select: tell scamper to use select(2) rather than poll(2)
- kqueue: tell scamper to use kqueue(2) rather than poll(2) on systems where kqueue(2) is
available.
- epoll: tell scamper to use epoll(7) rather than poll(2) on systems where epoll(7) is
available.
- tsps: the input file consists of a sequence of IP addresses for pre-specified IP timestamps.
- cmdfile: the input file consists of complete commands.
- noinitndc: do not initialise the neighbour discovery cache.
- outcopy: write a copy of all data written by scamper with the default output method.
- debugfileappend: append to the debugfile specified with the -d option. The default is to
truncate the debugfile.
- notls-remote: do not use TLS when establishing a connection with the remove controller
specified with the -R option.
- notls: do not use TLS anywhere in scamper, including tbit.
-i IP 1..N
specifies a list of one or more addresses to probe, on the command line, using the command
specified with the -c option.
-f listfile
specifies the input file to read for target addresses, one per line, and uses the command
specified with the -c option on each.
-I cmds
specifies a list of one or more complete commands, including target addresses, for scamper to
execute.
-P [ip:]port
specifies that scamper provide a control socket listening on the specified IP address and port on
the local host. If an IP address is not specified, scamper will bind to the port specified on
the loopback address.
-R name:port
specifies that scamper connects to a specified remote host and port to receive commands.
-U unix domain socket
specifies that scamper provide a control socket listening on the specified socket in the unix
domain.
TRACE OPTIONS
The trace command is used for conducting classic and Paris-style traceroute probing, which infers a
single path towards a destination. The following variations of the traceroute(8) options are available:
trace [-MQT] [-c confidence] [-d dport] [-f firsthop] [-g gaplimit] [-G gapaction] [-l loops] [-m maxttl]
[-N squeries] [-o offset] [-O option] [-p payload] [-P method] [-q attempts] [-r rtraddr] [-s sport]
[-S srcaddr] [-t tos] [-U userid] [-w wait] [-W wait-probe] [-z gss-entry] [-Z lss-name]
-c confidence
specifies that a hop should be probed to a specified confidence level (95% or 99%) to be sure the
trace has seen all interfaces that will reply for that hop.
-d dport
specifies the base destination port value to use for UDP-based and TCP-based traceroute methods.
For ICMP-Paris, this option sets the ICMP checksum value.
-f firsthop
specifies the TTL or HLIM value to begin probing with. By default, a first hop of one is used.
-g gaplimit
specifies the number of unresponsive hops permitted until a check is made to see if the
destination will respond. By default, a gap limit of 5 hops is used. Setting the gap limit to 0
disables the gap limit, but doing this is not recommended.
-G gapaction
specifies what should happen if the gaplimit condition is met. A value of 1 (default) means halt
probing, while a value of 2 means send last-ditch probes.
-l loops
specifies the maximum number of loops permitted until probing stops. By default, a value of one
is used. A value of zero disables loop checking.
-m maxttl
specifies the maximum TTL or HLIM value that will be probed. By default, there is no
restriction, apart from the 255 hops that the Internet protocols allow.
-M specifies that path MTU discovery (PMTUD) should be attempted for the path when the initial
traceroute completes. scamper will not conduct PMTUD unless it is probing a responsive
destination, as otherwise there is no way to distinguish all packets being lost from just big
packets (larger than MTU) being lost.
-N squeries
specifies the number of consecutive hops that may have an outstanding probe. By default, only
one hop may have an outstanding probe. Increasing the number of outstanding probes will allow
traceroutes to complete faster, at the expense of sending unnecessary probes. The number of
outstanding probes must be less than the gaplimit.
-o offset
specifies the fragmentation offset to use in probes. By default, no offset is used.
-O option
specifies optional arguments to use. The current choices for this option are:
- dl: specifies that the datalink socket should be used to timestamp packets, and to receive
certain packets.
- dtree-noback: specifies that the traceroute should not do backwards probing when using
doubletree.
- ptr: lookup hostnames for intermediate traceroute hops.
-p payload
specifies the payload of the probe to use as a base. The payload is specified in hexadecimal.
Note that the payload supplied is merely a base; the first 2 bytes may be modified to accomplish
ICMP-Paris and UDP-Paris traceroute.
-P method
specifies the traceroute method to use. scamper currently supports five different probe methods:
UDP, ICMP, UDP-Paris, ICMP-Paris, TCP, and TCP-ACK. Note: scamper uses UDP-Paris by default, and
these options are case insensitive.
-q attempts
specifies the maximum number of attempts to obtain a response per hop. By default, a value of
two is used.
-Q specifies that all allocated probes are sent, regardless of how many responses have been
received.
-r rtraddr
specifies the IP address of the router to use.
-s sport
specifies the source port value to use. For ICMP-based methods, this option specifies the ICMP
identifier to use.
-S srcaddr
specifies the source address to use in probes. The address cannot be spoofed.
-t tos specifies the value to set in the IP ToS/DSCP + ECN byte. By default, this byte is set to zero.
-T specifies that time exceeded messages from the destination do not cause the trace to be defined
as reaching the destination.
-U userid
specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-id is
entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of traceroute.
-w wait
specifies how long to wait, in seconds, for a reply. By default, a value of 5 is used.
-W wait-probe
specifies the minimum time to wait, in 10s of milliseconds, between sending consecutive probes.
By default the next probe is sent as soon as possible.
-z gss-entry
specifies an IP address to halt probing when encountered; used with the double-tree algorithm.
-Z lss-name
specifies the name of the local stop set to use when determining when to halt probing backwards;
used with the double-tree algorithm.
PING OPTIONS
The ping command is used for conducting simple delay measurements with various probe types. The
following variations of the ping(8) options are available:
ping [-R] [-A TCP-ack] [-B payload] [-c probecount] [-C ICMP-sum] [-d dport] [-F sport] [-i wait]
[-m ttl] [-M MTU] [-o replycount] [-O options] [-p pattern] [-P method] [-r rtraddr] [-s size]
[-S srcaddr] [-T timestamp] [-U userid] [-W timeout] [-z tos]
-A TCP-ack
specifies the number to use in the acknowledgement field of the TCP header, or the sequence
number field of the TCP header when sending reset probes.
-B payload
specifies, in a hexadecimal string, the payload to include in each probe.
-c probecount
specifies the number of probes to send before exiting. By default, a value of 4 is used.
-C ICMP-sum
specifies the ICMP checksum to use when sending a probe. The payload of each probe will be
manipulated so that the checksum is valid.
-d dport
specifies the destination port to use in each TCP/UDP probe, and the first ICMP sequence number
to use in ICMP probes.
-F sport
specifies the source port to use in each TCP/UDP probe, and the ICMP ID to use in ICMP probes.
-i wait
specifies the length of time to wait, in seconds, between probes. By default, a value of 1 is
used.
-m ttl specifies the TTL value to use for outgoing packets. By default, a value of 64 is used.
-M MTU specifies a pseudo MTU value. If the response packet is larger than the pseudo MTU, an ICMP
packet too big (PTB) message is sent.
-o replycount
specifies the number of replies required at which time probing may cease. By default, all probes
are sent.
-O options
The current choices for this option are:
- dl: specifies that the ping should use datalink sockets, rather than raw sockets.
- nosrc: specifies that the real address of the host should not be embedded in the payload of
the packet when the spoof option is used.
- spoof: specifies that the source address is to be spoofed according to the address specified
with the -S option. The address scamper would otherwise use as the source address is
embedded in the payload of the probe unless the nosrc option is used.
- tbt: specifies that the goal of the ping is to obtain fragmented responses, so that the -c
option specifies how many packets to send, and the -o option specifies how many fragmented
responses are desired.
-p pattern
specifies the pattern, in hex, to use in probes. Up to 16 bytes may be specified. By default,
each probe's bytes are zeroed.
-P method
specifies the type of ping packets to send. By default, ICMP echo requests are sent. Choices
are: ICMP-echo, ICMP-time, TCP-syn, TCP-ack, TCP-ack-sport, TCP-synack, TCP-rst, UDP, and UDP-
dport, and these options are case insensitive.
-r rtraddr
specifies the IP address of the router to use.
-R specifies that the record route IP option should be used.
-s size
specifies the size of the probes to send. The probe size includes the length of the IP and ICMP
headers. By default, a probe size of 84 bytes is used for IPv4 pings, and 56 bytes for IPv6
pings.
-S srcaddr
specifies the source address to use in probes. The address can be spoofed if -O spoof is
included.
-T timestamp
specifies that an IP timestamp option be included. The timestamp option can either be: tsprespec
where IP addresses of devices of interest can be specified; tsonly, where timestamps are embedded
by devices but no IP addresses are included; and tsandaddr, where timestamps and IP addresses are
included by devices in the path. See the examples section for more information.
-U userid
specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-id is
entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of ping.
-W timeout
specifies how long to wait for responses after the last ping is sent. By default this is one
second.
-z tos specifies the value to use in the IPv4 ToS/DSCP + ECN byte. By default, this byte is set to
zero.
DEALIAS OPTIONS
The dealias command is used to send probes for the purpose of alias resolution. It supports the mercator
technique, where aliases are inferred if a router uses a different address when sending an ICMP response;
the ally technique, where aliases are inferred if a sequence of probes sent to alternating IP addresses
yields responses with incrementing, interleaved IP-ID values; radargun, where probes are sent to a set of
IP addresses in multiple rounds and aliases are inferred by post-processing the results; prefixscan,
where an alias is searched in a prefix for a specified IP address; and bump, where two addresses believed
to be aliases are probed in an effort to force their IP-ID values out of sequence. The following options
are available for the scamper dealias command:
dealias [-d dport] [-f fudge] [-m method] [-o replyc] [-O option] [-p probe-options] [-q attempts]
[-r wait-round] [-s sport] [-t ttl] [-U userid] [-w wait-timeout] [-W wait-probe] [-x exclude]
-d dport
specifies the destination port to use when sending probes. Only valid for the mercator
technique; destination ports can be specified in probedefs defined with -p for other alias
resolution methods.
-f fudge
specifies a fudge factor for alias matching. Defaults to 200. Only valid for ally and bump.
-m method
specifies which method to use for alias resolution. Valid options are: ally, bump, mercator,
prefixscan, and radargun, and these options are case insensitive.
-o replyc
specifies how many replies to wait for. Only valid for prefixscan.
-O option
allows alias resolution behaviour to be further tailored. The current choices for this option
are:
- inseq: where IP-ID values are required to be strictly in sequence (with no tolerance for
packet reordering)
- shuffle: randomise the order of probes sent each round; only valid for radargun probing.
- nobs: do not allow for byte swapped IP-ID values in responses. Valid for ally and
prefixscan.
-p probedef
specifies a definition for a probe. Possible options are:
-c sum specifies what ICMP checksum to use for ICMP probes. The payload of the probe will be
altered appropriately.
-d dst-port
specifies the destination port of the probe. Defaults to 33435.
-F src-port
specifies the source port of the probe. Defaults to (pid & 0x7fff) + 0x8000.
-i IP specifies the destination IP address of the probe.
-M mtu specifies the pseudo MTU to use when soliciting fragmented responses.
-P method
specifies which method to use for the probe. Valid options are: UDP, UDP-dport, TCP-ack,
TCP-ack-sport, TCP-syn-sport, and ICMP-echo, and these options are case insensitive.
-s size
specifies the size of the probes to send.
-t ttl specifies the IP time to live of the probe.
The ally method accepts up to two probe definitions; the prefixscan method expects one probe
definition; radargun expects at least one probe definition; bump expects two probe definitions.
-q attempts
specifies how many times a probe should be retried if it does not obtain a useful response.
-r wait-round
specifies how many milliseconds to wait between probing rounds with radargun.
-s sport
specifies the source port to use when sending probes. Only valid for mercator.
-t ttl specifies the time-to-live of probes sent. Only valid for mercator.
-U userid
specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-id is
entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of dealias.
-w wait-timeout
specifies how long to wait in seconds for a reply from the remote host.
-W wait-probe
specifies how long to wait in milliseconds between probes.
-x exclude
specifies an IP address to exclude when using the prefixscan method. May be specified multiple
times to exclude multiple addresses.
HOST OPTIONS
The host command can issue requests to a domain name server. The following options are available for the
scamper host command:
host [-r] [-R retry-count] [-s server-ip] [-t type] [-U userid] [-W wait]
-r specifies that this query is a non-recursive query. The default is to issue a recursive query.
-R retry-count
specifies the number of retries. The default is to send one retry.
-s server-ip
specifies the IP address of the name server to query instead of the default nameserver.
-t type
specifies the DNS query type. The type argument can be one of the following: A, AAAA, PTR, and
MX. The default is A if a name is queried, or a PTR if an IP address is queried.
-U userid
specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-id is
entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of host.
-W wait
specifies the number of seconds to wait for a response. The default is to wait for five seconds.
NEIGHBOUR DISCOVERY OPTIONS
The neighbourdisc command attempts to find the layer-2 address of a given IP address using IPv4 ARP or
IPv6 Neighbour Discovery. The following options are available for the scamper neighbourdisc command:
neighbourdisc [-FQ] [-i interface] [-o reply-count] [-q attempts] [-w wait]
-F specifies that we only want the first response.
-Q specifies that we want to send all attempts.
-i interface
specifies the name of the interface to use for neighbour discovery.
-o reply-count
specifies how many replies we wait for.
-q attempts
specifies how many probes we send out.
-w wait
specifies how long to wait between probes in milliseconds. Defaults to 1000.
TBIT OPTIONS
The tbit command can be used to infer TCP behaviour of a specified host. At present, it implements tests
to check the ability of the host to respond to ICMP Packet Too Big messages, respond to Explicit
Congestion Notification, test Selective Acknowledgement behaviour, the Initial Congestion Window, and
resilience to Blind Attacks. The following options are available for the scamper tbit command:
tbit [-t type] [-p app] [-d dport] [-s sport] [-a acks] [-b ASN] [-i ICW] [-f cookie] [-L limit] [-m mss]
[-M mtu] [-o offset] [-O option] [-P ptbsrc] [-q attempts] [-S srcaddr] [-T ttl] [-u url] [-U userid]
[-w wscale]
-t type specifies which type of testing to use. Valid options are: pmtud, ecn, null, sack-rcvr,
icw, abc, blind-rst, blind-syn, blind-data.
-p app specifies what kind of traffic to generate for testing. Destination port defaults the
application standard port. Valid applications are: http, bgp.
-d dport specifies the destination port for the packets being sent. Defaults are application-
specific.
-s sport specifies the source port for the packets being sent. Default is based of the scamper
process id.
-a acks specifies the sequence of packets that should be acknowledged as part of the ABC test.
-b ASN specifies the autonomous system number (ASN) that should be used when establishing a BGP
session.
-i ICW specifies the initial congestion window (ICW) that we expect from the peer when conducting
the ABC test.
-f cookie specifies the TCP fast open cookie that should be used when establishing a TCP connection.
-L limit test the response to a theoretical limit (L) value with ABC.
-m mss specifies the maximum segment size to advertise to the remote host.
-M mtu specifies the MTU to use in a Packet Too Big message.
-o offset specifies the sequence number offset to use when conducting blind-syn and blind-rst tests,
and the acknowledgement number offset to use when conducting a blind-data test.
-O option allows tbit behaviour to be further tailored. The current choices for this option are:
- blackhole: for PMTUD testing, do not send Packet Too Big messages; this tests to
ability of a host to infer a PMTUD blackhole and work around it.
- tcpts: advertise support for TCP timestamps when establishing a TCP connection. If
the peer supports TCP timestamps, embed timestamps in data packets.
- ipts-syn: use the timestamp IP option in a SYN packet when attempting to establish a
TCP connection.
- iprr-syn: use the record-route IP option in a SYN packet when attempting to establish
a TCP connection.
- ipqs-syn: use the quick-start IP option in a SYN packet when attempting to establish a
TCP connection.
- sack: advertise support for TCP selective acknowledgements (SACK) when establishing a
TCP connection.
- fo: advertise support for TCP fast open using the official IANA number assigned for
fast open.
- fo-exp: advertise support for TCP fast open using the testing number assigned by IANA
for fast open.
-P ptbsrc specifies the source address that should be used to send Packet Too Big messages in the
pmtud test.
-q attempts specifies the number of attempts to make with each packet to reduce false inferences caused
by packet loss.
-S srcaddr specifies the source address that should be used in TCP packets sent by the tbit test.
-T ttl specifies the IP time-to-live value that should be used in TCP packets sent by the tbit
test.
-u url specifies a url to use when using the http application method. If the url starts with
https, the tbit test begins with a TLS handshake.
-U userid specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-
id is entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of tbit.
-w wscale specifies the window scale option to use when establishing the TCP connection.
TRACELB OPTIONS
The tracelb command is used to infer all per-flow load-balanced paths between a source and destination
using the multipath discovery algorithm (MDA). The following options are available for the scamper
tracelb command:
tracelb [-c confidence] [-d dport] [-f firsthop] [-g gaplimit] [-O option] [-P method] [-q attempts]
[-r rtraddr] [-Q maxprobec] [-s sport] [-t tos] [-U userid] [-w wait-timeout] [-W wait-probe]
-c confidence
specifies the level of confidence we want to attain that there are no more parallel load
balanced paths at a given hop. Valid values are 95 (default) and 99, for 95% confidence
and 99% confidence respectively.
-d dport specifies the base destination port to use. Defaults to 33435, the default used by
traceroute(8).
-f firsthop specifies how many hops away we should start probing.
-g gaplimit specifies how many consecutive unresponsive hops are permitted before probing down a branch
halts. Defaults to three.
-O option allows tracelb behaviour to be further tailored. The current choices for this option are:
- ptr: do Domain Name System pointer (PTR) record lookups for IP addresses.
-P method specifies which method we should use to do the probing. Valid options are: UDP-dport,
ICMP-echo, UDP-sport, TCP-sport, and TCP-ack-sport. Note: scamper uses UDP-dport by
default, and these options are case insensitive.
-q attempts specifies how many probes we should send in an attempt to receive a reply. Defaults to 2.
-Q maxprobec specifies the maximum number of probes we ever want to send. Defaults to 3000.
-r rtraddr specifies the IP address of the router to use.
-s sport specifies to the source port to use when sending probes. Default based on process ID.
-t tos specifies the value for the IP Type-of-service field for outgoing probes. Defaults to 0.
-U userid specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-
id is entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of tracelb.
-w wait-timeout
specifies in seconds how long to wait for a reply to a probe. Defaults to 5.
-W wait-probe
specifies in 1/100ths of seconds how long to wait between probes. Defaults to 25 (i.e.
250ms).
STING OPTIONS
The sting command is used to infer one-way loss using an algorithm with TCP probes. It requires the
firewall be enabled in scamper using the -F option. The following options are available for the scamper
sting command:
sting [-c count] [-d dport] [-f distribution] [-h request] [-H hole] [-i inter] [-m mean] [-s sport]
-c count specifies the number of samples to make. By default 48 samples are sent, as this value is
the current default of the FreeBSD TCP reassembly queue length. Sting 0.7 uses 100
samples.
-d dport specifies the base destination port to use. Defaults to 80, the default port used by the
HTTP protocol.
-f distribution
specifies the delay distribution of samples. By default a uniform distribution is
constructed. Other distributions are currently not implemented in scamper's implementation
of sting.
-h request specifies the default request to make. Currently not implemented.
-H hole specifies the size of the initial hole left in the request. The default is 3 bytes, the
same as sting-0.7.
-i inter specifies the inter-phase delay between data seeding and hole filling, in milliseconds. By
default, sting waits 2000ms between phases.
-m mean specifies the mean rate to send packets in the data phase, in milliseconds. By default,
sting waits 100ms between probes.
-s sport specifies to the source port to use when sending probes. Default is based on the process
ID.
SNIFF OPTIONS
The sniff command is used to capture packets matching a specific signature. At present, the only
supported signature is ICMP echo packets with a specific ID value, or packets containing such a quote.
The following options are available for the scamper sniff command:
sting [-c limit-pktc] [-G limit-time] [-S ipaddr] [-U userid] <expression>
-c limit-pktc
specifies the maximum number of packets to capture.
-G limit-time
specifies the maximum time, in seconds, to capture packets.
-S ipaddr specifies the IP address that packets must arrive using. scamper uses the IP address to
identify the appropriate interface to listen for packets.
-U userid specifies an unsigned integer to include with the data collected; the meaning of the user-
id is entirely up to the user and has no effect on the behaviour of sniff.
The sole supported expression is icmp[icmpid] == X, where X is the ICMP-ID to select.
DATA COLLECTION FEATURES
scamper has two data output formats. The first is a human-readable format suitable for one-off data
collection and measurement. The second, known as warts, is a binary format that records much more meta-
data and is more precise than the human-readable format.
scamper is designed for Internet-scale measurement, where large lists of targets are supplied for
probing. scamper has the ability to probe multiple lists simultaneously, with each having a mix rate
that specifies the priority of the list. scamper can also make multiple cycles over a list of addresses.
When writing output to a warts file, scamper records details of the list and cycle that each measurement
task belongs to.
CONTROL SOCKET
When started with the -P option, scamper allows inter-process communication via a TCP socket bound to the
supplied port on the local host. This socket is useful for controlling the operation of a long-lived
scamper process. A client may interact with scamper by using telnet(1) to open a connection to the
supplied port.
The following control socket commands are available.
exit
The exit command closes the current control socket connection.
attach argument ...
The attach command changes how scamper accepts and replies to commands, returning results straight
over the control socket. See ATTACH section below for details on which commands scamper accepts.
format string
The data format requested. The two options are warts, and json. The warts binary data is
uuencoded. The json is plain json text. By default, scamper uses warts.
priority uint32_t
The mixing priority of this source, relative to other scamper sources. By default, scamper
uses a priority of '1' -- all sources are mixed equally.
get argument
The get command returns the current setting for the supplied argument. Valid argument values are:
holdtime, monitorname, nameserver, pid, pps, sport, version.
set argument ...
The set command sets the current setting for the supplied argument. Valid argument values are:
holdtime, monitorname, nameserver, pps.
source argument ...
add arguments
The source add command allows a new input source to be added. It accepts the following
arguments:
name string
The name of the source. This parameter is mandatory.
descr string
An optional string describing the source.
command string
The command to execute for each address supplied. If not supplied, the default command is
used.
list_id uint32_t
An optional numeric list identifier, assigned by a human. If not supplied, a value of
zero is used.
cycle_id uint32_t
An optional numeric initial cycle identifier to use, assigned by a human. If not
supplied, a value of one is used.
priority uint32_t
An optional numeric value that specifies the mix rate of measurements from the source
compared to other sources. If not supplied, a mix rate of one is used. A value of zero
causes the source to be created, but not actively used.
outfile string
The name of the output file to write results to, previously defined with outfile open. If
not supplied, the default output file is used.
file string
The name of the input file to read target addresses from. This parameter is mandatory if
the source is a managed source.
cycles integer
The number of cycles to make over the target address file. If zero, scamper will loop
indefinitely over the file. This parameter is ignored unless a managed source is defined.
autoreload [on | off]
This parameter specifies if the target address file should be re-read whenever a cycle is
completed, or if the same set of target addresses as the previous cycle should be used.
If not specified, the file is not automatically reloaded at cycle time.
update name arguments
The source update command allows some properties of an existing source to be modified. The
source to update is specified with the name parameter. Valid parameters are: autoreload,
cycles, and priority.
list ...
The source list command provides a listing of all currently defined sources. The optional
third name parameter restricts the listing to the source specified.
cycle name
The source cycle command manually inserts a cycle marker in an adhoc source.
delete name
The source delete command deletes the named source, if possible.
outfile argument ...
The outfile commands provide the ability to manage output files. It accepts the following
arguments:
open ...
The outfile open command allows a new output file to be defined. It accepts the following
parameters:
name alias
The alias of the output file. This parameter is mandatory.
file string
The filename of the output file. This parameter is mandatory.
mode [truncate | append]
How the file will be opened. If the append mode is used, any existing file with the
specified name will be appended to. If the truncate mode is used, any existing file will
be truncated when it is opened.
close alias
The outfile close command allows an existing output file to be closed. The mandatory alias
parameter specifies which output file to close. An output file that is currently referenced is
not able to be closed. To close a file that is currently referenced, a new outfile must be
opened, and then the outfile swap command be used.
swap alias1 alias2
The outfile swap command swaps the file associated with each output file.
list
The outfile list command outputs a list of the existing outfiles.
observe sources
This command allows for monitoring of source events. When executed, the control socket will then
supply event notices whenever a source is added, updated, deleted, finished, or cycled. Each event
is prefixed with a count of the number of seconds elapsed since the Unix epoch. The following
examples illustrate the event monitoring capabilities:
EVENT 1169065640 source add name 'foo' list_id 5 priority 1
EVENT 1169065641 source update 'foo' priority 15
EVENT 1169065642 source cycle 'bar' id 2
EVENT 1169065650 source finish 'bar'
EVENT 1169065661 source delete 'foo'
shutdown argument
The shutdown argument allows the scamper process to be exited cleanly. The following arguments are
supported
done
The shutdown done command requests that scamper shuts down when the current tasks, as well as
all remaining cycles, have completed.
flush
The shutdown flush command requests that scamper flushes all remaining tasks queued with each
list, finishes all current tasks, and then shuts down.
now The shutdown now command causes scamper to shutdown immediately. Unfinished tasks are purged.
cancel
The shutdown cancel command cancels any pending shutdown.
ATTACH MODE
In attach mode, none of the usual interactive mode commands are usable. Instead, commands may be entered
directly and results will be sent back directly over the control socket. Commands are specified just as
they would be with the -I flag for a command-line invocation of scamper. Replies are split into lines by
single \n characters and have one of the following formats:
ERR ...
A line starting with the 3 characters "ERR" indicates an error has occurred. The rest of the line
will contain an error message.
OK id-num
A line with the 2 characters "OK" indicates that scamper has accepted the command. scamper versions
after 20110623 return an id number associated with the command, which allow the task to be halted by
subsequently issuing a "halt" instruction.
MORE
A line with just the 4 characters "MORE" indicates that scamper has the capacity to accept more
probing commands to run in parallel.
DATA length
A line starting with the 4 characters "DATA" follow by a space then a base-10 number indicates the
start of result. length specifies the number of characters of the data, including newlines. The
data is in binary warts format and uuencoded before transmission.
To exit attached mode the client must send a single line containing "done". To halt a command that has
not yet completed, issue a "halt" instruction with the id number returned when the command was accepted
as the sole parameter.
EXAMPLES
To use the default traceroute command to trace the path to 192.0.2.1:
scamper -i 192.0.2.1
To infer Path MTU changes in the network and associate them with a traceroute path:
scamper -I "trace -P udp-paris -M 192.0.2.1"
To use paris traceroute with ICMP probes, using 3 probes per hop, sending all probes, writing to a
specified warts file:
scamper -O warts -o file.warts -I "trace -P icmp-paris -q 3 -Q 192.0.2.1"
To conduct a traceroute and a ping to two different addresses using the default traceroute and ping
parameters, writing to a specified warts file:
scamper -O warts -o file.warts -I "trace 192.0.2.1" "ping 192.0.2.2"
To ping a series of addresses defined in filename, probing each address 10 times:
scamper -c "ping -c 10" filename
Care must be taken with shell quoting when using commands with multiple levels of quoting, such as when
giving a probe description with a dealias command. The following sends UDP probes to alternating IP
addresses, one second apart, and requires the IP-ID values returned to be strictly in sequence.
scamper -O warts -o ally.warts -I "dealias -O inseq -W 1000 -m ally -p '-P udp -i 192.0.2.1' -p '-P
udp -i 192.0.2.4'"
Alternatively, the following accomplishes the same, but without specifying the UDP probe method twice.
scamper -O warts -o ally.warts -I "dealias -O inseq -W 1000 -m ally -p '-P udp' 192.0.2.1 192.0.2.4"
The following command scans 198.51.100.0/28 for a matching alias to 192.0.2.4, but skips 198.51.100.3.
scamper -O warts -o prefixscan.warts -I "dealias -O inseq -W 1000 -m prefixscan -p '-P udp' -x
198.51.100.3 192.0.2.4 198.51.100.0/28"
The following uses UDP probes to enumerate all per-flow load-balanced paths towards 192.0.2.6 to 99%
confidence; it varies the source port with each probe.
scamper -I "tracelb -P udp-sport -c 99 192.0.2.6"
SEE ALSO
ping(8), traceroute(8), libscamperfile(3), sc_ally(1), sc_analysis_dump(1), sc_attach(1), sc_ipiddump(1),
sc_filterpolicy(1), sc_remoted(1), sc_speedtrap(1), sc_tbitblind(1), sc_tracediff(1), sc_uptime(1),
sc_wartscat(1), sc_wartsdump(1), sc_warts2json(1), sc_warts2pcap(1), sc_warts2text(1),
S. Savage, Sting: a TCP-based Network Measurement Tool, 1999 USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies
and Systems.
R. Govindan and H. Tangmunarunkit, Heuristics for Internet Map Discovery, Proc. IEEE INFOCOM 2000.
N. Spring, R. Mahajan, and D. Wetherall, Measuring ISP topologies with Rocketfuel, Proc. ACM SIGCOMM
2002.
A. Medina, M. Allman, and S. Floyd, Measuring the evolution of transport protocols in the Internet,
ACM/SIGCOMM Computer Communication Review.
M. Luckie, K. Cho, and B. Owens, Inferring and Debugging Path MTU Discovery Failures, Proc. ACM/SIGCOMM
Internet Measurement Conference 2005.
B. Donnet, P. Raoult, T. Friedman, and M. Crovella, Efficient algorithms for large-scale topology
discovery, Proc. ACM SIGMETRICS 2005.
B. Augustin, X. Cuvellier, B. Orgogozo, F. Viger, T. Friedman, M. Latapy, C. Magnien, and R. Teixeira,
Avoiding traceroute anomalies with Paris traceroute, Proc. ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference
2006.
B. Augustin, T. Friedman, and R. Teixeira, Measuring Load-balanced Paths in the Internet, Proc.
ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference 2007.
A. Bender, R. Sherwood, and N. Spring, Fixing Ally's growing pains with velocity modeling, Proc.
ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference 2008.
M. Luckie, Scamper: a Scalable and Extensible Packet Prober for Active Measurement of the Internet, Proc.
ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference 2010.
R. Beverly, W. Brinkmeyer, M. Luckie, and J.P. Rohrer, IPv6 Alias Resolution via Induced Fragmentation,
Proc. Passive and Active Measurement Conference 2013.
M. Luckie, R. Beverly, W. Brinkmeyer, and k claffy, Speedtrap: Internet-scale IPv6 Alias Resolution,
Proc. ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference 2013.
M. Luckie, R. Beverly, T. Wu, M. Allman, and k. claffy, Resilience of Deployed TCP to Blind Attacks,
Proc. ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference 2015.
J. Czyz, M. Luckie, M. Allman, and M. Bailey, Don't Forget to Lock the Back Door! A Characterization of
IPv6 Network Security Policy, Proc. Network and Distributed Systems Security (NDSS) Conference 2016.
M. Luckie, A. Dhamdhere, B. Huffaker, D. Clark, and k. claffy, bdrmap: Inference of Borders Between IP
Networks, Proc. ACM/SIGCOMM Internet Measurement Conference 2016.
M. Luckie and R. Beverly, The Impact of Router Outages on the AS-level Internet, Proc. ACM/SIGCOMM
Conference 2017.
AUTHORS
scamper was written by Matthew Luckie <mjl@luckie.org.nz>. Alistair King contributed an initial
implementation of Doubletree; Ben Stasiewicz contributed an initial implementation of TBIT's PMTUD test;
Stephen Eichler contributed an initial implementation of TBIT's ECN test; Boris Pfahringer adapted
scamper to use GNU autotools, modularised the tests, and updated this man page. Brian Hammond of
Internap Network Services Corporation provided an initial implementation of scamper's json output format.
Tiange Wu contributed an initial implementation of the blind in-window TBIT test, and Robert Beverly
contributed BGP protocol support for TBIT.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
scamper development was initially funded by the WIDE project in association with CAIDA. Boris' work was
funded by the University of Waikato's Centre for Open Source Innovation.
Debian April 27, 2020 SCAMPER(1)