How To Install pcaputils on Ubuntu 22.04

In this tutorial we learn how to install pcaputils on Ubuntu 22.04. pcaputils is specialized libpcap utilities

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install pcaputils on Ubuntu 22.04.

What is pcaputils

pcaputils is:

pcaputils includes the following libpcap-based utilities:

  • pcapip: filters an input pcap file based on a file containing IP addresses
  • pcappick: picks specific frames out of a pcap by number
  • pcapuc: prints unique src IPs, dst IPs, or {src, dst} IP pairs witnessed
  • pcapdump: a dedicated packet capture utility similar to dumpcap, but with these features:
  • logs packet dump and drop rates
  • can run as a daemon
  • can dynamically reload its configuration without dropping packets
  • can be signalled to immediately rotate its capture output file
  • can partition its output based on time intervals (e.g., start of hour or start of day)
  • can strip application data from the trace file (output headers only)
  • can sample the packet stream (e.g., only dump every 1 in 10 or 1 in 100 packets)

There are three methods to install pcaputils on Ubuntu 22.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install pcaputils Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install pcaputils using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install pcaputils

Install pcaputils Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install pcaputils using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install pcaputils

Install pcaputils Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install pcaputils using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install pcaputils

How To Uninstall pcaputils on Ubuntu 22.04

To uninstall only the pcaputils package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove pcaputils

Uninstall pcaputils And Its Dependencies

To uninstall pcaputils and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 22.04, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove pcaputils

Remove pcaputils Configurations and Data

To remove pcaputils configuration and data from Ubuntu 22.04 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge pcaputils

Remove pcaputils configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove pcaputils configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge pcaputils

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install pcaputils package on Ubuntu 22.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.