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https://github.com/blitz/xplot

Plot tcptrace data
https://github.com/blitz/xplot

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Plot tcptrace data

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README 

        
This is the README file for the program xplot.



There seems to be a few other programs floating around the net by the

same name.  This one was written by Tim Shepard while doing his S.M.

thesis "TCP Packet Trace Analysis" for David Clark at the MIT

Laboratory for Computer Science.  The thesis can be ordered from

MIT/LCS Publications.  Ordering information can be obtained from

+1 617 253 5851 or send mail to [email protected].  Ask for

MIT/LCS/TR-494.  Or you can get it on the net free of charge from

.



To make plots like the ones in my S.M. thesis, you should read the

ANNOUNCE file, the README.tcp_plots file, and the tcpdump2xplot.pl

perl script.



Thanks to Garret Wollman for contributing the original

tcpdump2xplot.pl script and thanks to Eric Prud'hommeaux (@ w3.org)

for making 

available, a much improved version. The one included here is a

slightly improved version of Eric's.  It tries to do the right thing

with SYN and FIN bits (by including them in the sequence space) and

can also handle wscale and SACK options, though you may have to fix

your version of tcpdump to print out the rfc2018 SACK blocks

correctly.  (Some versions of tcpdump print out rfc1185 SACK blocks

which have a different (obsolete) format, but share the same TCP

option number.)  When you run tcpdump, you'll probably want to include

the options "-s 96 -S -tt -n".



xplot is compiled by running:



	./configure

	make



After you get xplot compiled try running:



	xplot demo.*



You will get one window for each input file.  The demo.0 file just

demonstrates the different things that can be plotted.  The demo.1

file is from the thesis mentioned above.  Xplot was written to make it

possible to zoom in on data like this.  To get a feel for zooming, run

xplot on demo.1 and resize the window so that it fills most of your

screen.  Then zoom in on the data a few times, and then scroll around.

The demo.2 file is an ntp wedge plot.  (Ntp wedge plots were invented

by David Mills when he developed the ntp.)  demo.3 is a simply made

histogram.  demo.4 is another ntp wedge plot but with some of the data

points in color.  demo.5 shows how the text commands can be used to

label things.  demo.6 is a sort of timing diagram.  Most people who

have made use of xplot write awk or perl scripts to convert their data

into a form suitable for input into xplot.



There isn't much documentation other than the sourcecode.  To see what

type of things can be drawn, look in demo.0 .  You can easily add new

types of points by editing xplot.c.  e.g. adding the "diamond" type

was accomplished in about 10 minutes by searching for each occurance

of "box" or "BOX" in xplot.c.



The currently available coordinate types are:

 double

 signed

 unsigned

 timeval



It should be fairly easy to add a new coordinate type.  Model the

implementation after an existing coordinate type (like signed.c) and

make the necessary edits to coord.c and xplot.h.



xplot does not behave well when you wrap around the end of a

coordinate space.  This is particularly likely if the "unsigned"

coordinate type is used and you attempt to scroll or zoom to values

below zero.  Because of this, the "unsigned" coordinate type is not

recommended.  However, "unsigned" is the only reasonable choice for

TCP sequence numbers.  A 64-bit signed integer coordinate type should

be added to xplot someday.  For typical applications, double should be

used for both coordinate types.



The first line of input names the x and y coordinate types.  After the

first line, all lines are plot commands.  A line "go" can be included

to mark the end of the input file, but shouldn't be necessary.



How to drive the mouse

----------------------



Drag a rectangle with the left mouse button to zoom in.

Click the left mouse button to pop the zoom stack.



Drag with the middle mouse button to scroll.



Zooming or scrolling below the x axis zooms or scrolls only in the x

direction.  Similarly, zooming or scrolling to the left of the y axis

zooms or scrolls only in the y direction.



Click the right mouse button to close the window. Xplot will exit if

you close all windows.



Clicking the left button while SHIFT is pressed causes xplot to drop a

postscript file in the current directory.  The title is used as the

first part of the filename if there has been a title plot command.

Otherwise, "xplot" is used.  The file ends in PS.# where # is a serial

number.  Xplot is careful not to write over a previously dumped

postscript file, and # is incremented until an unused filename is

found.



Clicking the middle button while SHIFT is pressed similarly causes

xplot to drop a postscript file, but this will be scaled suitably to

allow the figure to be included in a document.  You might have to

fiddle with the constants in emit_PS() and recompile to get the figure

sized the way you want it.



If you didn't like the size of the figure produced by SHIFT-Middle,

Clicking the right button while SHIFT is pressed will produce a

postscript plot just like the middle button, but it will take less

vertical space.  Again, you can fiddle with the constants in emit_PS()

and recompile if you don't like these sizes.



X Resources

-----------



xplot understands the standard geometry, foreground, and background resource

settings.



---------



Good luck.