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tcpretrans(8) System Manager's Manual tcpretrans(8)

NAME

tcpretrans - Trace or count TCP retransmits and TLPs. Uses Linux eBPF/bcc.

SYNOPSIS

tcpretrans [-h] [-l]

DESCRIPTION

This traces TCP retransmits, showing address, port, and TCP state information, and sometimes the PID (although usually not, since retransmits are usually sent by the kernel on timeouts). To keep overhead very low, only the TCP retransmit functions are traced. This does not trace every packet (like tcpdump(8) or a packet sniffer). Optionally, it can count retransmits over a user signalled interval to spot potentially dropping network paths the flows are traversing.

This uses dynamic tracing of the kernel tcp_retransmit_skb() and tcp_send_loss_probe() functions, and will need to be updated to match kernel changes to these functions.

Since this uses BPF, only the root user can use this tool.

REQUIREMENTS

CONFIG_BPF and bcc.

OPTIONS

-h
Print usage message.
-l
Include tail loss probe attempts (in some cases the kernel may not complete the TLP send).
-c
Count occurring retransmits per flow.

EXAMPLES

Trace TCP retransmits:
# tcpretrans
Trace TCP retransmits and TLP attempts:
# tcpretrans -l

FIELDS

TIME
Time of the retransmit.
PID
Process ID that was on-CPU. This is less useful than it might sound, as it may usually be 0, for the kernel, for timer-based retransmits.
IP
IP address family (4 or 6).
LADDR
Local IP address.
LPORT
Local port.
T>
Type of event: R> == retransmit, L> == tail loss probe.
RADDR
Remote IP address.
RPORT
Remote port.
STATE
TCP session state.
RETRANSMITS
Accumulated occurred retransmits since start.

OVERHEAD

Should be negligible: TCP retransmit events should be low (<1000/s), and the low overhead this tool adds to each event should make the cost negligible.

SOURCE

This is from bcc.
https://github.com/iovisor/bcc

Also look in the bcc distribution for a companion _examples.txt file containing example usage, output, and commentary for this tool.

OS

Linux

STABILITY

Unstable - in development.

AUTHOR

Brendan Gregg

SEE ALSO

tcpconnect(8), tcpaccept(8)
2016-02-14 USER COMMANDS