httptrace - TCP/HTTP trace utility

Listens on a TCP/IP port, redirects data to another port and writes traces.

DOWNLOAD

Download the classes and source code from

• http://www.3sprenger.de/httptrace.zip or
• http://httptrace.sourceforge.org/httptrace/httptrace.zip.

For Windows platforms, Microsoft JVM "jview" can be used.

Source: httptrace.java.
Author: Thorsten Sprenger (thorsten@3sprenger.de)

SYNOPSIS

java httptrace [ options ] 
java httptrace -help for a list of options

For Windows platforms, Microsoft JVM "jview" can be used:

jview.exe httptrace [ options ] 

If started without options, httptrace displays a parameter dialog.

DESCRIPTION

The httptrace utility is a java application that dumps TCP traffic (for example, HTTP requests/responses) to screen or file.
It is called "httptrace" since there are some options which make it suitable for HTTP tracing, but for other protocols, it works fine as well.
httptrace listens on a TCP/IP port, redirects data to another port and writes traces of the data packets.
Example:

• The HTTP server works on http://www.xyz.com
• On your client machine, start java httptrace -listenport 80 -tunnelhost www.xyz.com -tunnelport 80.
• Start a browser on http://localhost/ and watch the httptrace window.

(In fact, -listenport and -tunnelport can be omitted, since the defaults are 80).

httptrace comes up with a parameter dialog (unless -nodialog or -nogui is set):

httptrace then shows the captured packets:

If HTTP headers are not of interest, hide them with -noheader.
A tracefile can be created with -tracefile filename. Note that httptrace will not overwrite, but append to an already existing file.
If the trace output shall go to console, use -nogui -tracefile stdout.

  -listenport  	TCP port on which httptrace listens (default: 80)
  -tunnelhost  	hostname to which httptrace redirects data  (default: localhost)
  -tunnelport  	port to which httptrace redirects data (default: 80)
  -tracefile   	append data to this file.
               	use "-tracefile stdout" to write to console.
  -pattern     	trace only data containing this text (enclosed in "")
  -nodata      	do not trace data
  -noheader    	do not trace HTTP header
  -nodialog    	do not display parameter dialog on startup
  -nocomments  	do not write any comments
  -nogui       	do not display graphical user interface
  -help        	print this help
  -version     	print version

EXAMPLES

Listen on port 80 and send requests to www.xyz.com :

  java httptrace -tunnelhost www.xyz.com

Listen on port 80 and send requests to local port 81, hide HTTP headers :

  java httptrace -tunnelport 81 -noheader

Listen on port 80 and send requests to local port 81, don't show parameter dialog, write to file data.log :

  java httptrace -tunnelport 81 -nodialog -tracefile data.log

Listen on port 80 and send requests to localhost port 6714, but don't display window.
Print every packet containing "?xml" on console :

  java httptrace -tunnelport 6714 -nogui -pattern "?xml" -tracefile stdout 

Listen on port 80 and send requests to 211.3.123.124, without any traces (just tunnel the traffic):

  java httptrace -tunnelhost 211.3.123.124 -nogui

CREDITS

The java source is derived from org.apache.soap.util.net.TcpTunnel.

COMMENTS

Please write your comments, wishes or bug reports to Thorsten Sprenger (thorsten@3sprenger.de). Thanks!