Net::Pcap doesn't understand ERF format files such as those that come from an Endace capture. (I get "unknown file format" from the open_offline sub). ERF is identical to pcap, except that there is an additional timestamp that has a higher resolution than what pcap can provide.

tcpdump can parse ERF files no problem, but it seems that knowledge is in the tcpdump source and not libpcap itself (and therefore not Net::Pcap). Before I download and read the tcpdump source code to find the precise format and write my own parser, does anyone have one they'd like to share or is there a module out there I didn't find?

Update:

Actually tcpdump can not parse the native files that come from Endace resulting in the same error returned by Net::Pcap, which makes sense ('unknown file format'). We discovered that mergecap is changing the files into the libpcap format which can then be read by libpcap/tcpdump/Net::Pcap. mergcap converts from (File type: Endace ERF capture, File encapsulation: Endace Record File) -> (File type: Wiresharek/tcpdump/... - libpcap, File encapsulation: Endace Record File

In reply to Parsing ERF (pcap-like) format files by sblanton

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