---
name: "bgpdump"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "bgpdump"
version: "1.6.2-3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bgpdump"
---

# bgpdump(1)

translate MRT format files into readable output

## NAME

bgpdump - translate MRT format files into readable output

## VERSION

Version 1.4.99.15+hg127

## SYNOPSIS

Usage:

```
bgpdump [-m|-M] [-t dump|-t change] [-O <output-file>] <input-file>
```

## OPTIONS

Output mode:

- **-H**

  multi-line, human-readable (the default)

- **-m**

  one-line per entry with unix timestamps

- **-M**

  one-line per entry with human readable timestamps in the form MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS (there are other differences between -m and -M)

Common options:

- **-O** file

  output to 'file' instead of STDOUT

- **-s**

  log to syslog (the default)

- **-v**

  log to STDERR

Options for -m and -M modes:

- **-t** *dump*

  timestamps for RIB dumps reflect the time of the dump (the default)

- **-t** *change*

  timestamps for RIB dumps reflect the last route modification

- **-p**

  show packet index at second position

Special options:

- **-T**

  run internal tests and exit

## INPUT FORMATS

- •

  MRT routing table dump entries in TABLE\_DUMP or TABLE\_DUMP\_V2 types

- •

  Zebra/Quagga BGP records:

  - •

    BGP messages (OPEN, UPDATE, NOTIFY, KEEPALIVE)

  - •

    BGP state changes

- •

  File may be gzipped or bzip2'd and/or passed in through stdin

The file format is described in the Internet Draft grow-mrt-13: \<https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-grow-mrt-13\>

## BUGS

If a single update message contains more than 8192 added or withdrawn prefixes, all those above that number are ignored.

Files with a name longer than 999 characters cannot be processed.

The bgpdump program is not y2038 compliant. This is inherited from the file format.

## DEBIAN

Besides bug fixes, the following changes were done in the packaging for the Debian distribution:

- •

  The maximum number of prefixes processed from a single update\
     messages was raised from 2050 to 8192.

## AUTHOR

bgpdump was originally written by Dan Ardelean and the RIPE NCC took over maintenance in 2005.

bgpdump is Copyright (C) 2007-2011 RIPE NCC

This manpage is based on bgpdump's usage output, the bgpdump's homepage, and other sources. It was written for the Debian project by Christoph Biedl \<debian.axhn@manchmal.in-ulm.de\> but may be used by others.