Inspect network traffic from simple linux cli app

command-line-interface, http, linux, networking

Solution

Use `tcpdump` in command line or `wireshark` in desktop.

For example, to capture web traffic. `tcpdump -s0 -i any -wfile.pcap port 80` To watch it directly remove the `-wfile.pcap`

To read a previously saved file `tcpdump -r file.pcap`

However for web traffic if you are interested of watching the http flow as it comes I like to use `tcpflow -C port 80`

Problem

I'm running a small app on the command line, and I'm trying to watch the (http) network traffic it creates. Is there some kind of wrapper program (like 'time', or 'watch') which can display all network traffic to and from my app? (Or at least, make a copy of it in a file)

Original source