Command line options

Kismet loads the bulk of configuration from the configuration files, however it also accepts a number of command line options which take precedence and allow for speedy changes to common configuration options.

Kismet command line options

Core Kismet options

--no-ncurses

By default, when started on a terminal, Kismet shows a console status display: the address of the web UI, a packet rate graph for each data source, device and memory graphs, and the server messages. When running Kismet in a script or as a service, it’s probably desirable to disable this and use pure text output. The display is never shown when the output isn’t a terminal, or with --daemonize.

The display can also be turned off permanently with enable_ncurses=false in kismet.conf or kismet_site.conf. --no-ncurses always disables it, regardless of the config.

--enable-ncurses

Enable the console display for this run even if enable_ncurses=false is set in the config. Debug mode and --daemonize still disable the display.

--debug

Enable debug mode, primarily for running under GDB. Debug mode disables the internal crash and backtrace code, turns off the console display, and sets up some other state for easier debugging.

--no-line-wrap

Kismet line-wraps messages on the terminal to make them more readable. When running in a script or as a service, it may be more useful to have a complete status message on a single line.

--no-plugins

Turn off loading plugins. Mostly useful when debugging if a plugin is causing a crash.

Logging options

-n / --no-logging

Turn off all logging for this run.

-t / --log-title={ title }

Set the log title for this run; this populates the title field of the log template.

-p / --log-prefix={ prefix-directory }

Use an alternate log prefix for this run, this logs files to a different location.

-T / --log-types={ type1,type2,...,typeN }

Set what type of logs are generated for this run.

Configuration options

--homedir={ path }

Use an alternate home directory path instead of the users ${HOME}.

--confdir={ path }

Use an alternative configuration directory instead of the value Kismet was compiled with.

--override={ flavor }

Use an override config file. Learn about config overrides here.