Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] slow when loading big pcaps
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From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:07:22 -0700
On Oct 20, 2010, at 3:42 AM, cco wrote:

> why is wireshark so slow when loading up >500 MB pcaps?

Are you saying that the time taken to read a file, as a function of the size of the file, is discontinuous, with a jump at about 500 MB?

If so, it might be that the memory used by Wireshark for the file (per-packet data structures, reassembled packets, text for columns that aren't generated on the fly, etc.) becomes large enough that your machine starts paging.

> is there any configuration trick to speed this up?

If you're paging:

Make sure you're running Wireshark 1.4.0 or later - *no* columns can have their text generated on the fly in earlier releases, but some can in 1.4.0.

Turning off packet reassembly for various protocols *might* help as well.