How to Use the netstat Command in Linux

Category: Advanced – Command Line • Est. reading time: 1 minute

The netstat command shows network connections, listening ports, and network statistics. One heads-up: netstat is now considered obsolete on modern Linux, and the faster ss command has replaced it. ss takes the same style of options, so both are shown below.

Show all sockets

netstat -a
ss -a        # modern equivalent

Show only TCP or UDP

netstat -at   # TCP
netstat -au   # UDP

Show only listening sockets

netstat -l
netstat -lt   # TCP, listening only

Listening TCP and UDP, with program names, IPs, and ports

netstat -tulpen
ss -tulpen        # the same options work with ss

The letters mean: t TCP, u UDP, l listening, p program and PID, e extended info, n numeric (skip name lookups). Add sudo to see the program name for sockets you do not own.

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