Using tcpdump, how do I see as plainly as possible an unencrypted SMTP conversation?

Question

I'm trying to debug an application and it isn't a place that's convenient to run WireShark.

I've been using "tcpdump -nn -x -X port 25" but the output isn't really in the most convenient format. Thoughts?

Solution 1

You can always have tcpdump write out to a file using "-w dump.txt -s 0" as extra arguments, and then load the output file into WireShark locally.

Solution 2

tcpdump -A (instead of -X) will print packet contents in ASCII.