how to create testing data files??

[waldo kitty <wkitty42 () windstream net>]

how can we create data files and test rules without having to create pcaps? i've 
tried creating a file with some test strings in it and feeding it to snort via 
the various pcap reading methods but snort always whines "bad dump file format" 
and quits...

the snort 2.8.6.1 manual specifically states, in section 1.7.2 at the bottom of 
page 16...

[quote] Note that Snort will not try to determine whether the files under that 
directory are really pcap files or not. [/quote]

that indicates that we can create a "text" file and feed it to snort... what am 
i missing??


i get the following output from snort...


snort --pcap-file=ptest.txt
[...]
TCPDUMP file reading mode.
Reading network traffic from "/home/user/pcaps/test" file.
ERROR: Unable to open file "/home/user/pcaps/test" for readback: bad dump file 
format
Fatal Error, Quitting..



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