# Is packetbeat parsing pcap data per packets or per flow/stream?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-packetbeat-parsing-pcap-data-per-packets-or-per-flow-stream/81234>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** beats-development\
**Created:** [April 5, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-packetbeat-parsing-pcap-data-per-packets-or-per-flow-stream/81234 "2017-04-05T00:21:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Niveah\_Tefillah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/niveah_tefillah/32/17079_2.png) [@Niveah\_Tefillah](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Niveah_Tefillah)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-packetbeat-parsing-pcap-data-per-packets-or-per-flow-stream/81234/1 "2017-04-05T00:21:49Z")

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Hi!  
This might be a dumb question! But iam unable to figure out if the pcap data is being parsed per packet or per flow/stream!  
Please help me understand this. Thank you!  
Niveah

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**Author:** ![steffens](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/steffens/32/79630_2.png) [@steffens](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/steffens)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 8:36am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-packetbeat-parsing-pcap-data-per-packets-or-per-flow-stream/81234/2 "2017-04-05T08:36:07Z")

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what you mean by `being parsed per packet or per flow/stream`? Packetbeat publishes flow information and transaction-logs. The later by parsing the packet contents and correlating multiple packets and included messages into transactions.

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**Author:** ![Niveah\_Tefillah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/niveah_tefillah/32/17079_2.png) [@Niveah\_Tefillah](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Niveah_Tefillah)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-packetbeat-parsing-pcap-data-per-packets-or-per-flow-stream/81234/3 "2017-04-05T14:21:32Z")

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Thank you, you've helped me understand! 🙂

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/is-packetbeat-parsing-pcap-data-per-packets-or-per-flow-stream/81234/4 "2017-05-03T14:21:41Z")

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