6
votes

Does anyone have any good suggestions for a graphical HTTP trace program for OSX? I'm looking for something similar to Fiddler or HTTPWatch.

I already use tcpdump for network traces, but that's far to much info for what I'm trying to accomplish, and the output data isn't as easy to read as it would be in the above Windows HTTP trace programs.

9 Answers 9

3
votes

You could use wireshark which has a graphical interface (and a CLI one called tshark). It has a menu entry called "Follow TCP stream". That way, you see all requests and answers from a given TCP connection.

1
  • I think Wireshark ends up being the best implementation here - the other suggestions either don't provide enough info, are restricted to just one browser, or I'm going to end up jumping through hoops to get it working with the corporate proxy. Thanks :)
    – user5401
    Jun 2, 2009 at 22:14
5
votes

You can get load time, latency, speed, etc from Safari's Web Inspector. The Web Inspector's resources tab is a good place to start.

To enable the Web Inspector, the Developer menu needs to be turned on (Preferences > Advanced > Show Developer menu...).

Screenshot of Web Inspector http://www.jordanogren.com/downloads/sfscreenshot.png

4
  • It doesn't look quite as nice as Safari's Web Inspector, but there's also the HTTPFox add-on for Firefox that might be worth a look
    – gharper
    May 29, 2009 at 16:48
  • It sounds like the question is looking for something that shows the raw HTTP requests and responses, which the Web Inspector does not. May 31, 2009 at 9:49
  • That's correct, I was looking for something that shows the raw requests.
    – user5401
    Jun 2, 2009 at 21:35
  • Thanks Peter. It wasn't immediately clear if brandonm's needs were client-side or server-side. I have used fiddler before as a client-side tool for benchmarking http performance; Web Inspector is what I use in OSX to do the same. I'll leave my answer up, as I think it's still relevant for people searching for a client-side http trace tool. Jun 4, 2009 at 16:13
1
vote

Firebug for Firefox alt text http://getfirebug.com/net.gif

0
votes

If you only need to look at the HTTP requests and response for web pages, you can use LiveHTTPHeaders in Firefox.

0
votes

Charles Proxy is pretty good: http://www.charlesproxy.com/

It is similar to Fiddler, except it doesn't have so great scripting capabilities, but handles reverse proxies + ssl, which is what I need. Charles Proxy is java-based, so it should run on Mac too.

0
votes

Other proxy-based solutions are burpsuite (free to use, afaik) and NetTool (opensource). Both are written in java, have graphical interfaces and should work ok on MacOSX. I have mostly used the former and have been quite satisfied with it.

0
votes

I think what you need is HTTP Client by Todd Ditchendorf (maker of Fluid)

From the website:

"A Mac OS X Leopard developer tool for debugging HTTP services by graphically creating & inspecting complex HTTP messages."

0
votes

Charles Web Debugging Proxy is excellent. It can monitor OS X activity (Safari and other applications that use HTTP) plus it has a Firefox addon. It lets you "throttle" your internet connection to simulate a slow connection. It lets you map a remote file to your local hard drive (for example, to test a change, just tell Charles to use a local file instead of getting it from the live site).

0
votes

I use HTTP Scoop which you can get from tuffcode.com. It costs $15 but is completely worth it (and I am not a Tuffcode employee).

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