Target and Discovery Configuration Options for “nmap”

The nmap command contains numerous configuration options for port scanning operations, as appropriate and as necessary. The options and parameters include -iL for input from host and network list file names, -iR for random targets, --exclude for exclusion of hosts and networks, and --excludefile for the exclusion of lists from files. Host discovery options include -sL for list scans, -sn for ping scans (disabling the port scans), -Pn to assume complete operations online, and additional features and functionality to provide for specific protocol demands. -PS, -PA, -PU, and -PY are for TCP SYN/ACK, UDP, and SCTP discovery to specific ports, while -PE, -PP, and -PM are for ICMP echo, timesamp, and netmask probes. -PO is for the Internet Protocol, -n and -R are for resolving (or not resolving) DNS, --dns-servers is for custom domain name servers, --system-dns is for resolving using the system domain name servers, and --traceroute is for tracing the hop paths to the respective hosts.