Resuming Nmap Scans

If Nmap scan results are being written to file in either Normal or Grepable format (see Saving Nmap Output), the scan can be resumed after interruption by using the —resume option. When resuming from a file, no command-line options are supported other than the file from which to resume (the original scan options are saved in the output file and are reused when the scan is resumed).

Only scans that span multiple hosts can be resumed, and the scan picks up after the last fully scanned host. Here's an example of a scan being interrupted after finishing one host and resuming to complete the scan on a second host:

bryan@firemaw:˜$ sudo nmap -oG grepable_output -n 10.150.9.15,143

Interesting ports on 10.150.9.15:
(The 1671 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed)
PORT    STATE SERVICE
22/tcp  open  ssh
111/tcp open  rpcbind
955/tcp open  unknown
^C
caught SIGINT signal, cleaning up
bryan@firemaw:˜$ sudo nmap —resume grepable_output

Interesting ports on 10.150.9.143:
(The 1672 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: filtered)
PORT    STATE SERVICE
139/tcp open  netbios-ssn
445/tcp open  microsoft-ds