What are the differences between -oN, -oX, -oG, and -oA output options in Nmap?

What are the differences between -oN, -oX, -oG, and -oA output options in Nmap?

• A. -oN outputs normal output; -oX outputs XML; -oG outputs grepable; -oA outputs all formats.
• B. -oN outputs normal output; -oX outputs JSON; -oG outputs CSV; -oA outputs all formats.
• C. -oN outputs normal output; -oX outputs XML; -oG outputs HTML; -oA outputs all three.
• D. -oN disables other outputs and only shows host status.

Answer: (B)

Output options in Nmap specify both the format and where the results go. The normal format is the familiar human-readable text, best for quick reading. XML is a structured, machine-friendly format that’s easy to parse with scripts and programs. The grepable format is a compact, line-oriented text designed for simple extraction with tools like grep, awk, or sed. The all-formats option writes all three formats at once using a single basename, giving you both human-friendly and machine-readable files without needing to run separate scans. So, -oN produces normal text, -oX produces XML, -oG produces grepable text, and -oA outputs all formats. The other descriptions mix up formats (JSON, CSV, HTML) which aren’t produced by these switches, and -oN doesn’t inherently prevent you from creating other outputs if you also specify them.

Output options in Nmap specify both the format and where the results go. The normal format is the familiar human-readable text, best for quick reading. XML is a structured, machine-friendly format that’s easy to parse with scripts and programs. The grepable format is a compact, line-oriented text designed for simple extraction with tools like grep, awk, or sed. The all-formats option writes all three formats at once using a single basename, giving you both human-friendly and machine-readable files without needing to run separate scans.

So, -oN produces normal text, -oX produces XML, -oG produces grepable text, and -oA outputs all formats. The other descriptions mix up formats (JSON, CSV, HTML) which aren’t produced by these switches, and -oN doesn’t inherently prevent you from creating other outputs if you also specify them.