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.