Egress mirroring packets to a CPU includes processing ingress packets in a forwarding pipeline; egressing one or more packets from the forwarding pipeline to a first physical port of the switch; mirroring the one or more packets on the first physical port to a second physical port of the switch; recirculating the one or more packets on the second physical port to the forwarding pipeline, wherein the one or more packets on the second physical port become ingress packets on the second physical port and processing the recirculated one or more packets in the forwarding pipeline includes identifying packets that ingress on the second physical port; and sending the identified packets to a central processing unit (CPU) in the switch.