.\" $OpenBSD: pcap.3,v 1.20 2000/04/27 14:24:19 itojun Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1994, 1996, 1997 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that: (1) source code distributions .\" retain the above copyright notice and this paragraph in its entirety, (2) .\" distributions including binary code include the above copyright notice and .\" this paragraph in its entirety in the documentation or other materials .\" provided with the distribution, and (3) all advertising materials mentioning .\" features or use of this software display the following acknowledgement: .\" ``This product includes software developed by the University of California, .\" Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and its contributors.'' Neither the name of .\" the University nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse .\" or promote products derived from this software without specific prior .\" written permission. .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED .\" WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. .\" .Dd July 5, 1999 .Dt PCAP 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm pcap .Nd Packet Capture library .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft "pcap_t *" .Fn pcap_open_live "char *device" "int snaplen" "int promisc" "int to_ms" "char *errbuf" .Ft "pcap_t *" .Fn pcap_open_offline "char *fname" "char *errbuf" .Ft "pcap_dumper_t *" .Fn pcap_dump_open "pcap_t *p" "char *fname" .Ft "char *" .Fn pcap_lookupdev "char *errbuf" .Ft uint .Fn pcap_lookupnet "char *device" "bpf_u_int32 *netp" "bpf_u_int32 *maskp" "char *errbuf" .Ft int .Fn pcap_dispatch "pcap_t *p" "int cnt" "pcap_handler callback" "u_char *user" .Ft int .Fn pcap_loop "pcap_t *p" "int cnt" "pcap_handler callback" "u_char *user" .Ft void .Fn pcap_dump "u_char *user" "struct pcap_pkthdr *h" "u_char *sp" .Ft int .Fn pcap_inject "pcap_t *p" "void *, size_t" .Ft int .Fn pcap_compile "pcap_t *p" "struct bpf_program *fp" "char *str" "int optimize" "bpf_u_int32 netmask" .Ft int .Fn pcap_setfilter "pcap_t *p" "struct bpf_program *fp" .Ft "u_char *" .Fn pcap_next "pcap_t *p" "struct pcap_pkthdr *h" .Ft int .Fn pcap_datalink "pcap_t *p" .Ft int .Fn pcap_snapshot "pcap_t *p" .Ft int .Fn pcap_is_swapped "pcap_t *p" .Ft int .Fn pcap_major_version "pcap_t *p" .Ft int .Fn pcap_minor_version "pcap_t *p" .Ft int .Fn pcap_stats "pcap_t *p" "struct pcap_stat *ps" .Ft "FILE *" .Fn pcap_file "pcap_t *p" .Ft int .Fn pcap_fileno "pcap_t *p" .Ft void .Fn pcap_perror "pcap_t *p" "char *prefix" .Ft "char *" .Fn pcap_geterr "pcap_t *p" .Ft "char *" .Fn pcap_strerror "int error" .Ft void .Fn pcap_close "pcap_t *p" .Ft void .Fn pcap_dump_close "pcap_dumper_t *p" .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm provides a high level interface to packet capture systems. All packets on the network, even those destined for other hosts, are accessible through this mechanism. .Sh ROUTINES .Sy Note: .Fa errbuf in .Fn pcap_open_live , .Fn pcap_open_offline , .Fn pcap_lookupdev , and .Fn pcap_lookupnet is assumed to be able to hold at least .Dv PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE chars. .Pp .Fn pcap_open_live is used to obtain a packet capture descriptor to look at packets on the network. .Fa device is a string that specifies the network device to open. .Fa snaplen specifies the maximum number of bytes to capture. .Fa promisc specifies if the interface is to be put into promiscuous mode. (Note that even if this parameter is false, the interface could well be in promiscuous mode for some other reason.) .Fa to_ms specifies the read timeout in milliseconds. .Fa errbuf is used to return error text and is only set when .Fn pcap_open_live fails and returns .Dv NULL . .Pp .Fn pcap_open_offline is called to open a .Dq savefile for reading. .Fa fname specifies the name of the file to open. The file has the same format as those used by .Xr tcpdump 8 . .\" and .\" .BR tcpslice(1) . The name .Ql - is a synonym for .Dv stdin . .Fa errbuf is used to return error text and is only set when .Fn pcap_open_offline fails and returns .Dv NULL . .Pp .Fn pcap_dump_open is called to open a .Dq savefile for writing. The name .Ql - is a synonym for .Dv stdin . .Dv NULL is returned on failure. .Fa p is a .Fa pcap struct as returned by .Fn pcap_open_offline or .Fn pcap_open_live . .Fa fname specifies the name of the file to open. If .Dv NULL is returned, .Fn pcap_geterr can be used to get the error text. .Pp .Fn pcap_lookupdev returns a pointer to a network device suitable for use with .Fn pcap_open_live and .Fn pcap_lookupnet . If there is an error, .Dv NULL is returned and .Fa errbuf is filled in with an appropriate error message. .Pp .Fn pcap_lookupnet is used to determine the network number and mask associated with the network device .Fa device . Both .Fa netp and .Fa maskp are .Fa bpf_u_int32 pointers. A return of \-1 indicates an error in which case .Fa errbuf is filled in with an appropriate error message. .Pp .Fn pcap_dispatch is used to collect and process packets. .Fa cnt specifies the maximum number of packets to process before returning. A .Fa cnt of \-1 processes all the packets received in one buffer. A .Fa cnt of 0 processes all packets until an error occurs, .Tn EOF is reached, or the read times out (when doing live reads and a non-zero read timeout is specified). .Fa callback specifies a routine to be called with three arguments: a .Fa u_char pointer which is passed in from .Fn pcap_dispatch , a pointer to the .Fa pcap_pkthdr struct (which precede the actual network headers and data), and a .Fa u_char pointer to the packet data. The number of packets read is returned. Zero is returned when .Tn EOF is reached in a savefile. A return of \-1 indicates an error in which case .Fn pcap_perror or .Fn pcap_geterr may be used to display the error text. .Pp .Fn pcap_dump outputs a packet to the savefile opened with .Fn pcap_dump_open . Note that its calling arguments are suitable for use with .Fn pcap_dispatch . .Pp .Fn pcap_inject uses .Xr write 2 to inject a raw packet through the network interface. .Pp .Fn pcap_compile is used to compile the string .Fa str into a filter program. .Fa fp is a pointer to a .Fa bpf_program struct and is filled in by .Fn pcap_compile . .Fa optimize controls whether optimization on the resulting code is performed. .Fa netmask specifies the netmask of the local net. .Pp .Fn pcap_setfilter is used to specify a filter program. .Fa fp is a pointer to an array of .Fa bpf_program struct, usually the result of a call to .Fn pcap_compile . \-1 is returned on failure; 0 is returned on success. .Pp .Fn pcap_loop is similar to .Fn pcap_dispatch except it keeps reading packets until .Fa cnt packets are processed or an error occurs. It does .Em not return when live read timeouts occur. Rather, specifying a non-zero read timeout to .Fn pcap_open_live and then calling .Fn pcap_dispatch allows the reception and processing of any packets that arrive when the timeout occurs. A negative .Fa cnt causes .Fn pcap_loop to loop forever (or at least until an error occurs). .Pp .Fn pcap_next returns a .Fa u_char pointer to the next packet. .Pp .Fn pcap_datalink returns the link layer type, e.g., .Tn DLT_EN10MB . .Pp .Fn pcap_snapshot returns the snapshot length specified when .Fn pcap_open_live was called. .Pp .Fn pcap_is_swapped returns true if the current savefile uses a different byte order than the current system. .Pp .Fn pcap_major_version returns the major number of the version of the pcap used to write the savefile. .Pp .Fn pcap_minor_version returns the minor number of the version of the pcap used to write the savefile. .Pp .Fn pcap_file returns the name of the savefile. .Pp .Fn pcap_stats returns 0 and fills in a .Fa pcap_stat struct. The values represent packet statistics from the start of the run to the time of the call. If there is an error or the under lying packet capture doesn't support packet statistics, \-1 is returned and the error text can be obtained with .Fn pcap_perror or .Fn pcap_geterr . .Pp .Fn pcap_fileno returns the file descriptor number of the savefile. .Pp .Fn pcap_perror prints the text of the last pcap library error on .Dv stderr , prefixed by .Fa prefix . .Pp .Fn pcap_geterr returns the error text pertaining to the last pcap library error. .Pp .Fn pcap_strerror is provided in case .Xr strerror 1 isn't available. .Pp .Fn pcap_close closes the files associated with .Fa p and deallocates resources. .Pp .Fn pcap_dump_close closes the savefile. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr tcpdump 8 .\" , tcpslice(1) .Sh AUTHORS Van Jacobson, Craig Leres and Steven McCanne, all of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA. .Sh BUGS Please send bug reports to .Pa libpcap@ee.lbl.gov .