pcap_open_live(3PCAP) man page
Updated: 6 December 2017 • View in plain text •
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This man page documents libpcap version 1.11.0-PRE-GIT (see also: 1.10.4, 1.10.2, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.1, 1.8.1, 1.7.4, 1.6.2, 1.5.3).
Your system may have a different version installed, possibly with some local modifications. To achieve the best results, please make sure this version of this man page suits your needs. If necessary, try to look for a different version on this web site or in the man pages available in your installation.NAME
pcap_open_live - open a device for capturing
SYNOPSIS
#include <pcap/pcap.h> char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE]; pcap_t *pcap_open_live(const char *device, int snaplen, int promisc, int to_ms, char *errbuf);
DESCRIPTION
pcap_open_live()
is used to obtain a packet capture handle to look
at packets on the network.
device
is a string that specifies the network device to open; on Linux systems
with 2.2 or later kernels, a
device
argument of "any" or
NULL
can be used to capture packets from all interfaces.
snaplen specifies the snapshot length to be set on the handle.
promisc specifies whether the interface is to be put into promiscuous mode. If promisc is non-zero, promiscuous mode will be set, otherwise it will not be set.
to_ms specifies the packet buffer timeout, as a non-negative value, in milliseconds. (See pcap(3PCAP) for an explanation of the packet buffer timeout.)
errbuf
is a buffer large enough to hold at least
PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE
chars.
RETURN VALUE
pcap_open_live()
returns a
pcap_t *
on success and
NULL
on failure.
If
NULL
is returned,
errbuf
is filled in with an appropriate error message.
errbuf
may also be set to warning text when
pcap_open_live()
succeeds; to detect this case the caller should store a zero-length string in
errbuf
before calling
pcap_open_live()
and display the warning to the user if
errbuf
is no longer a zero-length string.
SEE ALSO
COLOPHON
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