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.\" @(#) $Header: /tcpdump/master/libpcap/Attic/pcap.3pcap,v 1.2 2008-04-05 20:26:56 guy Exp $
.\"
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.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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.\" retain the above copyright notice and this paragraph in its entirety, (2)
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.\" ``This product includes software developed by the University of California,
.\" Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and its contributors.'' Neither the name of
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.\"
.TH PCAP 3PCAP "4 April 2008"
.SH NAME
pcap \- Packet Capture library
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.ft B
#include <pcap/pcap.h>
.LP
.ft B
.ft
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The Packet Capture library
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.
It also supports saving captured packets to a ``savefile'', and reading
packets from a ``savefile''.
.PP
To open a live capture stream, call
.BR pcap_open_live() ,
and to open a ``savefile'' to read the packets in that file, call
.BR pcap_open_offline() .
Both routines return a pointer to a
.BR pcap_t ,
which is the handle used for reading packets from the capture stream or
the ``savefile'', and for finding out information about the capture
stream or ``savefile''.
.PP
To open a ``savefile`` to which to write packets, call
.BR pcap_dump_open() .
It returns a pointer to a
.BR pcap_dumper_t ,
which is the handle used for writing packets to the ``savefile''.
.PP
Packets are read with
.B pcap_dispatch()
or
.BR pcap_loop() ,
which process one or more packets, calling a callback routine for each
packet, or with
.B pcap_next()
or
.BR pcap_next_ex() ,
which return the next packet.
The callback for
.B pcap_dispatch()
and
.BR pcap_loop()
is supplied a pointer to a
.IR struct pcap_pkthdr ,
which includes the following members:
.RS
.TP
.B ts
a
.I struct timeval
containing the time when the packet was captured
.TP
.B caplen
a
.I bpf_u_int32
giving the number of bytes of the packet that are available from the
capture
.TP
.B len
a
.I bpf_u_int32
giving the length of the packet, in bytes (which might be more than the
number of bytes available from the capture, if the length of the packet
is larger than the maximum number of bytes to capture).
.RE
.PP
.B pcap_next_ex()
supplies that pointer through a pointer argument.
.B pcap_next()
is passed an argument that points to a
.I struct pcap_pkthdr
structure, and fills it in.
.PP
The callback is also supplied a
.I const u_char
pointer to the first
.B caplen
(as given in the
.I struct pcap_pkthdr
a pointer to which is passed to the callback routine)
bytes of data from the packet. This won't necessarily be the entire
packet; to capture the entire packet, you will have to provide a value
for
.I snaplen
in your call to
.B pcap_open_live()
that is sufficiently large to get all of the packet's data - a value of
65535 should be sufficient on most if not all networks). When reading
from a ``savefile'', the snapshot length specified when the capture was
performed will limit the amount of packet data available.
.B pcap_next()
returns that pointer;
.B pcap_next_ex()
supplies that pointer through a pointer argument.
.SH ROUTINES
.SH SEE ALSO
tcpdump(1), tcpslice(1), pcap-filter(4)
.SH AUTHORS
The original authors of libpcap are:
.LP
Van Jacobson,
Craig Leres and
Steven McCanne, all of the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA.
.LP
The current version is available from "The Tcpdump Group"'s Web site at
.LP
.RS
.I http://www.tcpdump.org/
.RE
.SH BUGS
Please send problems, bugs, questions, desirable enhancements, etc. to:
.LP
.RS
tcpdump-workers@tcpdump.org
.RE