PCAP_INIT(3)           FreeBSD Library Functions Manual           PCAP_INIT(3)

NAME

     pcap_init - initialize the library

SYNOPSIS

     #include <pcap/pcap.h>

     char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE];

     int pcap_init(unsigned int opts, char *errbuf);

DESCRIPTION

     pcap_init() is used to initialize the Packet Capture library.  opts
     specifies options for the library; errbuf is a buffer large enough to
     hold at least PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE chars.

     Currently, the options that can be specified in opts are:

     PCAP_CHAR_ENC_LOCAL
            Treat all strings supplied as arguments, and return all strings to
            the caller, as being in the local character encoding.

     PCAP_CHAR_ENC_UTF_8
            Treat all strings supplied as arguments, and return all strings to
            the caller, as being in UTF-8.

     On UNIX-like systems, the local character encoding is assumed to be
     UTF-8, so no character encoding transformations are done.

     On Windows, the local character encoding is the local ANSI code page.

     If pcap_init() is not called, strings are treated as being in the local
     ANSI code page on Windows, pcap_lookupdev(3) will succeed if there is a
     device on which to capture, and pcap_create(3) makes an attempt to check
     whether the string passed as an argument is a UTF-16LE string - note that
     this attempt is unsafe, as it may run past the end of the string - to
     handle pcap_lookupdev() returning a UTF-16LE string. Programs that don't
     call pcap_init() should, on Windows, call pcap_wsockinit() to initialize
     Winsock; this is not necessary if pcap_init() is called, as pcap_init()
     will initialize Winsock itself on Windows.

RETURN VALUE

     pcap_init() returns 0 on success and PCAP_ERROR on failure.  If
     PCAP_ERROR is returned, errbuf is filled in with an appropriate error
     message.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY

     This function became available in libpcap release 1.9.0.  In previous
     releases, on Windows, all strings supplied as arguments, and all strings
     returned to the caller, are in the local character encoding.

SEE ALSO

     pcap(3)

                               30 November 2023                   PCAP_INIT(3)