PCAP_OPEN_LIVE(3)      FreeBSD Library Functions Manual      PCAP_OPEN_LIVE(3)

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 all supported Linux systems, as well as on recent
     versions of macOS and Solaris, a device argument of "any" or NULL can be
     used to capture packets from all network interfaces.  The latter should
     not be confused with all available capture devices as seen by
     pcap_findalldevs(3), which may also include D-Bus, USB etc.

     snaplen specifies the snapshot length to be set on the handle.  If the
     packet data should not be truncated at the end, a value of 262144 should
     be sufficient for most devices, but D-Bus devices require a value of
     128MB (128*1024*1024).

     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(3) 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

     pcap_create(3), pcap_activate(3)

                                 4 March 2024                PCAP_OPEN_LIVE(3)