pcap_loop(3pcap) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PCAP_LOOP(3PCAP)                                        PCAP_LOOP(3PCAP)

NAME         top

       pcap_loop, pcap_dispatch - process packets from a live capture or
       savefile

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcap/pcap.h>

       typedef void (*pcap_handler)(u_char *user, const struct pcap_pkthdr *h,
           const u_char *bytes);
       int pcap_loop(pcap_t *p, int cnt,
           pcap_handler callback, u_char *user);
       int pcap_dispatch(pcap_t *p, int cnt,
           pcap_handler callback, u_char *user);

DESCRIPTION         top

       pcap_loop() processes packets from a live capture or ``savefile''
       until cnt packets are processed, the end of the ``savefile'' is
       reached when reading from a ``savefile'', pcap_breakloop(3PCAP)
       is called, or an error occurs.  It does not return when live
       packet buffer timeouts occur.  A value of -1 or 0 for cnt is
       equivalent to infinity, so that packets are processed until
       another ending condition occurs.

       pcap_dispatch() processes packets from a live capture or
       ``savefile'' until cnt packets are processed, the end of the
       current bufferful of packets is reached when doing a live
       capture, the end of the ``savefile'' is reached when reading from
       a ``savefile'', pcap_breakloop() is called, or an error occurs.
       Thus, when doing a live capture, cnt is the maximum number of
       packets to process before returning, but is not a minimum number;
       when reading a live capture, only one bufferful of packets is
       read at a time, so fewer than cnt packets may be processed. A
       value of -1 or 0 for cnt causes all the packets received in one
       buffer to be processed when reading a live capture, and causes
       all the packets in the file to be processed when reading a
       ``savefile''.

       Note that, when doing a live capture on some platforms, if the
       read timeout expires when there are no packets available,
       pcap_dispatch() will return 0, even when not in non-blocking
       mode, as there are no packets to process.  Applications should be
       prepared for this to happen, but must not rely on it happening.

       callback specifies a pcap_handler routine to be called with three
       arguments: a u_char pointer which is passed in the user argument
       to pcap_loop() or pcap_dispatch(), a const struct pcap_pkthdr
       pointer pointing to the packet time stamp and lengths, and a
       const u_char pointer to the first caplen (as given in the struct
       pcap_pkthdr, a pointer to which is passed to the callback
       routine) bytes of data from the packet.  The struct pcap_pkthdr
       and the packet data are not to be freed by the callback routine,
       and are not guaranteed to be valid after the callback routine
       returns; if the code needs them to be valid after the callback,
       it must make a copy of them.

       The bytes of data from the packet begin with a link-layer header.
       The format of the link-layer header is indicated by the return
       value of the pcap_datalink(3PCAP) routine when handed the pcap_t
       value also passed to pcap_loop() or pcap_dispatch().
       https://www.tcpdump.org/linktypes.html  lists the values
       pcap_datalink() can return and describes the packet formats that
       correspond to those values.  The value it returns will be valid
       for all packets received unless and until
       pcap_set_datalink(3PCAP) is called; after a successful call to
       pcap_set_datalink(), all subsequent packets will have a link-
       layer header of the type specified by the link-layer header type
       value passed to pcap_set_datalink().

       Do NOT assume that the packets for a given capture or
       ``savefile`` will have any given link-layer header type, such as
       DLT_EN10MB for Ethernet.  For example, the "any" device on Linux
       will have a link-layer header type of DLT_LINUX_SLL or
       DLT_LINUX_SLL2 even if all devices on the system at the time the
       "any" device is opened have some other data link type, such as
       DLT_EN10MB for Ethernet.

RETURN VALUE         top

       pcap_loop() returns 0 if cnt is exhausted or if, when reading
       from a ``savefile'', no more packets are available.  It returns
       PCAP_ERROR_BREAK if the loop terminated due to a call to
       pcap_breakloop() before any packets were processed,
       PCAP_ERROR_NOT_ACTIVATED if called on a capture handle that has
       been created but not activated, or PCAP_ERROR if another error
       occurs.  It does not return when live packet buffer timeouts
       occur; instead, it attempts to read more packets.

       pcap_dispatch() returns the number of packets processed on
       success; this can be 0 if no packets were read from a live
       capture (if, for example, they were discarded because they didn't
       pass the packet filter, or if, on platforms that support a packet
       buffer timeout that starts before any packets arrive, the timeout
       expires before any packets arrive, or if the file descriptor for
       the capture device is in non-blocking mode and no packets were
       available to be read) or if no more packets are available in a
       ``savefile.'' It returns PCAP_ERROR_BREAK if the loop terminated
       due to a call to pcap_breakloop() before any packets were
       processed, PCAP_ERROR_NOT_ACTIVATED if called on a capture handle
       that has been created but not activated, or PCAP_ERROR if another
       error occurs.  If your application uses pcap_breakloop(), make
       sure that you explicitly check for PCAP_ERROR and
       PCAP_ERROR_BREAK, rather than just checking for a return value <
       0.

       If PCAP_ERROR is returned, pcap_geterr(3PCAP) or
       pcap_perror(3PCAP) may be called with p as an argument to fetch
       or display the error text.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY         top

       In libpcap versions before 1.5.0, the behavior when cnt was 0 was
       undefined; different platforms and devices behaved differently,
       so code that must work with these versions of libpcap should use
       -1, not 0, as the value of cnt.

SEE ALSO         top

       pcap(3PCAP)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the libpcap (packet capture library)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.tcpdump.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see ⟨http://www.tcpdump.org/#patches⟩.  This page
       was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/libpcap.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2024-06-04.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

                              5 March 2022              PCAP_LOOP(3PCAP)