pcap_dump_open(3pcap) — Linux manual page

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

PCAP_DUMP_OPEN(3PCAP)                              PCAP_DUMP_OPEN(3PCAP)

NAME         top

       pcap_dump_open, pcap_dump_open_append, pcap_dump_fopen - open a
       file to which to write packets

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcap/pcap.h>

       pcap_dumper_t *pcap_dump_open(pcap_t *p, const char *fname);
       pcap_dumper_t *pcap_dump_open_append(pcap_t *p, const char *fname);
       pcap_dumper_t *pcap_dump_fopen(pcap_t *p, FILE *fp);

DESCRIPTION         top

       pcap_dump_open() is called to open a ``savefile'' for writing.
       fname specifies the name of the file to open. The file will have
       the same format as those used by tcpdump(1) and tcpslice(1).  If
       the file does not exist, it will be created; if the file exists,
       it will be truncated and overwritten.  The name "-" is a synonym
       for stdout.

       pcap_dump_fopen() is called to write data to an existing open
       stream fp; this stream will be closed by a subsequent call to
       pcap_dump_close(3PCAP).  The stream is assumed to be at the
       beginning of a file that has been newly created or truncated, so
       that writes will start at the beginning of the file.  Note that
       on Windows, that stream should be opened in binary mode.

       p is a capture or ``savefile'' handle returned by an earlier call
       to pcap_create(3PCAP) and activated by an earlier call to
       pcap_activate(3PCAP), or returned by an earlier call to
       pcap_open_offline(3PCAP), pcap_open_live(3PCAP), or
       pcap_open_dead(3PCAP).  The time stamp precision, link-layer
       type, and snapshot length from p are used as the link-layer type
       and snapshot length of the output file.

       pcap_dump_open_append() is like pcap_dump_open() but, if the file
       already exists, and is a pcap file with the same byte order as
       the host opening the file, and has the same time stamp precision,
       link-layer header type, and snapshot length as p, it will write
       new packets at the end of the file.

RETURN VALUE         top

       A pointer to a pcap_dumper_t structure to use in subsequent
       pcap_dump(3PCAP) and pcap_dump_close(3PCAP) calls is returned on
       success.  NULL is returned on failure.  If NULL is returned,
       pcap_geterr(3PCAP) can be used to get the error text.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY         top

       The pcap_dump_open_append() function became available in libpcap
       release 1.7.2.  In previous releases, there is no support for
       appending packets to an existing savefile.

SEE ALSO         top

       pcap(3PCAP), pcap-savefile(5)

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

                               3 July 2020         PCAP_DUMP_OPEN(3PCAP)