pcap_get_required_select_timeout(3pcap) — Linux manual page

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

PCAP_GET_REQ...LECT_TIMEOUT(3PCAP)    PCAP_GET_REQ...LECT_TIMEOUT(3PCAP)

NAME         top

       pcap_get_required_select_timeout - get a timeout to be used when
       doing select() for a live capture

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcap/pcap.h>

       const struct timeval *pcap_get_required_select_timeout(pcap_t *p);

DESCRIPTION         top

       pcap_get_required_select_timeout() returns, on UNIX, a pointer to
       a struct timeval containing a value that must be used as the
       minimum timeout in select(2), poll(2), epoll_wait(2), and
       kevent(2) calls, or NULL if there is no such timeout.  If a non-
       NULL value is returned, it must be used regardless of whether
       pcap_get_selectable_fd(3PCAP) returns -1 for any descriptor on
       which those calls are being done.
       pcap_get_required_select_timeout() should be called for all
       pcap_ts before a call to select(), poll(), epoll_wait(), or
       kevent(), and any timeouts used for those calls should be updated
       as appropriate given the new value of the timeout.

       For kevent(), one EVFILT_TIMER filter per selectable descriptor
       can be used, rather than using the timeout argument to kevent();
       if the EVFILT_TIMER event for a particular selectable descriptor
       signals an event, pcap_dispatch(3PCAP) should be called for the
       corresponding pcap_t.

       On Linux systems with timerfd_create(2), one timer object created
       by timerfd_create() per selectable descriptor can be used, rather
       than using the timeout argument to epoll_wait(); if the timer
       object for a particular selectable descriptor signals an event,
       pcap_dispatch(3PCAP) should be called for the corresponding
       pcap_t.

       Otherwise, a timeout value no larger than the smallest of all
       timeouts returned by pcap_get_required_select_timeout() for
       devices from which packets will be captured and any other
       timeouts to be used in the call should be used as the timeout for
       the call, and, when the call returns, pcap_dispatch(3PCAP) should
       be called for all pcap_ts for which a non-NULL timeout was
       returned, regardless of whether it's indicated as having anything
       to read from it or not.

       All devices with a non-NULL timeout must be put in non-blocking
       mode with pcap_setnonblock(3PCAP).

       Note that a device on which a read can be done without blocking
       may, on some platforms, not have any packets to read if the
       packet buffer timeout has expired.  A call to pcap_dispatch() or
       pcap_next_ex(3PCAP) will return 0 in this case, but will not
       block.

       pcap_get_required_select_timeout() is not available on Windows.

RETURN VALUE         top

       A pointer to a struct timeval is returned if the timeout is
       required; otherwise NULL is returned.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY         top

       This function became available in libpcap release 1.9.0.  In
       previous releases, select(), poll(), epoll_wait(), and kevent()
       could not be used for devices that don't provide a selectable
       file descriptor (in other words, on any capture source for that
       pcap_get_selectable_fd() returns -1).

       In libpcap release 1.10.0 and later, the timeout value can change
       from call to call, so pcap_get_required_select_timeout() must be
       called before each call to select(), poll(), epoll_wait(), or
       kevent(), and the new value must be used to calculate timeouts
       for the call.  Code that does that will also work with libpcap
       1.9.x releases, so code using pcap_get_required_select_timeout()
       should be changed to call it for each call to select(), poll(),
       epoll_wait(), or kevent() even if the code must also work with
       libpcap 1.9.x.

SEE ALSO         top

       pcap(3PCAP), pcap_get_selectable_fd(3PCAP), select(2), poll(2),
       epoll_wait(2), kqueue(2)

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

                             29 JanuaryPC2A0P2_0GET_REQ...LECT_TIMEOUT(3PCAP)