pcap_create(3pcap) — Linux manual page

PCAP_CREATE(3PCAP)                                     PCAP_CREATE(3PCAP)

NAME         top

       pcap_create - create a live capture handle

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <pcap/pcap.h>

       char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE];

       pcap_t *pcap_create(const char *source, char *errbuf);

DESCRIPTION         top

       pcap_create() is used to create a packet capture handle to capture
       packets on a device (typically a network interface, see
       pcap_findalldevs(3PCAP) for a more detailed explanation).  source
       is a string that specifies the capture device to open, in this
       function NULL means the same as the string "any".  errbuf is a
       buffer large enough to hold at least PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE chars.

       The returned handle must be activated with pcap_activate(3PCAP)
       before packets can be captured with it; options for the capture,
       such as promiscuous mode, can be set on the handle before
       activating it.

RETURN VALUE         top

       pcap_create() returns a pcap_t * on success and NULL on failure.
       If NULL is returned, errbuf is filled in with an appropriate error
       message.

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 2025-08-11.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2025-08-10.)  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

                              11 March 2025            PCAP_CREATE(3PCAP)

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