pcap_create(3)

pcap_create3

Create a live capture handle

Usage

#include <pcap/pcap.h>
char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE];

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

Overview

pcap_create() is used to create a packet capture handle to look at packets on the network. source is a string that specifies the network device to open; on Linux systems with 2.2 or later kernels, a source argument of "any" or NULL can be used to capture packets from all interfaces. errbuf is a buffer large enough to hold at least PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE chars.

The returned handle must be activated with pcap_activate(3) 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

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.

Releases

39 releases since FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE; the text changed 9 times.

  1. 8.0–8.4
  2. 9.0–10.4
  3. 11.0
  4. 11.1–11.3
  5. 11.4
  6. 12.0–12.1
  7. 12.2–13.4
  8. 13.5
  9. 14.0–14.1
  10. 14.2–16.0

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's man source.