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man pages section 3: Extended Library Functions, Volume 1

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Updated: Wednesday, July 27, 2022
 
 

pcap_findalldevs (3pcap)

Name

pcap_findalldevs - get a list of capture devices, and free that list

Synopsis

#include <pcap/pcap.h>

char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE];

int pcap_findalldevs(pcap_if_t **alldevsp, char *errbuf);
void pcap_freealldevs(pcap_if_t *alldevs);

Description

PCAP_FINDALLDEVS(3pcap)                                PCAP_FINDALLDEVS(3pcap)



NAME
       pcap_findalldevs, pcap_freealldevs - get a list of capture devices, and
       free that list

SYNOPSIS
       #include <pcap/pcap.h>

       char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE];

       int pcap_findalldevs(pcap_if_t **alldevsp, char *errbuf);
       void pcap_freealldevs(pcap_if_t *alldevs);

DESCRIPTION
       pcap_findalldevs() constructs a list of network  devices  that  can  be
       opened   with   pcap_create(3PCAP)  and  pcap_activate(3PCAP)  or  with
       pcap_open_live(3PCAP).  (Note that there may be  network  devices  that
       cannot  be  opened  by the process calling pcap_findalldevs(), because,
       for example, that process does not have sufficient privileges  to  open
       them  for capturing; if so, those devices will not appear on the list.)
       If pcap_findalldevs() succeeds, the pointer pointed to by  alldevsp  is
       set to point to the first element of the list, or to NULL if no devices
       were found (this is considered success).  Each element of the  list  is
       of type pcap_if_t, and has the following members:

              next   if  not  NULL, a pointer to the next element in the list;
                     NULL for the last element of the list

              name   a pointer to a string giving a name  for  the  device  to
                     pass to pcap_open_live()

              description
                     if  not  NULL, a pointer to a string giving a human-read-
                     able description of the device

              addresses
                     a pointer to the first  element  of  a  list  of  network
                     addresses  for  the  device, or NULL if the device has no
                     addresses

              flags  device flags:

                     PCAP_IF_LOOPBACK
                            set if the device is a loopback interface

                     PCAP_IF_UP
                            set if the device is up

                     PCAP_IF_RUNNING
                            set if the device is running

                     PCAP_IF_WIRELESS
                            set if the device is a  wireless  interface;  this
                            includes IrDA as well as radio-based networks such
                            as IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.11,  so  it  doesn't
                            just mean Wi-Fi

                     PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS
                            a bitmask for an indication of whether the adapter
                            is connected  or  not;  for  wireless  interfaces,
                            "connected" means "associated with a network"

                     The possible values for the connection status bits are:

                     PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_UNKNOWN
                            it's  unknown  whether the adapter is connected or
                            not

                     PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_CONNECTED
                            the adapter is connected

                     PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_DISCONNECTED
                            the adapter is disconnected

                     PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_NOT_APPLICABLE
                            the notion of "connected" and "disconnected" don't
                            apply  to  this interface; for example, it doesn't
                            apply to a loopback device

       Each element of the list of addresses is of type pcap_addr_t,  and  has
       the following members:

              next   if  not  NULL, a pointer to the next element in the list;
                     NULL for the last element of the list

              addr   a pointer to a struct sockaddr containing an address

              netmask
                     if not NULL, a pointer to a struct sockaddr that contains
                     the  netmask  corresponding  to the address pointed to by
                     addr

              broadaddr
                     if not NULL, a pointer to a struct sockaddr that contains
                     the   broadcast  address  corresponding  to  the  address
                     pointed to by addr; may be null  if  the  device  doesn't
                     support broadcasts

              dstaddr
                     if not NULL, a pointer to a struct sockaddr that contains
                     the destination  address  corresponding  to  the  address
                     pointed  to  by  addr;  may be null if the device isn't a
                     point-to-point interface

       Note that the  addresses  in  the  list  of  addresses  might  be  IPv4
       addresses, IPv6 addresses, or some other type of addresses, so you must
       check the sa_family member of the struct sockaddr  before  interpreting
       the  contents  of the address; do not assume that the addresses are all
       IPv4 addresses, or even all IPv4 or  IPv6  addresses.   IPv4  addresses
       have  the  value AF_INET, IPv6 addresses have the value AF_INET6 (which
       older operating systems that don't support IPv6 might not define),  and
       other  addresses  have  other  values.   Whether  other  addresses  are
       returned, and what types they might have  is  platform-dependent.   For
       IPv4 addresses, the struct sockaddr pointer can be interpreted as if it
       pointed to a struct sockaddr_in; for IPv6 addresses, it can  be  inter-
       preted as if it pointed to a struct sockaddr_in6.

       The  list  of devices must be freed with pcap_freealldevs(3PCAP), which
       frees the list pointed to by alldevs.

RETURN VALUE
       pcap_findalldevs() returns 0 on success and PCAP_ERROR on  failure;  as
       indicated,  finding no devices is considered success, rather than fail-
       ure, so 0 will be returned in that case.  If  PCAP_ERROR  is  returned,
       errbuf  is  filled  in  with  an  appropriate error message.  errbuf is
       assumed to be able to hold at least PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE chars.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
       The PCAP_IF_UP and PCAP_IF_RUNNING constants became available in  libp-
       cap  release  1.6.1.   The PCAP_IF_WIRELESS, PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS,
       PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_UNKNOWN, PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_CONNECTED,
       PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS_DISCONNECTED,   and   PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STA-
       TUS_NOT_APPLICABLE constants became available in libpcap release 1.9.0.


ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:


       +---------------+------------------------+
       |ATTRIBUTE TYPE |    ATTRIBUTE VALUE     |
       +---------------+------------------------+
       |Availability   | system/library/libpcap |
       +---------------+------------------------+
       |Stability      | Uncommitted            |
       +---------------+------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       pcap(3PCAP)



NOTES
       Source code for open source software components in Oracle  Solaris  can
       be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
       code-downloads.html.

       This    software    was    built    from    source     available     at
       https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland.    The  original  community
       source  was  downloaded   from    https://www.tcpdump.org/release/libp-
       cap-1.9.1.tar.gz.

       Further information about this software can be found on the open source
       community website at https://www.tcpdump.org/.



                                22 August 2018         PCAP_FINDALLDEVS(3pcap)