PCAP_NEXT_EX
Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (3PCAP)
Updated: 7 April 2014
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NAME
pcap_next_ex, pcap_next - read the next packet from a pcap_t
SYNOPSIS
#include <pcap/pcap.h>
int pcap_next_ex(pcap_t *p, struct pcap_pkthdr **pkt_header,
const u_char **pkt_data);
const u_char *pcap_next(pcap_t *p, struct pcap_pkthdr *h);
DESCRIPTION
pcap_next_ex()
reads the next packet and returns a success/failure indication.
If the packet was read without problems, the pointer pointed to by the
pkt_header
argument is set to point to the
pcap_pkthdr
struct for the packet, and the
pointer pointed to by the
pkt_data
argument is set to point to the data in the packet. The
struct pcap_pkthdr
and the packet data are not to be freed by the caller, and are not
guaranteed to be valid after the next call to
pcap_next_ex(),
pcap_next(),
pcap_loop(),
or
pcap_dispatch();
if the code needs them to remain valid, it must make a copy of them.
pcap_next()
reads the next packet (by calling
pcap_dispatch()
with a
cnt
of 1) and returns a
u_char
pointer to the data in that packet. The
packet data is not to be freed by the caller, and is not
guaranteed to be valid after the next call to
pcap_next_ex(),
pcap_next(),
pcap_loop(),
or
pcap_dispatch();
if the code needs it to remain valid, it must make a copy of it.
The
pcap_pkthdr
structure pointed to by
h
is filled in with the appropriate values for the packet.
The bytes of data from the packet begin with a link-layer header. The
format of the link-layer header is indicated by the return value of the
pcap_datalink()
routine when handed the
pcap_t
value also passed to
pcap_loop()
or
pcap_dispatch().
http://www.tcpdump.org/linktypes.html
lists the values
pcap_datalink()
can return and describes the packet formats that
correspond to those values. The value it returns will be valid for all
packets received unless and until
pcap_set_datalink()
is called; after a successful call to
pcap_set_datalink(),
all subsequent packets will have a link-layer header of the type
specified by the link-layer header type value passed to
pcap_set_datalink().
Do
NOT
assume that the packets for a given capture or ``savefile`` will have
any given link-layer header type, such as
DLT_EN10MB
for Ethernet. For example, the "any" device on Linux will have a
link-layer header type of
DLT_LINUX_SLL
even if all devices on the system at the time the "any" device is opened
have some other data link type, such as
DLT_EN10MB
for Ethernet.
RETURN VALUE
pcap_next_ex()
returns 1 if the packet was read without problems, 0
if packets are being read from a live capture and the timeout expired,
-1 if an error occurred while reading the packet, and -2 if
packets are being read from a ``savefile'' and there are no more
packets to read from the savefile.
If -1 is returned,
pcap_geterr()
or
pcap_perror()
may be called with
p
as an argument to fetch or display the error text.
pcap_next()
returns a pointer to the packet data on success, and returns
NULL
if an error occurred, or if no packets were read from a live
capture (if, for example, they were discarded because they didn't pass
the packet filter, or if, on platforms that support a read timeout that
starts before any packets arrive, the timeout expires before any packets
arrive, or if the file descriptor for the capture device is in
non-blocking mode and no packets were available to be read), or if no
more packets are available in a ``savefile.'' Unfortunately, there is
no way to determine whether an error occurred or not.
SEE ALSO
pcap(3PCAP), pcap_geterr(3PCAP), pcap_dispatch(3PCAP),
pcap_datalink(3PCAP)
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- SEE ALSO
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