Updated: 2022/Sep/29

Please read Privacy Policy. It's for your privacy.


PCAP_ACTIVATE(3)           Library Functions Manual           PCAP_ACTIVATE(3)



NAME
       pcap_activate - activate a capture handle

SYNOPSIS
       #include <pcap/pcap.h>

       int pcap_activate(pcap_t *p);

DESCRIPTION
       pcap_activate() is used to activate a packet capture handle to look at
       packets on the network, with the options that were set on the handle
       being in effect.

RETURN VALUE
       pcap_activate() returns 0 on success without warnings, a non-zero
       positive value on success with warnings, and a negative value on error.
       A non-zero return value indicates what warning or error condition
       occurred.

       The possible warning values are:

       PCAP_WARNING_PROMISC_NOTSUP
              Promiscuous mode was requested, but the capture source doesn't
              support promiscuous mode.

       PCAP_WARNING_TSTAMP_TYPE_NOTSUP
              The time stamp type specified in a previous
              pcap_set_tstamp_type(3) call isn't supported by the capture
              source (the time stamp type is left as the default),

       PCAP_WARNING
              Another warning condition occurred; pcap_geterr(3) or
              pcap_perror(3) may be called with p as an argument to fetch or
              display a message describing the warning condition.

       The possible error values are:

       PCAP_ERROR_ACTIVATED
              The handle has already been activated.

       PCAP_ERROR_NO_SUCH_DEVICE
              The capture source specified when the handle was created doesn't
              exist.

       PCAP_ERROR_PERM_DENIED
              The process doesn't have permission to open the capture source.

       PCAP_ERROR_PROMISC_PERM_DENIED
              The process has permission to open the capture source but
              doesn't have permission to put it into promiscuous mode.

       PCAP_ERROR_RFMON_NOTSUP
              Monitor mode was specified but the capture source doesn't
              support monitor mode.

       PCAP_ERROR_IFACE_NOT_UP
              The capture source device is not up.

       PCAP_ERROR
              Another error occurred.  pcap_geterr() or pcap_perror() may be
              called with p as an argument to fetch or display a message
              describing the error.

       If PCAP_WARNING_PROMISC_NOTSUP, PCAP_ERROR_NO_SUCH_DEVICE, or
       PCAP_ERROR_PERM_DENIED is returned, pcap_geterr() or pcap_perror() may
       be called with p as an argument to fetch or display an message giving
       additional details about the problem that might be useful for debugging
       the problem if it's unexpected.

       Additional warning and error codes may be added in the future; a
       program should check for positive, negative, and zero return codes, and
       treat all positive return codes as warnings and all negative return
       codes as errors.  pcap_statustostr(3) can be called, with a warning or
       error code as an argument, to fetch a message describing the warning or
       error code.

       If pcap_activate() fails, the pcap_t * is not closed and freed; it
       should be closed using pcap_close().

SEE ALSO
       pcap(3)



                               24 November 2019               PCAP_ACTIVATE(3)