PCAP_INIT
Section: Misc. Reference Manual Pages (3PCAP)
Updated: 30 November 2023
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NAME
pcap_init - initialize the library
SYNOPSIS
#include <pcap/pcap.h>
char errbuf[PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE];
int pcap_init(unsigned int opts, char *errbuf);
DESCRIPTION
pcap_init()
is used to initialize the Packet Capture library.
opts
specifies options for the library;
errbuf
is a buffer large enough to hold at least
PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE
chars.
Currently, the options that can be specified in
opts
are:
- PCAP_CHAR_ENC_LOCAL
-
Treat all strings supplied as arguments, and return all strings to the
caller, as being in the local character encoding.
- PCAP_CHAR_ENC_UTF_8
-
Treat all strings supplied as arguments, and return all strings to the
caller, as being in UT-8.
On UNI-like systems, the local character encoding is assumed to be
UT-8, so no character encoding transformations are done.
On Windows, the local character encoding is the local ANSI code page.
If
pcap_init()
is not called, strings are treated as being in the local ANSI code page
on Windows,
pcap_lookupdev(3PCAP)
will succeed if there is a device on which to capture, and
pcap_create(3PCAP)
makes an attempt to check whether the string passed as an argument is a
UT-16LE string- note that this attempt is unsafe, as it may run past
the end of the string- to handle
pcap_lookupdev()
returning a UT-16LE string. Programs that don't call
pcap_init()
should, on Windows, call
pcap_wsockinit()
to initialize Winsock; this is not necessary if
pcap_init()
is called, as
pcap_init()
will initialize Winsock itself on Windows.
RETURN VALUE
pcap_init()
returns
0
on success and
PCAP_ERROR
on failure.
If
PCAP_ERROR
is returned,
errbuf
is filled in with an appropriate error message.
BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
This function became available in libpcap release 1.9.0. In previous
releases, on Windows, all strings supplied as arguments, and all strings
returned to the caller, are in the local character encoding.
SEE ALSO
pcap(3PCAP)
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY
-
- SEE ALSO
-
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