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() 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() or
pcap_perror() 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() can be called, with a warning or error code as an
argument, to fetch a message describing the warning or error code.
SEE ALSO
pcap(3)