PCAP_INIT(3PCAP) PCAP_INIT(3PCAP)

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 UTF-8.

On UNIX-like systems, the local character encoding is assumed to be
UTF-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 UTF-16LE string - note that this attempt is unsafe, as it may run
past the end of the string - to handle pcap_lookupdev() returning a
UTF-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)

30 November 2023 PCAP_INIT(3PCAP)