PCAP-CONFIG(1)

✨ PCAP-CONFIG(1) — the libpcap flags fairy ✨

okay so bestie, this is a page from the General Commands Manual section, and honestly? It's giving "small tool, big job" energy. Let me tell you everything 💖

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🎀 NAME

pcap-config — it writes libpcap compiler and linker flags straight to standard output, no cap.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS

pcap-config [ --help ] [ --version ] [ --cflags ]
            [ --libs | --additional-libs ]
            [ --static | --static-pcap-only ]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION

okay so here's the vibe: pcap-config writes to standard output a bunch of compiler and linker flags that you need to build a user program with libpcap. That's literally its whole job and it does it slayfully.

By default, it writes flags that are appropriate for building with a dynamically-linked version of libpcap — scroll down for the static linking situation, iykyk.

And here's a lil heads up 👀: depending on the manner of libpcap installation, some options or their combinations may produce empty output. And that's not a bug, bestie — that is by design. Periodt.

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💅 OPTIONS

• --help — produces a help message and then exits. cute, helpful, iconic.
• --version — produces the libpcap version and exits. and listen, the version here is the contents of the VERSION file in the libpcap source tree — not the result of pcap_lib_version(3PCAP). important distinction, don't @ me.
• --cflags — produces the -I compiler flag you need to include libpcap's header files. 🎀
• --libs — produces the -L and -l linker flags required to link with libpcap, including the -l flags for libraries required by libpcap.
• --additional-libs — produces the -L and -l linker flags for libraries required by libpcap, but not the -l flag to link with libpcap itself. it's the "everything but the main character" option 💀
• --static — this option causes --libs and --additional-libs to produce linker flags appropriate for static linking with libpcap.
• --static-pcap-only — this option causes --libs and --additional-libs to produce linker flags appropriate for static linking with libpcap and dynamic linking with all other libraries, including libraries required by libpcap. a true mixed-bag queen 👑

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🔥 EXIT STATUS

pcap-config exits with a non-zero status when it's invoked with an invalid command-line option, and with status 0 otherwise. that's it, that's the whole rule 🫶

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⭐ BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY

okay so history lesson, bestie, and it's actually kind of important:

• Before libpcap release 1.10.2, pcap-config did not treat invalid command-line options as an error. so if you're on an old build and things are behaving weirdly — that's why 😭
• The --static-pcap-only flag became available in libpcap release 1.10.2.
• The --static flag became available in libpcap release 1.1.0.

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🌈 SEE ALSO

• pkg-config(1)
• pcap(3PCAP)

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ngl, if you're building against libpcap and wrestling with flags, just let pcap-config cook. it's been doing this since forever and it knows what it's about 💜

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mwah 💋 this page is from 17 April 2023, and it's the pcap-config page from the General Commands Manual — go build something iconic with it, bestie. slay! 🎀✨🦋