PCAP_STATS(3)

💖 PCAP_STATS(3) — pcap_stats: get capture statistics ✨

okay so this little icon is fresh from the Library Functions Manual, and it's literally here to help you get capture statistics. no cap, it's giving “I know what your packets are doing” energy. 🎀

---

💖 NAME 💖

pcap_stats — get capture statistics 🫶

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <pcap/pcap.h>

int pcap_stats(pcap_t *p, struct pcap_stat *ps);

---

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

pcap_stats() fills in the struct pcap_stat pointed to by its second argument. bestie, the values represent packet statistics from the start of the run to the time of the call. ⭐

important vibe check: pcap_stats() is supported only on live captures, not on savefiles. no statistics are stored in savefiles, so no statistics are available when reading from a savefile. 😭

A struct pcap_stat has the following members:

• ps_recv — number of packets received;
• ps_drop — number of packets dropped because there was no room in the operating system's buffer when they arrived, because packets weren't being read fast enough;
• ps_ifdrop — number of packets dropped by the network interface or its driver.

---

🦋 the platform tea ☕ (still DESCRIPTION, bestie) 🦋

the statistics do not behave the same way on all platforms. like, not even a little. 💀

ps_recv might count packets whether they passed any filter set with pcap_setfilter(3) or not, or it might count only packets that pass the filter. it also might, or might not, count packets dropped because there was no room in the operating system's buffer when they arrived. 🙈

ps_drop is not available on all platforms; it is zero on platforms where it's not available. if packet filtering is done in libpcap, rather than in the operating system, it would count packets that don't pass the filter. both ps_recv and ps_drop might, or might not, count packets not yet read from the operating system and thus not yet seen by the application. 😵‍💫

ps_ifdrop might, or might not, be implemented; if it's zero, that might mean that no packets were dropped by the interface, or it might mean that the statistic is unavailable, so it should not be treated as an indication that the interface did not drop any packets. periodt. 💅

---

💅 RETURN VALUE 💅

pcap_stats() returns 0 on success, PCAP_ERROR_NOT_ACTIVATED if called on a capture handle that has been created but not activated, or PCAP_ERROR if there is another error or if p doesn't support packet statistics. 🔥

if PCAP_ERROR is returned, pcap_geterr(3) or pcap_perror(3) may be called with p as an argument to fetch or display the error text. 🫶

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• pcap(3)

---

mwah 💋 — signing off with the source/version PCAP_STATS(3) and the date 5 March 2022 🫶✨