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NAME |SYNOPSIS |DESCRIPTION |RETURN VALUE |SEE ALSO |COLOPHON | |
PCAP_STATS(3PCAP)PCAP_STATS(3PCAP)pcap_stats - get capture statistics
#include <pcap/pcap.h>int pcap_stats(pcap_t *p, struct pcap_stat *ps);
pcap_stats() fills in thestruct pcap_statpointed to by its second argument. The values represent packet statistics from the start of the run to the time of the call.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''. Astruct pcap_stathas 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 statistics do not behave the same way on all platforms.ps_recvmight count packets whether they passed any filter set withpcap_setfilter(3PCAP) 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_dropis 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. Bothps_recv andps_dropmight, or might not, count packets not yet read from the operating system and thus not yet seen by the application.ps_ifdropmight, 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.
pcap_stats() returns0on success,PCAP_ERROR_NOT_ACTIVATEDif called on a capture handle that has been created but not activated, orPCAP_ERRORif there is another error or ifp doesn't support packet statistics. IfPCAP_ERRORis returned,pcap_geterr(3PCAP) orpcap_perror(3PCAP) may be called withp as an argument to fetch or display the error text.
pcap(3PCAP)
This page is part of thelibpcap (packet capture library) project. Information about the project can be found at ⟨http://www.tcpdump.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for this manual page, see ⟨http://www.tcpdump.org/#patches⟩. This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/libpcap.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the repository was 2025-08-10.) If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which isnot part of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org 5 March 2022PCAP_STATS(3PCAP)HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 byMichael Kerrisk, author ofThe Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depthLinux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, lookhere. Hosting byjambit GmbH. | |