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<div class="post">
<h1 class="title">How to write a libpcap module (draft)</h1>
<div class="entry">
<p>by Guy Harris</p>
<p>
This HOWTO is not yet complete, it can and should be improved. If
you wish to contribute,
<a href="https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/tcpdump-htdocs/blob/master/README.md">
this document</a> explains how to do it.
</p>
<div class=version_boilerplate>
<h4>This document is a work in progress, it describes an unstable interface.</h4>
Future releases of libpcap may, and some probably will,
change the interface in an incompatible fashion. If you submit your
module to the libpcap developers for inclusion in libpcap, not only
does that make it more likely that it will be available in the
libpcap provided by operating system vendors (such as Linux
distributions), but it also means that we will attempt to update it
to handle future changes to this interface. If we add new
capabilities, we may have to ask you how to provide those additional
capabilities if you're using an underlying mechanism for which we
have neither the source code nor the documentation.
</div>
<p>
<strong>NOTE:</strong> this document assumes familiarity with the
entire libpcap API.
</p>
<p>
<strong>TODO:</strong> more routines, more stuff that the activate
routine has to do (such as setting the list of <code>DLT_</code>s)?
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">Introduction</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
On Linux, *BSD, macOS, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, illumos, Hurd and Haiku,
Libpcap supports capturing on network interfaces as supported by the
operating system networking stack, using the native packet capture
mechanism provided by the OS. On Windows, it supports it with the
help of the driver and library supplied by WinPcap and Npcap.
</p>
<p>
In addition, it also supports capturing on other types of devices,
such as:
</p>
<ul>
<li>specialized capture cards, such as Endace DAG cards;</li>
<li>network adapters that provide special high-performance code
paths, such as CSPI Myricom adapters;</li>
<li>buses such as USB and CAN bus;</li>
<li>software communication channels such as D-Bus and Linux netlink;
</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>
Support for those devices is provided by modules compiled into
libpcap.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">Where to start</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
If you want to add such a module, you would first have to check
<a href="linktypes.html">the list of link-layer header types
supported by libpcap</a>, to see if one of those would be sufficient
for your device.
</p>
<p>
If none of those would work for your device, please follow the
guidelines on the same page to request a new link-layer header type.
</p>
<p>
Once you have a link-layer header type value or values that you can
use, you can add new module.
</p>
<p>
The module should be a C source file, with a name of the form
<code>pcap-{MOD}.c</code>, where <code>{MOD}</code> is a name
appropriate for your device; for example, the support for DAG cards
is in <code>pcap-dag.c</code>, and the support for capturing USB
traffic on Linux is <code>pcap-usb-linux.c</code>.
</p>
<p>
Your module is assumed to support one or more named devices. The
names should be relatively short names, containing only lower-case
alphanumeric characters, consisting of a prefix that ends with an
alphabetic character and, if there can be more than one device
instance, possibly followed by a numerical device ID, such as
<code>mydevice</code> or
<code>mydevice0</code>/<code>mydevice1</code>/… If you have
more than one type of device that you can support, you can have more
than one prefix, each of which can be followed by a numerical device
ID.
</p>
<p>
The two exported functions that your module must provide are
routines to provide a list of device instances and a program to
initialize a created-but-not-activated <code>pcap_t</code> for an
instance of one of your devices.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The list device instances routine (most generic case)</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The "list of device instances" routine takes, as arguments:
</p>
<ul>
<li>a pointer to a <code>pcap_if_list_t</code>;</li>
<li>a pointer to an error message buffer.</li>
</ul>
<p>
The error message buffer may be assumed to be
<code>PCAP_ERRBUF_SIZE</code> bytes large, but must not be assumed
to be larger. By convention, the routine typically has a name
containing "findalldevs".
</p>
<p>
The routine should attempt to determine what device instances are
available and add them to the list pointed to by the first argument;
this may be impossible for some modules, but, for those modules, it
may be difficult to capture on the devices using Wirehshark
(although it should be possible to capture on them using tcpdump,
TShark, or other programs that take a device name on the command
line), so we recommend that your routine provide the list of devices
if possible. If it cannot, it should just immediately return 0.
</p>
<p>
The routine should add devices to the list by calling the
<b>pcapint_add_dev</b>() routine in libpcap, declared in the
<code>pcap-int.h</code> header. It takes, as arguments:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
the pointer to the <code>pcap_if_list_t</code> passed as an
argument to the routine;
</li>
<li>
the device name, as described above;
</li>
<li>
a 32-bit word of flags, as provided by
<a href="manpages/pcap_findalldevs.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_findalldevs</b></a>(3PCAP);
</li>
<li>
a text description of the device, or <code>NULL</code> if there is
no description;
</li>
<li>
the error message buffer pointer provided to the routine.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
<b>pcapint_add_dev</b>() will, if it succeeds, return a pointer to a
<code>pcap_if_t</code> that was added to the list of devices. If it
fails, it will return <code>NULL</code>; in this case, the error
message buffer has been filled in with an error string, and your
routine must return <code>PCAP_ERROR</code> to indicate the error.
</p>
<p>
If your routine succeeds, it must return 0. If it fails, it must
fill in the error message buffer with an error string and return
<code>PCAP_ERROR</code>.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The list device instances routine (OS network interfaces)</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
If the list of capture devices above is a subset of the OS network
interfaces, the easiest way to implement the routine is through
<b>pcapint_findalldevs_interfaces</b>(), which uses the
correct API for the OS (<b>getifaddrs</b>(),
<code>SIOCGIFCONF</code> or <code>SIOCGLIFCONF</code>). The helper
function takes two additional arguments:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
a pointer to an "interface is usable" routine;
</li>
<li>
a pointer to a "get interface flags" routine.
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The interface is usable routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The "interface is usable" routine takes a pointer to a network
interface name and returns 0 if the module does not support the
interface, otherwise any other value.
</p>
<p>
One of the possible ways to do this could be to check whether the
interface name looks like a name that this module would handle; for
example, it should begin with one of the interface name prefixes
for your module and, if your devices have instance numbers, be
followed by a number.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The get interface flags routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The "get interface flags" routine takes, as arguments:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
a pointer to a device name;
</li>
<li>
a pointer to a 32-bit integer with a bitmask;
</li>
<li>
a pointer to an error message buffer.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
This routine interprets the bitmask of most basic libpcap interface
flags (e.g. <code>PCAP_IF_UP</code> corresponding to the OS API
<code>IFF_UP</code>) and modifies the bitmask if necessary. A
common reason to do this is to set the correct
<code>PCAP_IF_CONNECTION_STATUS</code> bit according to the
interface properties. The resulting bitmask will be available in
the <code>pcap_if_t.flags</code> output of <b>pcap_findalldevs</b>().
</p>
<p>
If your routine succeeds, it must return 0. If it fails, it must
fill in the error message buffer with an error string and return
<code>PCAP_ERROR</code>.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The initialize routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The "initialize the <code>pcap_t</code>" routine takes, as
arguments:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
a pointer to a device name;
</li>
<li>
a pointer to an error message buffer.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
It returns a pointer to a <code>pcap_t</code>.
</p>
<p>
It is a good idea before doing anything else to use the "interface
is usable" routine above, this way <b>pcap_create</b>() will fail
immediately for any device that <b>pcap_findalldevs</b>() does not
return and the module behaviour will be consistent.
</p>
<p>
Your module will probably need, for each <code>pcap_t</code> for an
opened device, a private data structure to maintain its own
information about the opened device. These should be allocated per
opened instance, not per device; if, for example,
<code>mydevice0</code> can be captured on by more than one program
at the same time, there will be more than one <code>pcap_t</code>
opened for <code>mydevice0</code>, and so there will be separate
private data structures for each <code>pcap_t</code>. If you need
to maintain per-device, rather than per-opened instance information,
you will have to maintain that yourself.
</p>
<p>
The routine should use the <b>PCAP_CREATE_COMMON</b>() macro, passing
to it the error message buffer as the first argument and the C data
type of the per-opened instance data structure as the second
argument. If it fails, it will fill the buffer with an appropriate
message and return <code>NULL</code>; in this case you must return
<code>NULL</code>.
</p>
<p>
If it succeeds, the <code>pcap_t</code> pointed to by the return
value has been partially initialized, but you will need to complete
the process. It has a <code>priv</code> member, which is a
<code>void *</code> that points to the private data structure
attached to it; that structure has been initialized to zeroes.
</p>
<p>
What you need to set are some function pointers to your routines to
handle certain operations:
</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>activate_op</code></dt>
<dd>
the routine called when
<a href="manpages/pcap_activate.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_activate</b></a>(3PCAP)
is done on the <code>pcap_t</code>
</dd>
<dt><code>can_set_rfmon_op</code></dt>
<dd>
the routine called when
<a href="manpages/pcap_can_set_rfmon.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_can_set_rfmon</b></a>(3PCAP)
is done on the <code>pcap_t</code>—if your device doesn't
support 802.11 monitor mode, you can leave this as initialized by
<b>PCAP_CREATE_COMMON</b>(), as that routine will return
"no, monitor mode isn't supported".
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
Once you've set the <code>activate_op</code> and, if necessary, the
<code>can_set_rfmon_op</code>, you must return the
<code>pcap_t *</code> that was returned to you.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The activate routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
Your activate routine takes, as an argument, a pointer to the
<code>pcap_t</code> being activated, and returns an
<code>int</code>.
</p>
<p>
The parameters set for the device in the
<a href="manpages/pcap_create.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_create</b></a>(3PCAP)
call, and after that call, are mostly in the
<code>opt</code> member of the <code>pcap_t</code>:
</p>
<dl>
<dt><code>device</code></dt>
<dd>
the name of the device
</dd>
<dt><code>timeout</code></dt>
<dd>
the buffering timeout, in milliseconds
</dd>
<dt><code>buffer_size</code></dt>
<dd>
the buffer size to use
</dd>
<dt><code>promisc</code></dt>
<dd>
1 if promiscuous mode is to be used, 0 otherwise
</dd>
<dt><code>rfmon</code></dt>
<dd>
1 if monitor mode is to be used, 0 otherwise
</dd>
<dt><code>immediate</code></dt>
<dd>
1 if the device should be in immediate mode, 0 otherwise
</dd>
<dt><code>nonblock</code></dt>
<dd>
1 if the device should be in non-blocking mode, 0 otherwise
</dd>
<dt><code>tstamp_type</code></dt>
<dd>
the type of time stamp to supply
</dd>
<dt><code>tstamp_precision</code></dt>
<dd>
the time stamp precision to supply
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
The <code>snapshot</code> member of the <code>pcap_t</code>
structure will contain the snapshot length to be used.
</p>
<p>
Your routine should attempt to set up the device for capturing. If
it fails, it must return an error indication which is one of the
<code>PCAP_ERROR</code> values. For <code>PCAP_ERROR</code>, it
must also set the <code>errbuf</code> member of the
<code>pcap_t</code> to an error string. For
<code>PCAP_ERROR_NO_SUCH_DEVICE</code> and
<code>PCAP_ERROR_PERM_DENIED</code>, it may set it to an error
string providing additional information that may be useful for
debugging, or may just leave it as a null string.
</p>
<p>
If it succeeds, it must set certain function pointers in the
<code>pcap_t</code> structure:
</p>
</dl>
<dt><code>read_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever packets are to be read
</dd>
<dt><code>inject_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever packets are to be injected
</dd>
<dt><code>setfilter_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever
<a href="manpages/pcap_setfilter.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_setfilter</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
<dt><code>setdirection_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever
<a href="manpages/pcap_setdirection.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_setdirection</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
<dt><code>set_datalink_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever
<a href="manpages/pcap_set_datalink.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_set_datalink</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
<dt><code>getnonblock_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever
<a href="manpages/pcap_setnonblock.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_getnonblock</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
<dt><code>setnonblock_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever
<a href="manpages/pcap_setnonblock.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_setnonblock</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
<dt><code>stats_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called whenever
<a href="manpages/pcap_stats.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_stats</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
<dt><code>cleanup_op</code></dt>
<dd>
called if the activate routine fails or
<a href="manpages/pcap_close.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_close</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
and must also set the linktype member to the <code>DLT_</code> value
for the device.
</p>
<p>
On UN*Xes, if the device supports waiting for packets to arrive with
<b>select</b>()/<b>poll</b>()/<b>epoll</b>()/kqueues
etc., it should set the <code>selectable_fd</code> member of the
structure to the descriptor you would use with those calls. If it
does not, then, if that's because the device polls for packets
rather than receiving interrupts or other signals when packets
arrive, it should have a <code>struct timeval</code> in the private
data structure, set the value of that <code>struct timeval</code> to
the poll timeout, and set the <code>required_select_timeout</code>
member of the <code>pcap_t</code> to point to the
<code>struct timeval</code>.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The read routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The <code>read_op</code> routine is called when
<a href="manpages/pcap_loop.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_dispatch</b></a>(3PCAP),
<a href="manpages/pcap_loop.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_loop</b></a>(3PCAP),
<a href="manpages/pcap_next_ex.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_next</b></a>(3PCAP),
or
<a href="manpages/pcap_next_ex.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_next_ex</b></a>(3PCAP)
is called. It is passed the same arguments as
<b>pcap_dispatch</b>() is called.
</p>
<p>
The routine should first check if the <code>break_loop</code> member
of the <code>pcap_t</code> is non-zero and, if so, set that member
to zero and return <code>PCAP_ERROR_BREAK</code>.
</p>
<p>
Then, if the <code>pcap_t</code> is in blocking mode (as opposed to
non-blocking mode), and there are no packets immediately available
to be passed to the callback, it should block waiting for packets to
arrive, using the buffering timeout, first, and read packets from
the device if necessary.
</p>
<p>
Then it should loop through the available packets, calling the
callback routine for each packet:
</p>
<pre>
If the PACKET_COUNT_IS_UNLIMITED() macro evaluates to true when
passed the packet count argument, the loop should continue until
there are no more packets immediately available or the
break_loop member of the pcap_t is non-zero. If the break_loop
member is found to be non-zero, it should set that member to
zero and return PCAP_ERROR_BREAK.
If it doesn't evaluate to true, then the loop should also
terminate if the specified number of packets have been delivered
to the callback.
</pre>
<p>
Note that there is <strong>NO</strong> requirement that the packet
header or data provided to the callback remain available, or valid,
after the callback routine returns; if the callback needs to save
the data for other code to use, it must make a copy of that data.
This means that the module is free to, for example, overwrite the
buffer into which it read the packet, or release back to the kernel
a packet in a memory-mapped buffer shared between the kernel and
userland, after the callback returns.
</p>
<p>
If an error occurs when reading packets from the device, it must set
the <code>errbuf</code> member of the <code>pcap_t</code> to an
error string and return <code>PCAP_ERROR</code>.
</p>
<p>
If no error occurs, it must return the number of packets that were
supplied to the callback routine.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The inject routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The inject routine is passed a pointer to the <code>pcap_t</code>, a
buffer containing the contents of the packet to inject, and the
number of bytes in the packet. If the device doesn't support packet
injection, the routine must set the <code>errbuf</code> member of
the <code>pcap_t</code> to a message indicating that packet
injection isn't supported and return <code>PCAP_ERROR</code>.
Otherwise, it should attempt to inject the packet; if the attempt
fails, it must set the <code>errbuf</code> member of the
<code>pcap_t</code> to an error message and return
<code>PCAP_ERROR</code>. Otherwise, it should return the number of
bytes injected.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The setfilter routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The setfilter routine is passed a pointer to the <code>pcap_t</code>
and a pointer to a <code>struct bpf_program</code> containing a BPF
program to be used as a filter. If the mechanism used by your
module can perform filtering with a BPF program, it would attempt to
set that filter to the specified program.
</p>
<p>
If that failed because the program was too large, or used BPF
features not supported by that mechanism—typically the
<code>BPF_MOD</code> or <code>BPF_XOR</code> instructions—the
module should fall
back on filtering in userland by saving a copy of the filter with a
call to <b>install_bpf_program</b>(), setting a flag in the
private data instructure indicating that filtering is being done by
the module and, in the read routine's main loop, checking the flag
and, if it's set, calling <b>pcapint_filter</b>(),
passing it the <code>fcode.bf_insns</code> member of the
<code>pcap_t</code>, the raw packet data, the on-the-wire length of
the packet, and the captured length of the packet, and only passing
the packet to the callback routine, and counting it, if
<b>pcapint_filter</b>() returns a non-zero value. (If the flag is not
set, all packets should be passed to the callback routine and
counted, as the filtering is being done by the mechanism used by the
module.) If <b>install_bpf_program</b>() returns a negative
value, the routine should return <code>PCAP_ERROR</code>.
</p>
<p>
The "captured length of the packet" above is the amount of data
the read routine has received for each specific packet. It should
not be confused with the snapshot length, which is constant while
the handle is active, because in <b>pcapint_filter</b>() it is
essential to know exactly how much of the current packet data is
available in order to interpret the program correctly. That
notwithstanding, if <b>pcapint_filter</b>() tells to accept the
packet, the read routine should deliver no more than the snapshot
length worth of the packet data to the callback routine. This way
userland filtering and kernel filtering would produce very similar
results until buffering, throughput, latency, etc. becomes a factor.
</p>
<p>
If the attempt to set the filter failed for any other reason, the
routine must set the <code>errbuf</code> member of the
<code>pcap_t</code> to an error message and return
<code>PCAP_ERROR</code>.
</p>
<p>
If the attempt to set the filter succeeded, or it failed because the
mechanism used by the module rejected it and the call to
<b>install_bpf_program</b>() succeeded, the routine should
return 0.
</p>
<p>
If the mechanism the module uses doesn't support filtering, the
pointer to the setfilter routine can just be set to point to
<b>install_bpf_program</b>(); the module does not need a
routine of its own to handle that.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">The setdirection routine</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
The setdirection routine is passed a pointer to the
<code>pcap_t</code> and a <code>pcap_direction_t</code> indicating
which packet directions should be accepted. If the module can't
arrange to handle only incoming packets or only outgoing packets, it
can set the pointer to the setdirection routine to
<code>NULL</code>, and calls to
<a href="manpages/pcap_setdirection.3pcap.html"><b>pcap_setdirection</b></a>(3PCAP)
will fail with an error message indicating that setting the
direction isn't supported.
</p>
</div>
<h2 class="title">TBD</h2>
<div class="entry">
<p>
<strong>XXX</strong> describe <code>set_datalink()</code>, including
what the activate routine has to do <strong>XXX</strong>
</p>
<p>
<strong>XXX</strong> describe the rest of the routines
<strong>XXX</strong>
</p>
</div>
</div>
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