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PACKET(7)		   Linux Programmers Manual		    PACKET(7)



NAME
       packet, PF_PACKET - packet interface on device level.

SYNOPSIS
       #include 
       #include 
       #include  /* the L2 protocols */

       packet_socket = socket(PF_PACKET, int socket_type, int protocol);

DESCRIPTION
       Packet  sockets	are  used to receive or send raw packets at the device
       driver (OSI Layer 2) level.  They allow the user to implement  protocol
       modules in user space on top of the physical layer.

       The  socket_type  is either SOCK_RAW for raw packets including the link
       level header or SOCK_DGRAM for  cooked  packets	with  the  link  level
       header  removed.   The  link level header information is available in a
       common format in a sockaddr_ll.	protocol is the  IEEE  802.3  protocol
       number in network order.  See the  include file for a
       list of allowed protocols.  When protocol is  set  to  htons(ETH_P_ALL)
       then all protocols are received.  All incoming packets of that protocol
       type will be passed to the packet socket before they are passed to  the
       protocols implemented in the kernel.

       Only  processes	with effective UID 0 or the CAP_NET_RAW capability may
       open packet sockets.

       SOCK_RAW packets are passed to and from the device driver  without  any
       changes	in  the  packet data.  When receiving a packet, the address is
       still parsed and passed in a standard  sockaddr_ll  address  structure.
       When transmitting a packet, the user supplied buffer should contain the
       physical layer header.  That packet is then queued  unmodified  to  the
       network	driver	of  the  interface defined by the destination address.
       Some device drivers always add other headers.  SOCK_RAW is  similar  to
       but  not compatible with the obsolete PF_INET/SOCK_PACKET of Linux 2.0.

       SOCK_DGRAM operates on a slightly higher level.	The physical header is
       removed	before the packet is passed to the user.  Packets sent through
       a SOCK_DGRAM packet socket get a suitable physical layer  header  based
       on  the	information in the sockaddr_ll destination address before they
       are queued.

       By default all packets of the specified protocol type are passed  to  a
       packet  socket.	 To  only  get	packets  from a specific interface use
       bind(2) specifying an address in  a  struct  sockaddr_ll  to  bind  the
       packet	socket	to  an	interface.   Only  the	sll_protocol  and  the
       sll_ifindex address fields are used for purposes of binding.

       The connect(2) operation is not supported on packet sockets.

       When the MSG_TRUNC flag is passed to recvmsg(2),  recv(2),  recvfrom(2)
       the real length of the packet on the wire is always returned, even when
       it is longer than the buffer.

   Address Types
       The sockaddr_ll is a device independent physical layer address.

	   struct sockaddr_ll {
	       unsigned short sll_family;   /* Always AF_PACKET */
	       unsigned short sll_protocol; /* Physical layer protocol */
	       int	      sll_ifindex;  /* Interface number */
	       unsigned short sll_hatype;   /* Header type */
	       unsigned char  sll_pkttype;  /* Packet type */
	       unsigned char  sll_halen;    /* Length of address */
	       unsigned char  sll_addr[8];  /* Physical layer address */
	   };

       sll_protocol is the standard ethernet protocol type in network order as
       defined	in  the    include file.  It defaults to the
       sockets protocol.  sll_ifindex is the interface index of the interface
       (see  netdevice(7));  0 matches any interface (only permitted for bind
       ing).  sll_hatype is a ARP type	as  defined  in  the  
       include	file.	sll_pkttype contains the packet type.  Valid types are
       PACKET_HOST for a packet addressed to the local host,  PACKET_BROADCAST
       for  a  physical  layer broadcast packet, PACKET_MULTICAST for a packet
       sent to a physical layer  multicast  address,  PACKET_OTHERHOST	for  a
       packet  to  some  other host that has been caught by a device driver in
       promiscuous mode, and PACKET_OUTGOING for a packet originated from  the
       local  host  that  is looped back to a packet socket.  These types make
       only sense for receiving.  sll_addr and sll_halen contain the  physical
       layer (e.g., IEEE 802.3) address and its length.  The exact interpreta
       tion depends on the device.

       When you send packets it is enough  to  specify	sll_family,  sll_addr,
       sll_halen,  sll_ifindex.  The other fields should be 0.	sll_hatype and
       sll_pkttype are set on received packets for your information.  For bind
       only sll_protocol and sll_ifindex are used.

   Socket Options
       Packet sockets can be used to configure physical layer multicasting and
       promiscuous mode.  It works by calling setsockopt(2) on a packet socket
       for  SOL_PACKET	and  one of the options PACKET_ADD_MEMBERSHIP to add a
       binding or PACKET_DROP_MEMBERSHIP to  drop  it.	 They  both  expect  a
       packet_mreq structure as argument:

	   struct packet_mreq {
	       int	      mr_ifindex;    /* interface index */
	       unsigned short mr_type;	     /* action */
	       unsigned short mr_alen;	     /* address length */
	       unsigned char  mr_address[8]; /* physical layer address */
	   };

       mr_ifindex  contains the interface index for the interface whose status
       should be changed.  The mr_type parameter  specifies  which  action  to
       perform.   PACKET_MR_PROMISC  enables receiving all packets on a shared
       medium (often known as "promiscuous mode"),  PACKET_MR_MULTICAST  binds
       the   socket  to  the  physical	layer  multicast  group  specified  in
       mr_address and mr_alen, and PACKET_MR_ALLMULTI sets the	socket	up  to
       receive all multicast packets arriving at the interface.

       In addition the traditional ioctls SIOCSIFFLAGS, SIOCADDMULTI, SIOCDEL
       MULTI can be used for the same purpose.

   Ioctls
       SIOCGSTAMP can be used to receive the timestamp of  the	last  received
       packet.	Argument is a struct timeval.

       In  addition  all standard ioctls defined in netdevice(7) and socket(7)
       are valid on packet sockets.

   Error Handling
       Packet sockets do no error handling other than  errors  occurred  while
       passing	the  packet to the device driver.  They dont have the concept
       of a pending error.

ERRORS
       EADDRNOTAVAIL
	      Unknown multicast group address passed.

       EFAULT User passed invalid memory address.

       EINVAL Invalid argument.

       EMSGSIZE
	      Packet is bigger than interface MTU.

       ENETDOWN
	      Interface is not up.

       ENOBUFS
	      Not enough memory to allocate the packet.

       ENODEV Unknown device name or interface index  specified  in  interface
	      address.

       ENOENT No packet received.

       ENOTCONN
	      No interface address passed.

       ENXIO  Interface address contained an invalid interface index.

       EPERM  User has insufficient privileges to carry out this operation.

	      In  addition  other  errors  may	be  generated by the low-level
	      driver.

VERSIONS
       PF_PACKET is a new feature in Linux 2.2.  Earlier Linux	versions  sup
       ported only SOCK_PACKET.

       The  include  file    is  present  since glibc 2.1.
       Older systems need:

	   #include 
	   #include 
	   #include 	/* The L2 protocols */

NOTES
       For portable programs it is suggested to  use  PF_PACKET  via  pcap(3);
       although this only covers a subset of the PF_PACKET features.

       The  SOCK_DGRAM	packet	sockets make no attempt to create or parse the
       IEEE 802.2 LLC header for a IEEE  802.3	frame.	 When  ETH_P_802_3  is
       specified  as  protocol	for sending the kernel creates the 802.3 frame
       and fills out the length field; the user has to supply the  LLC	header
       to  get a fully conforming packet.  Incoming 802.3 packets are not mul
       tiplexed on the DSAP/SSAP protocol fields; instead they are supplied to
       the  user as protocol ETH_P_802_2 with the LLC header prepended.  It is
       thus not possible to bind to ETH_P_802_3; bind to  ETH_P_802_2  instead
       and do the protocol multiplex yourself.	The default for sending is the
       standard Ethernet DIX encapsulation with the protocol filled in.

       Packet sockets are not subject to the input or output firewall  chains.

   Compatibility
       In  Linux  2.0,	the  only  way	to  get a packet socket was by calling
       socket(PF_INET, SOCK_PACKET, protocol).	This is  still	supported  but
       strongly  deprecated.   The  main difference between the two methods is
       that SOCK_PACKET uses the old struct sockaddr_pkt to specify an	inter
       face, which doesnt provide physical layer independence.

	   struct sockaddr_pkt {
	       unsigned short spkt_family;
	       unsigned char  spkt_device[14];
	       unsigned short spkt_protocol;
	   };

       spkt_family  contains  the device type, spkt_protocol is the IEEE 802.3
       protocol type as defined in   and  spkt_device  is  the
       device name as a null terminated string, for example, eth0.

       This structure is obsolete and should not be used in new code.

BUGS
       glibc  2.1  does  not  have  a  define  for  SOL_PACKET.  The suggested
       workaround is to use:

	   #ifndef SOL_PACKET
	   #define SOL_PACKET 263
	   #endif

       This is fixed in later glibc versions and also does not occur on  libc5
       systems.

       The IEEE 802.2/803.3 LLC handling could be considered as a bug.

       Socket filters are not documented.

       The  MSG_TRUNC  recvmsg(2)  extension  is  an  ugly  hack and should be
       replaced by a control message.  There is currently no way  to  get  the
       original destination address of packets via SOCK_DGRAM.

SEE ALSO
       socket(2), pcap(3), capabilities(7), ip(7), raw(7), socket(7)

       RFC 894 for the standard IP Ethernet encapsulation.

       RFC 1700 for the IEEE 802.3 IP encapsulation.

       The  include file for physical layer protocols.

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  1999-04-29			     PACKET(7)




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