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PACKET(7)                  Linux Programmer’s Manual                 PACKET(7)



NAME
       packet, PF_PACKET - packet interface on device level.

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <netpacket/packet.h>
       #include <net/ethernet.h>     /* 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 <linux/if_ether.h> 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 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 sock-
       addr_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  linux/if_ether.h  include  file.   It  defaults  to  the  socket’s   protocol.
       sll_ifindex  is  the interface index of the interface (see netdevice(7)); 0 matches
       any interface (only legal for binding).  sll_hatype is a ARP type as defined in the
       linux/if_arp.h 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 physi-
       cal  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 interpretation 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, SIOCDELMULTI can  be
       used for the same purpose.



IOCTLS
       SIOCGSTAMP can be used to receive the time stamp of the last received packet. Argu-
       ment 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 don’t have the concept of a pending error.


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 interface, which doesn’t provide physical layer indepen-
       dence.

              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 <sys/if_ether.h> and spkt_device is the device name as a null termi-
       nated string, e.g. eth0.

       This structure is obsolete and should not be used in new code.


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 send-
       ing 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 multiplexed 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 pos-
       sible  to bind to ETH_P_802_3; bind to ETH_P_802_2 instead and do the protocol mul-
       tiplex yourself.  The default for sending is the standard Ethernet  DIX  encapsula-
       tion with the protocol filled in.

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


ERRORS
       ENETDOWN
              Interface is not up.


       ENOTCONN
              No interface address passed.


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


       EMSGSIZE
              Packet is bigger than interface MTU.


       ENOBUFS
              Not enough memory to allocate the packet.


       EFAULT User passed invalid memory address.


       EINVAL Invalid argument.


       ENXIO  Interface address contained illegal interface index.


       EPERM  User has insufficient privileges to carry out this operation.


       EADDRNOTAVAIL
              Unknown multicast group address passed.


       ENOENT No packet received.

              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 supported only
       SOCK_PACKET.


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 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.


HISTORICAL NOTE
       The include file <netpacket/packet.h> is present since glibc2.1. Older systems need

       #include <asm/types.h>
       #include <linux/if_packet.h>
       #include <linux/if_ether.h> /* The L2 protocols */

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

       RFC 894 for the standard IP Ethernet encapsulation.

       RFC 1700 for the IEEE 802.3 IP encapsulation.

       The <linux/if_ether.h> include file for physical layer protocols.



Linux Man Page                    1999-04-29                         PACKET(7)

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