PACKET(7)



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

NAME
       packet - packet interface on device level

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <linux/if_packet.h>
       #include <net/ethernet.h> /* the L2 protocols */

       packet_socket = socket(AF_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 structure.  protocol is the  IEEE  802.3
       protocol  number in network byte order.  See the <linux/if_ether.h> in-
       clude file for a list of allowed protocols.  When protocol  is  set  to
       htons(ETH_P_ALL),  then all protocols are received.  All incoming pack-
       ets of that protocol type will be passed to the  packet  socket  before
       they are passed to the protocols implemented in the kernel.

       In order to create a packet socket, a process must have the CAP_NET_RAW
       capability in the user namespace that governs its network namespace.

       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 AF_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 get packets  only  from  a  specific  interface  use
       bind(2)  specifying  an  address  in  a  struct sockaddr_ll to bind the
       packet socket to an interface.  Fields used for binding are  sll_family
       (should be AF_PACKET), sll_protocol, and sll_ifindex.

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

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

   Address types
       The  sockaddr_ll  structure  is a device-independent physical-layer ad-
       dress.

           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;   /* ARP hardware type */
               unsigned char  sll_pkttype;  /* Packet type */
               unsigned char  sll_halen;    /* Length of address */
               unsigned char  sll_addr[8];  /* Physical-layer address */
           };

       The fields of this structure are as follows:

       *  sll_protocol is the standard ethernet protocol type in network  byte
          order  as  defined  in  the <linux/if_ether.h> include file.  It de-
          faults to the socket's protocol.

       *  sll_ifindex is the interface index  of  the  interface  (see  netde-
          vice(7));  0  matches  any  interface  (only permitted for binding).
          sll_hatype is an 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
          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 pro-
          miscuous mode, and PACKET_OUTGOING for a packet originating from the
          local host that is looped back to a packet socket.  These types make
          sense only 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 de-
          vice.

       When you send packets, it is enough to  specify  sll_family,  sll_addr,
       sll_halen,  sll_ifindex,  and sll_protocol.  The other fields should be
       0.  sll_hatype and sll_pkttype are set on received packets for your in-
       formation.

   Socket options
       Packet  socket  options  are  configured  by calling setsockopt(2) with
       level SOL_PACKET.

       PACKET_ADD_MEMBERSHIP
       PACKET_DROP_MEMBERSHIP
              Packet sockets can be used to configure physical-layer multicas-
              ting and promiscuous mode.  PACKET_ADD_MEMBERSHIP adds a binding
              and  PACKET_DROP_MEMBERSHIP  drops  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 field specifies which ac-
              tion  to perform.  PACKET_MR_PROMISC enables receiving all pack-
              ets on a shared medium  (often  known  as  "promiscuous  mode"),
              PACKET_MR_MULTICAST  binds the socket to the physical-layer mul-
              ticast  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.

       PACKET_AUXDATA (since Linux 2.6.21)
              If  this  binary  option  is enabled, the packet socket passes a
              metadata structure along with each packet in the recvmsg(2) con-
              trol  field.  The structure can be read with cmsg(3).  It is de-
              fined as

                  struct tpacket_auxdata {
                      __u32 tp_status;
                      __u32 tp_len;      /* packet length */
                      __u32 tp_snaplen;  /* captured length */
                      __u16 tp_mac;
                      __u16 tp_net;
                      __u16 tp_vlan_tci;
                      __u16 tp_vlan_tpid; /* Since Linux 3.14; earlier, these
                                             were unused padding bytes */
                  };

       PACKET_FANOUT (since Linux 3.1)
              To scale processing across threads, packet sockets  can  form  a
              fanout  group.   In  this mode, each matching packet is enqueued
              onto only one socket in the group.   A  socket  joins  a  fanout
              group  by calling setsockopt(2) with level SOL_PACKET and option
              PACKET_FANOUT.  Each network namespace can have up to 65536  in-
              dependent  groups.   A socket selects a group by encoding the ID
              in the first 16 bits of the integer  option  value.   The  first
              packet  socket  to  join a group implicitly creates it.  To suc-
              cessfully join an existing group, subsequent packet sockets must
              have  the  same protocol, device settings, fanout mode and flags
              (see below).  Packet sockets can leave a fanout  group  only  by
              closing  the  socket.  The group is deleted when the last socket
              is closed.

              Fanout supports multiple algorithms to  spread  traffic  between
              sockets, as follows:

              *  The  default mode, PACKET_FANOUT_HASH, sends packets from the
                 same flow to the same socket to maintain  per-flow  ordering.
                 For  each  packet,  it  chooses a socket by taking the packet
                 flow hash modulo the number of sockets in the group, where  a
                 flow  hash  is a hash over network-layer address and optional
                 transport-layer port fields.

              *  The load-balance mode PACKET_FANOUT_LB  implements  a  round-
                 robin algorithm.

              *  PACKET_FANOUT_CPU  selects  the  socket based on the CPU that
                 the packet arrived on.

              *  PACKET_FANOUT_ROLLOVER processes all data on a single socket,
                 moving to the next when one becomes backlogged.

              *  PACKET_FANOUT_RND  selects  the  socket using a pseudo-random
                 number generator.

              *  PACKET_FANOUT_QM (available since  Linux  3.14)  selects  the
                 socket using the recorded queue_mapping of the received skb.

              Fanout  modes  can  take  additional  options.  IP fragmentation
              causes packets from the same flow to have different flow hashes.
              The flag PACKET_FANOUT_FLAG_DEFRAG, if set, causes packets to be
              defragmented before fanout is applied, to preserve order even in
              this case.  Fanout mode and options are communicated in the sec-
              ond  16  bits  of  the   integer   option   value.    The   flag
              PACKET_FANOUT_FLAG_ROLLOVER enables the roll over mechanism as a
              backup strategy: if the  original  fanout  algorithm  selects  a
              backlogged  socket,  the packet rolls over to the next available
              one.

       PACKET_LOSS (with PACKET_TX_RING)
              When a malformed packet is encountered on a transmit  ring,  the
              default  is to reset its tp_status to TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT and
              abort the transmission immediately.  The malformed packet blocks
              itself  and  subsequently enqueued packets from being sent.  The
              format error must be fixed, the associated  tp_status  reset  to
              TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST,  and  the transmission process restarted
              via send(2).  However, if  PACKET_LOSS  is  set,  any  malformed
              packet  will be skipped, its tp_status reset to TP_STATUS_AVAIL-
              ABLE, and the transmission process continued.

       PACKET_RESERVE (with PACKET_RX_RING)
              By default, a packet receive  ring  writes  packets  immediately
              following  the  metadata  structure and alignment padding.  This
              integer option reserves additional headroom.

       PACKET_RX_RING
              Create a memory-mapped ring buffer for asynchronous  packet  re-
              ception.   The packet socket reserves a contiguous region of ap-
              plication address space, lays it out into  an  array  of  packet
              slots  and  copies  packets  (up  to tp_snaplen) into subsequent
              slots.  Each packet is preceded by a metadata structure  similar
              to  tpacket_auxdata.   The  protocol fields encode the offset to
              the data from the start of the metadata header.   tp_net  stores
              the  offset  to  the  network layer.  If the packet socket is of
              type SOCK_DGRAM, then tp_mac is the same.   If  it  is  of  type
              SOCK_RAW,  then  that  field stores the offset to the link-layer
              frame.  Packet socket and application communicate the  head  and
              tail of the ring through the tp_status field.  The packet socket
              owns all slots with tp_status equal to TP_STATUS_KERNEL.   After
              filling  a  slot,  it changes the status of the slot to transfer
              ownership to the application.  During normal operation, the  new
              tp_status  value has at least the TP_STATUS_USER bit set to sig-
              nal that a received packet has been stored.  When  the  applica-
              tion has finished processing a packet, it transfers ownership of
              the slot back to  the  socket  by  setting  tp_status  equal  to
              TP_STATUS_KERNEL.

              Packet  sockets  implement multiple variants of the packet ring.
              The implementation details are described  in  Documentation/net-
              working/packet_mmap.txt in the Linux kernel source tree.

       PACKET_STATISTICS
              Retrieve packet socket statistics in the form of a structure

                  struct tpacket_stats {
                      unsigned int tp_packets;  /* Total packet count */
                      unsigned int tp_drops;    /* Dropped packet count */
                  };

              Receiving  statistics resets the internal counters.  The statis-
              tics structure differs when using a ring of variant TPACKET_V3.

       PACKET_TIMESTAMP (with PACKET_RX_RING; since Linux 2.6.36)
              The packet receive ring always stores a timestamp in  the  meta-
              data header.  By default, this is a software generated timestamp
              generated when the packet is copied into the ring.  This integer
              option  selects  the type of timestamp.  Besides the default, it
              support the two hardware formats described in Documentation/net-
              working/timestamping.txt in the Linux kernel source tree.

       PACKET_TX_RING (since Linux 2.6.31)
              Create  a  memory-mapped  ring  buffer  for packet transmission.
              This option is similar to PACKET_RX_RING and takes the same  ar-
              guments.  The application writes packets into slots with tp_sta-
              tus equal to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE and schedules them  for  trans-
              mission  by  changing tp_status to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST.  When
              packets are ready  to  be  transmitted,  the  application  calls
              send(2)  or  a  variant thereof.  The buf and len fields of this
              call are ignored.  If an address is passed  using  sendto(2)  or
              sendmsg(2), then that overrides the socket default.  On success-
              ful  transmission,  the  socket  resets  tp_status  to   TP_STA-
              TUS_AVAILABLE.   It immediately aborts the transmission on error
              unless PACKET_LOSS is set.

       PACKET_VERSION (with PACKET_RX_RING; since Linux 2.6.27)
              By default, PACKET_RX_RING creates  a  packet  receive  ring  of
              variant  TPACKET_V1.   To  create another variant, configure the
              desired variant by setting this integer option  before  creating
              the ring.

       PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS (since Linux 3.14)
              By default, packets sent through packet sockets pass through the
              kernel's qdisc (traffic control) layer, which is  fine  for  the
              vast  majority  of  use cases.  For traffic generator appliances
              using packet sockets that intend to brute-force flood  the  net-
              work--for example, to test devices under load in a similar fash-
              ion to pktgen--this layer can be bypassed by setting this  inte-
              ger  option to 1.  A side effect is that packet buffering in the
              qdisc layer is avoided, which will lead to increased drops  when
              network  device transmit queues are busy; therefore, use at your
              own risk.

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

       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.

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
       AF_PACKET  is  a new feature in Linux 2.2.  Earlier Linux versions sup-
       ported only SOCK_PACKET.

NOTES
       For portable programs it is suggested to use AF_PACKET via pcap(3); al-
       though this covers only a subset of the AF_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 prefixed.  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 with the call:

           socket(AF_INET, SOCK_PACKET, protocol)

       This is still supported, but deprecated and strongly discouraged.   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 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 <sys/if_ether.h> and spkt_device is the de-
       vice name as a null-terminated string, for example, eth0.

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

BUGS
       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 re-
       placed 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 <linux/if_ether.h> include file for physical-layer protocols.

       The Linux kernel source tree.  /Documentation/networking/filter.txt de-
       scribes  how  to  apply  Berkeley  Packet  Filters  to  packet sockets.
       /tools/testing/selftests/net/psock_tpacket.c  contains  example  source
       code for all available versions of PACKET_RX_RING and PACKET_TX_RING.

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 5.07 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2020-02-09                         PACKET(7)

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