1PACKET(7)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 PACKET(7)
2
3
4

NAME

6       packet - packet interface on device level
7

SYNOPSIS

9       #include <sys/socket.h>
10       #include <linux/if_packet.h>
11       #include <net/ethernet.h> /* the L2 protocols */
12
13       packet_socket = socket(AF_PACKET, int socket_type, int protocol);
14

DESCRIPTION

16       Packet  sockets  are  used to receive or send raw packets at the device
17       driver (OSI Layer 2) level.  They allow the user to implement  protocol
18       modules in user space on top of the physical layer.
19
20       The  socket_type is either SOCK_RAW for raw packets including the link-
21       level header or SOCK_DGRAM  for  cooked  packets  with  the  link-level
22       header  removed.   The  link-level header information is available in a
23       common format in a sockaddr_ll structure.  protocol is the  IEEE  802.3
24       protocol  number in network byte order.  See the <linux/if_ether.h> in‐
25       clude file for a list of allowed protocols.  When protocol  is  set  to
26       htons(ETH_P_ALL),  then all protocols are received.  All incoming pack‐
27       ets of that protocol type will be passed to the  packet  socket  before
28       they are passed to the protocols implemented in the kernel.
29
30       In order to create a packet socket, a process must have the CAP_NET_RAW
31       capability in the user namespace that governs its network namespace.
32
33       SOCK_RAW packets are passed to and from the device driver  without  any
34       changes  in  the  packet data.  When receiving a packet, the address is
35       still parsed and passed in a standard  sockaddr_ll  address  structure.
36       When transmitting a packet, the user-supplied buffer should contain the
37       physical-layer header.  That packet is then queued  unmodified  to  the
38       network  driver  of  the  interface defined by the destination address.
39       Some device drivers always add other headers.  SOCK_RAW is  similar  to
40       but not compatible with the obsolete AF_INET/SOCK_PACKET of Linux 2.0.
41
42       SOCK_DGRAM operates on a slightly higher level.  The physical header is
43       removed before the packet is passed to the user.  Packets sent  through
44       a  SOCK_DGRAM  packet socket get a suitable physical-layer header based
45       on the information in the sockaddr_ll destination address  before  they
46       are queued.
47
48       By  default, all packets of the specified protocol type are passed to a
49       packet socket.  To get packets  only  from  a  specific  interface  use
50       bind(2)  specifying  an  address  in  a  struct sockaddr_ll to bind the
51       packet socket to an interface.  Fields used for binding are  sll_family
52       (should be AF_PACKET), sll_protocol, and sll_ifindex.
53
54       The connect(2) operation is not supported on packet sockets.
55
56       When   the   MSG_TRUNC  flag  is  passed  to  recvmsg(2),  recv(2),  or
57       recvfrom(2), the real length of the packet on the wire  is  always  re‐
58       turned, even when it is longer than the buffer.
59
60   Address types
61       The  sockaddr_ll  structure  is a device-independent physical-layer ad‐
62       dress.
63
64           struct sockaddr_ll {
65               unsigned short sll_family;   /* Always AF_PACKET */
66               unsigned short sll_protocol; /* Physical-layer protocol */
67               int            sll_ifindex;  /* Interface number */
68               unsigned short sll_hatype;   /* ARP hardware type */
69               unsigned char  sll_pkttype;  /* Packet type */
70               unsigned char  sll_halen;    /* Length of address */
71               unsigned char  sll_addr[8];  /* Physical-layer address */
72           };
73
74       The fields of this structure are as follows:
75
76       *  sll_protocol is the standard ethernet protocol type in network  byte
77          order  as  defined  in  the <linux/if_ether.h> include file.  It de‐
78          faults to the socket's protocol.
79
80       *  sll_ifindex is the interface index  of  the  interface  (see  netde‐
81          vice(7));  0  matches  any  interface  (only permitted for binding).
82          sll_hatype is an ARP type as defined in the <linux/if_arp.h> include
83          file.
84
85       *  sll_pkttype  contains  the packet type.  Valid types are PACKET_HOST
86          for a packet addressed to the local  host,  PACKET_BROADCAST  for  a
87          physical-layer  broadcast packet, PACKET_MULTICAST for a packet sent
88          to a physical-layer multicast address, PACKET_OTHERHOST for a packet
89          to  some  other host that has been caught by a device driver in pro‐
90          miscuous mode, and PACKET_OUTGOING for a packet originating from the
91          local host that is looped back to a packet socket.  These types make
92          sense only for receiving.
93
94       *  sll_addr and sll_halen contain the physical-layer (e.g., IEEE 802.3)
95          address and its length.  The exact interpretation depends on the de‐
96          vice.
97
98       When you send packets, it is enough to  specify  sll_family,  sll_addr,
99       sll_halen,  sll_ifindex,  and sll_protocol.  The other fields should be
100       0.  sll_hatype and sll_pkttype are set on received packets for your in‐
101       formation.
102
103   Socket options
104       Packet  socket  options  are  configured  by calling setsockopt(2) with
105       level SOL_PACKET.
106
107       PACKET_ADD_MEMBERSHIP
108       PACKET_DROP_MEMBERSHIP
109              Packet sockets can be used to configure physical-layer multicas‐
110              ting and promiscuous mode.  PACKET_ADD_MEMBERSHIP adds a binding
111              and  PACKET_DROP_MEMBERSHIP  drops  it.   They  both  expect   a
112              packet_mreq structure as argument:
113
114                  struct packet_mreq {
115                      int            mr_ifindex;    /* interface index */
116                      unsigned short mr_type;       /* action */
117                      unsigned short mr_alen;       /* address length */
118                      unsigned char  mr_address[8]; /* physical-layer address */
119                  };
120
121              mr_ifindex  contains the interface index for the interface whose
122              status should be changed.  The mr_type field specifies which ac‐
123              tion  to perform.  PACKET_MR_PROMISC enables receiving all pack‐
124              ets on a shared medium  (often  known  as  "promiscuous  mode"),
125              PACKET_MR_MULTICAST  binds the socket to the physical-layer mul‐
126              ticast  group  specified  in   mr_address   and   mr_alen,   and
127              PACKET_MR_ALLMULTI  sets  the socket up to receive all multicast
128              packets arriving at the interface.
129
130              In addition, the traditional ioctls SIOCSIFFLAGS,  SIOCADDMULTI,
131              SIOCDELMULTI can be used for the same purpose.
132
133       PACKET_AUXDATA (since Linux 2.6.21)
134              If  this  binary  option  is enabled, the packet socket passes a
135              metadata structure along with each packet in the recvmsg(2) con‐
136              trol  field.  The structure can be read with cmsg(3).  It is de‐
137              fined as
138
139                  struct tpacket_auxdata {
140                      __u32 tp_status;
141                      __u32 tp_len;      /* packet length */
142                      __u32 tp_snaplen;  /* captured length */
143                      __u16 tp_mac;
144                      __u16 tp_net;
145                      __u16 tp_vlan_tci;
146                      __u16 tp_vlan_tpid; /* Since Linux 3.14; earlier, these
147                                             were unused padding bytes */
148                  };
149
150       PACKET_FANOUT (since Linux 3.1)
151              To scale processing across threads, packet sockets  can  form  a
152              fanout  group.   In  this mode, each matching packet is enqueued
153              onto only one socket in the group.   A  socket  joins  a  fanout
154              group  by calling setsockopt(2) with level SOL_PACKET and option
155              PACKET_FANOUT.  Each network namespace can have up to 65536  in‐
156              dependent  groups.   A socket selects a group by encoding the ID
157              in the first 16 bits of the integer  option  value.   The  first
158              packet  socket  to  join a group implicitly creates it.  To suc‐
159              cessfully join an existing group, subsequent packet sockets must
160              have  the  same protocol, device settings, fanout mode and flags
161              (see below).  Packet sockets can leave a fanout  group  only  by
162              closing  the  socket.  The group is deleted when the last socket
163              is closed.
164
165              Fanout supports multiple algorithms to  spread  traffic  between
166              sockets, as follows:
167
168              *  The  default mode, PACKET_FANOUT_HASH, sends packets from the
169                 same flow to the same socket to maintain  per-flow  ordering.
170                 For  each  packet,  it  chooses a socket by taking the packet
171                 flow hash modulo the number of sockets in the group, where  a
172                 flow  hash  is a hash over network-layer address and optional
173                 transport-layer port fields.
174
175              *  The load-balance mode PACKET_FANOUT_LB  implements  a  round-
176                 robin algorithm.
177
178              *  PACKET_FANOUT_CPU  selects  the  socket based on the CPU that
179                 the packet arrived on.
180
181              *  PACKET_FANOUT_ROLLOVER processes all data on a single socket,
182                 moving to the next when one becomes backlogged.
183
184              *  PACKET_FANOUT_RND  selects  the  socket using a pseudo-random
185                 number generator.
186
187              *  PACKET_FANOUT_QM (available since  Linux  3.14)  selects  the
188                 socket using the recorded queue_mapping of the received skb.
189
190              Fanout  modes  can  take  additional  options.  IP fragmentation
191              causes packets from the same flow to have different flow hashes.
192              The flag PACKET_FANOUT_FLAG_DEFRAG, if set, causes packets to be
193              defragmented before fanout is applied, to preserve order even in
194              this case.  Fanout mode and options are communicated in the sec‐
195              ond  16  bits  of  the   integer   option   value.    The   flag
196              PACKET_FANOUT_FLAG_ROLLOVER enables the roll over mechanism as a
197              backup strategy: if the  original  fanout  algorithm  selects  a
198              backlogged  socket,  the packet rolls over to the next available
199              one.
200
201       PACKET_LOSS (with PACKET_TX_RING)
202              When a malformed packet is encountered on a transmit  ring,  the
203              default  is to reset its tp_status to TP_STATUS_WRONG_FORMAT and
204              abort the transmission immediately.  The malformed packet blocks
205              itself  and  subsequently enqueued packets from being sent.  The
206              format error must be fixed, the associated  tp_status  reset  to
207              TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST,  and  the transmission process restarted
208              via send(2).  However, if  PACKET_LOSS  is  set,  any  malformed
209              packet  will be skipped, its tp_status reset to TP_STATUS_AVAIL‐
210              ABLE, and the transmission process continued.
211
212       PACKET_RESERVE (with PACKET_RX_RING)
213              By default, a packet receive  ring  writes  packets  immediately
214              following  the  metadata  structure and alignment padding.  This
215              integer option reserves additional headroom.
216
217       PACKET_RX_RING
218              Create a memory-mapped ring buffer for asynchronous  packet  re‐
219              ception.   The packet socket reserves a contiguous region of ap‐
220              plication address space, lays it out into  an  array  of  packet
221              slots  and  copies  packets  (up  to tp_snaplen) into subsequent
222              slots.  Each packet is preceded by a metadata structure  similar
223              to  tpacket_auxdata.   The  protocol fields encode the offset to
224              the data from the start of the metadata header.   tp_net  stores
225              the  offset  to  the  network layer.  If the packet socket is of
226              type SOCK_DGRAM, then tp_mac is the same.   If  it  is  of  type
227              SOCK_RAW,  then  that  field stores the offset to the link-layer
228              frame.  Packet socket and application communicate the  head  and
229              tail of the ring through the tp_status field.  The packet socket
230              owns all slots with tp_status equal to TP_STATUS_KERNEL.   After
231              filling  a  slot,  it changes the status of the slot to transfer
232              ownership to the application.  During normal operation, the  new
233              tp_status  value has at least the TP_STATUS_USER bit set to sig‐
234              nal that a received packet has been stored.  When  the  applica‐
235              tion has finished processing a packet, it transfers ownership of
236              the slot back to  the  socket  by  setting  tp_status  equal  to
237              TP_STATUS_KERNEL.
238
239              Packet  sockets  implement multiple variants of the packet ring.
240              The implementation details are described  in  Documentation/net‐
241              working/packet_mmap.rst in the Linux kernel source tree.
242
243       PACKET_STATISTICS
244              Retrieve packet socket statistics in the form of a structure
245
246                  struct tpacket_stats {
247                      unsigned int tp_packets;  /* Total packet count */
248                      unsigned int tp_drops;    /* Dropped packet count */
249                  };
250
251              Receiving  statistics resets the internal counters.  The statis‐
252              tics structure differs when using a ring of variant TPACKET_V3.
253
254       PACKET_TIMESTAMP (with PACKET_RX_RING; since Linux 2.6.36)
255              The packet receive ring always stores a timestamp in  the  meta‐
256              data header.  By default, this is a software generated timestamp
257              generated when the packet is copied into the ring.  This integer
258              option  selects  the type of timestamp.  Besides the default, it
259              support the two hardware formats described in Documentation/net‐
260              working/timestamping.rst in the Linux kernel source tree.
261
262       PACKET_TX_RING (since Linux 2.6.31)
263              Create  a  memory-mapped  ring  buffer  for packet transmission.
264              This option is similar to PACKET_RX_RING and takes the same  ar‐
265              guments.  The application writes packets into slots with tp_sta‐
266              tus equal to TP_STATUS_AVAILABLE and schedules them  for  trans‐
267              mission  by  changing tp_status to TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST.  When
268              packets are ready  to  be  transmitted,  the  application  calls
269              send(2)  or  a  variant thereof.  The buf and len fields of this
270              call are ignored.  If an address is passed  using  sendto(2)  or
271              sendmsg(2), then that overrides the socket default.  On success‐
272              ful  transmission,  the  socket  resets  tp_status  to   TP_STA‐
273              TUS_AVAILABLE.   It immediately aborts the transmission on error
274              unless PACKET_LOSS is set.
275
276       PACKET_VERSION (with PACKET_RX_RING; since Linux 2.6.27)
277              By default, PACKET_RX_RING creates  a  packet  receive  ring  of
278              variant  TPACKET_V1.   To  create another variant, configure the
279              desired variant by setting this integer option  before  creating
280              the ring.
281
282       PACKET_QDISC_BYPASS (since Linux 3.14)
283              By default, packets sent through packet sockets pass through the
284              kernel's qdisc (traffic control) layer, which is  fine  for  the
285              vast  majority  of  use cases.  For traffic generator appliances
286              using packet sockets that intend to brute-force flood  the  net‐
287              work—for  example, to test devices under load in a similar fash‐
288              ion to pktgen—this layer can be bypassed by setting this integer
289              option  to  1.   A  side  effect is that packet buffering in the
290              qdisc layer is avoided, which will lead to increased drops  when
291              network  device transmit queues are busy; therefore, use at your
292              own risk.
293
294   Ioctls
295       SIOCGSTAMP can be used to receive the timestamp of  the  last  received
296       packet.  Argument is a struct timeval variable.
297
298       In  addition, all standard ioctls defined in netdevice(7) and socket(7)
299       are valid on packet sockets.
300
301   Error handling
302       Packet sockets do no error handling other than  errors  occurred  while
303       passing  the  packet to the device driver.  They don't have the concept
304       of a pending error.
305

ERRORS

307       EADDRNOTAVAIL
308              Unknown multicast group address passed.
309
310       EFAULT User passed invalid memory address.
311
312       EINVAL Invalid argument.
313
314       EMSGSIZE
315              Packet is bigger than interface MTU.
316
317       ENETDOWN
318              Interface is not up.
319
320       ENOBUFS
321              Not enough memory to allocate the packet.
322
323       ENODEV Unknown device name or interface index  specified  in  interface
324              address.
325
326       ENOENT No packet received.
327
328       ENOTCONN
329              No interface address passed.
330
331       ENXIO  Interface address contained an invalid interface index.
332
333       EPERM  User has insufficient privileges to carry out this operation.
334
335       In addition, other errors may be generated by the low-level driver.
336

VERSIONS

338       AF_PACKET  is  a new feature in Linux 2.2.  Earlier Linux versions sup‐
339       ported only SOCK_PACKET.
340

NOTES

342       For portable programs it is suggested to use AF_PACKET via pcap(3); al‐
343       though this covers only a subset of the AF_PACKET features.
344
345       The  SOCK_DGRAM  packet  sockets make no attempt to create or parse the
346       IEEE 802.2 LLC header for a IEEE  802.3  frame.   When  ETH_P_802_3  is
347       specified  as  protocol  for sending the kernel creates the 802.3 frame
348       and fills out the length field; the user has to supply the  LLC  header
349       to  get a fully conforming packet.  Incoming 802.3 packets are not mul‐
350       tiplexed on the DSAP/SSAP protocol fields; instead they are supplied to
351       the  user  as protocol ETH_P_802_2 with the LLC header prefixed.  It is
352       thus not possible to bind to ETH_P_802_3; bind to  ETH_P_802_2  instead
353       and do the protocol multiplex yourself.  The default for sending is the
354       standard Ethernet DIX encapsulation with the protocol filled in.
355
356       Packet sockets are not subject to the input or output firewall chains.
357
358   Compatibility
359       In Linux 2.0, the only way to get a packet socket was with the call:
360
361           socket(AF_INET, SOCK_PACKET, protocol)
362
363       This is still supported, but deprecated and strongly discouraged.   The
364       main  difference  between  the two methods is that SOCK_PACKET uses the
365       old struct sockaddr_pkt to specify an interface, which doesn't  provide
366       physical-layer independence.
367
368           struct sockaddr_pkt {
369               unsigned short spkt_family;
370               unsigned char  spkt_device[14];
371               unsigned short spkt_protocol;
372           };
373
374       spkt_family  contains  the device type, spkt_protocol is the IEEE 802.3
375       protocol type as defined in <sys/if_ether.h> and spkt_device is the de‐
376       vice name as a null-terminated string, for example, eth0.
377
378       This structure is obsolete and should not be used in new code.
379

BUGS

381       The IEEE 802.2/803.3 LLC handling could be considered as a bug.
382
383       Socket filters are not documented.
384
385       The  MSG_TRUNC  recvmsg(2)  extension is an ugly hack and should be re‐
386       placed by a control message.  There is currently  no  way  to  get  the
387       original destination address of packets via SOCK_DGRAM.
388

SEE ALSO

390       socket(2), pcap(3), capabilities(7), ip(7), raw(7), socket(7)
391
392       RFC 894  for  the standard IP Ethernet encapsulation.  RFC 1700 for the
393       IEEE 802.3 IP encapsulation.
394
395       The <linux/if_ether.h> include file for physical-layer protocols.
396
397       The Linux kernel source tree.  Documentation/networking/filter.rst  de‐
398       scribes  how  to  apply  Berkeley  Packet  Filters  to  packet sockets.
399       tools/testing/selftests/net/psock_tpacket.c  contains  example   source
400       code for all available versions of PACKET_RX_RING and PACKET_TX_RING.
401

COLOPHON

403       This  page  is  part of release 5.10 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
404       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
405       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
406       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
407
408
409
410Linux                             2020-12-21                         PACKET(7)
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