pcap-config(1) — Linux manual page

PCAP-CONFIG(1)           General Commands Manual           PCAP-CONFIG(1)

NAME         top

       pcap-config - write libpcap compiler and linker flags to standard
       output

SYNOPSIS         top

       pcap-config [ --help ] [ --version ] [ --cflags ]
                   [ --libs | --additional-libs ]
                   [ --static | --static-pcap-only ]

DESCRIPTION         top

       pcap-config  writes  to  the  standard output various compiler and
       linker flags required to build a user program  with  libpcap.   By
       default,   it   writes  flags  appropriate  for  building  with  a
       dynamically-linked  version  of  libpcap;  see  below  for  static
       linking.   Depending  on  the manner of libpcap installation, some
       options or their combinations may produce empty output -  this  is
       by design.

OPTIONS         top

       --help Produce a help message and exit.

       --version
              Produce libpcap version and exit.  The version is the
              contents of VERSION file in libpcap source tree rather than
              the result of pcap_lib_version(3PCAP).

       --cflags
              Produce the -I compiler flag required to include libpcap's
              header files.

       --libs Produce the -L and -l linker flags required to link with
              libpcap, including -l flags for libraries required by
              libpcap.

       --additional-libs
              Produce the -L and -l linker flags for libraries required
              by libpcap, but not the -l flag to link with libpcap
              itself.

       --static
              This option causes --libs and --additional-libs to produce
              linker flags appropriate for static linking with libpcap.

       --static-pcap-only
              This option causes --libs and --additional-libs to produce
              linker flags appropriate for static linking with libpcap
              and dynamic linking with all other libraries, including
              libraries required by libpcap.

EXIT STATUS         top

       pcap-config exits with a non-zero status when invoked with an
       invalid command-line option, and with status 0 otherwise.

BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY         top

       The --version flag became available in libpcap release 1.10.3.

       Before libpcap release 1.10.2 pcap-config did not treat invalid
       command-line options as an error. The --static-pcap-only flag
       became available in libpcap release 1.10.2.

       The --static flag became available in libpcap release 1.1.0.

SEE ALSO         top

       pkg-config(1), pcap(3PCAP)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the libpcap (packet capture library) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.tcpdump.org/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this
       manual page, see ⟨http://www.tcpdump.org/#patches⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/the-tcpdump-group/libpcap.git⟩ on 2025-08-11.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2025-08-10.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
       a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

                             22 December 2024              PCAP-CONFIG(1)

Pages that refer to this page: pcap_lib_version(3pcap)

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