*Eventually*, I'd like to stabilize the source and binary interface for pcap "modules", to the extent that third-party packages can add their own modules (even in binary form), but that means making sure there's an interface that won't require disruptive changes for future additions, so that's "eventually" not "soon".

In D9606#198785, @pkelsey wrote:

In D9606#198724, @delphij wrote:

Previously the code is hosted at Google code and that become read-only.

I think Luigi have another repository here: https://github.com/luigirizzo/netmap-libpcap but the code haven't been updated for some time.

The main motivation is that the pcap internal interfaces changes quite frequently, and it have become more and more burdensome to maintain the compatibility shims with older pcap versions (see rS313695, for instance, that we technically need additional #ifdef's to maintain compatibility with older pcap versions).

Thanks for the context, which makes this patch seem worthwhile to me.

Is there some reason that the netmap related changes are not upstreamed to the main libpcap project? My understanding is the code is no longer being actively developed, and it would be beneficial if it's included in the official libpcap perhaps?

I'm not aware of any reason why the netmap-related changes have not been upstreamed to the main libpcap project, and it certainly seems like something that would be useful to do.