xref: /freebsd/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8 (revision a316b26e50bbed7cf655fbba726ab87d8ab7599d)
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32.\"     @(#)ifconfig.8	8.3 (Berkeley) 1/5/94
33.\"
34.Dd January 5, 1994
35.Dt IFCONFIG 8
36.Os BSD 4.2
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm ifconfig
39.Nd configure network interface parameters
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.Nm ifconfig
42.Ar interface address_family
43.Oo
44.Ar address
45.Op Ar dest_address
46.Oc
47.Op Ar parameters
48.Nm ifconfig
49.Ar interface
50.Op Ar protocol_family
51.Nm ifconfig
52.Ar -a
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54.Nm Ifconfig
55is used to assign an address
56to a network interface and/or configure
57network interface parameters.
58.Nm Ifconfig
59must be used at boot time to define the network address
60of each interface present on a machine; it may also be used at
61a later time to redefine an interface's address
62or other operating parameters.
63.Pp
64Available operands for
65.Nm ifconfig:
66.Bl -tag -width Ds
67.It Ar Address
68For the
69.Tn DARPA-Internet
70family,
71the address is either a host name present in the host name data
72base,
73.Xr hosts 5 ,
74or a
75.Tn DARPA
76Internet address expressed in the Internet standard
77.Dq dot notation .
78For the Xerox Network Systems(tm) family,
79addresses are
80.Ar net:a.b.c.d.e.f ,
81where
82.Ar net
83is the assigned network number (in decimal),
84and each of the six bytes of the host number,
85.Ar a
86through
87.Ar f ,
88are specified in hexadecimal.
89The host number may be omitted on 10Mb/s Ethernet interfaces,
90which use the hardware physical address,
91and on interfaces other than the first.
92For the
93.Tn ISO
94family, addresses are specified as a long hexadecimal string,
95as in the Xerox family.  However, two consecutive dots imply a zero
96byte, and the dots are optional, if the user wishes to (carefully)
97count out long strings of digits in network byte order.
98.It Ar address_family
99Specifies the
100.Ar address family
101which affects interpretation of the remaining parameters.
102Since an interface can receive transmissions in differing protocols
103with different naming schemes, specifying the address family is recommeded.
104The address or protocol families currently
105supported are
106.Dq inet ,
107.Dq iso ,
108and
109.Dq ns .
110.It Ar Interface
111The
112.Ar interface
113parameter is a string of the form
114.Dq name unit ,
115for example,
116.Dq en0
117.El
118.Pp
119The following parameters may be set with
120.Nm ifconfig :
121.Bl -tag -width dest_addressxx
122.It Cm alias
123Establish an additional network address for this interface.
124This is sometimes useful when changing network numbers, and
125one wishes to accept packets addressed to the old interface.
126.It Cm arp
127Enable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol in mapping
128between network level addresses and link level addresses (default).
129This is currently implemented for mapping between
130.Tn DARPA
131Internet
132addresses and 10Mb/s Ethernet addresses.
133.It Fl arp
134Disable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol.
135.It Cm broadcast
136(Inet only)
137Specify the address to use to represent broadcasts to the
138network.
139The default broadcast address is the address with a host part of all 1's.
140.It Cm debug
141Enable driver dependent debugging code; usually, this turns on
142extra console error logging.
143.It Fl debug
144Disable driver dependent debugging code.
145.It Cm delete
146Remove the network address specified.
147This would be used if you incorrectly specified an alias, or it
148was no longer needed.
149If you have incorrectly set an NS address having the side effect
150of specifying the host portion, removing all NS addresses will
151allow you to respecify the host portion.
152.It Cm dest_address
153Specify the address of the correspondent on the other end
154of a point to point link.
155.It Cm down
156Mark an interface ``down''.  When an interface is
157marked ``down'', the system will not attempt to
158transmit messages through that interface.
159If possible, the interface will be reset to disable reception as well.
160This action does not automatically disable routes using the interface.
161.It Cm ipdst
162This is used to specify an Internet host who is willing to receive
163ip packets encapsulating NS packets bound for a remote network.
164An apparent point to point link is constructed, and
165the address specified will be taken as the NS address and network
166of the destination.
167IP encapsulation of
168.Tn CLNP
169packets is done differently.
170.It Cm metric Ar n
171Set the routing metric of the interface to
172.Ar n ,
173default 0.
174The routing metric is used by the routing protocol
175.Pq Xr routed 8 .
176Higher metrics have the effect of making a route
177less favorable; metrics are counted as addition hops
178to the destination network or host.
179.It Cm mtu Ar n
180Set the maximum transmission unit of the interface to
181.Ar n ,
182default is interface specific.
183The mtu is used to limit the size of packets that are transmitted on an
184interface.
185Not all interfaces support setting the mtu, and some interfaces have
186range restrictions.
187.It Cm netmask Ar mask
188(Inet and ISO)
189Specify how much of the address to reserve for subdividing
190networks into sub-networks.
191The mask includes the network part of the local address
192and the subnet part, which is taken from the host field of the address.
193The mask can be specified as a single hexadecimal number
194with a leading 0x, with a dot-notation Internet address,
195or with a pseudo-network name listed in the network table
196.Xr networks 5 .
197The mask contains 1's for the bit positions in the 32-bit address
198which are to be used for the network and subnet parts,
199and 0's for the host part.
200The mask should contain at least the standard network portion,
201and the subnet field should be contiguous with the network
202portion.
203.\" see
204.\" Xr eon 5 .
205.It Cm nsellength Ar n
206.Pf ( Tn ISO
207only)
208This specifies a trailing number of bytes for a received
209.Tn NSAP
210used for local identification, the remaining leading part of which is
211taken to be the
212.Tn NET
213(Network Entity Title).
214The default value is 1, which is conformant to US
215.Tn GOSIP .
216When an ISO address is set in an ifconfig command,
217it is really the
218.Tn NSAP
219which is being specified.
220For example, in
221.Tn US GOSIP ,
22220 hex digits should be
223specified in the
224.Tn ISO NSAP
225to be assigned to the interface.
226There is some evidence that a number different from 1 may be useful
227for
228.Tn AFI
22937 type addresses.
230.It Cm trailers
231Request the use of a ``trailer'' link level encapsulation when
232sending (default).
233If a network interface supports
234.Cm trailers ,
235the system will, when possible, encapsulate outgoing
236messages in a manner which minimizes the number of
237memory to memory copy operations performed by the receiver.
238On networks that support the Address Resolution Protocol (see
239.Xr arp 4 ;
240currently, only 10 Mb/s Ethernet),
241this flag indicates that the system should request that other
242systems use trailers when sending to this host.
243Similarly, trailer encapsulations will be sent to other
244hosts that have made such requests.
245Currently used by Internet protocols only.
246.It Fl trailers
247Disable the use of a ``trailer'' link level encapsulation.
248.It Cm link[0-2]
249Enable special processing of the link level of the interface.
250These three options are interface specific in actual effect, however,
251they are in general used to select special modes of operation. An example
252of this is to enable SLIP compression. Currently, only used by SLIP.
253.It Fl link[0-2]
254Disable special processing at the link level with the specified interface.
255.It Cm up
256Mark an interface ``up''.
257This may be used to enable an interface after an ``ifconfig down.''
258It happens automatically when setting the first address on an interface.
259If the interface was reset when previously marked down,
260the hardware will be re-initialized.
261.El
262.Pp
263.Pp
264.Nm Ifconfig
265.Ar -a
266displays information on all interfaces.  When followed by a configuration
267parameter, will also set the configuration on all interfaces.
268.Pp
269.Nm Ifconfig
270displays the current configuration for a network interface
271when no optional parameters are supplied.
272If a protocol family is specified,
273Ifconfig will report only the details specific to that protocol family.
274.Pp
275Only the super-user may modify the configuration of a network interface.
276.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
277Messages indicating the specified interface does not exit, the
278requested address is unknown, or the user is not privileged and
279tried to alter an interface's configuration.
280.Sh SEE ALSO
281.Xr netstat 1 ,
282.Xr netintro 4 ,
283.Xr rc 8 ,
284.Xr routed 8 ,
285.\" .Xr eon 5
286.Sh HISTORY
287The
288.Nm
289command appeared in
290.Bx 4.2 .
291