xref: /freebsd/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8 (revision df7f5d4de4592a8948a25ce01e5bddfbb7ce39dc)
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32.\"     From: @(#)ifconfig.8	8.3 (Berkeley) 1/5/94
33.\"	$Id$
34.\"
35.Dd February 13, 1996
36.Dt IFCONFIG 8
37.Os BSD 4.2
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm ifconfig
40.Nd configure network interface parameters
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm ifconfig
43.Ar interface address_family
44.Oo
45.Ar address
46.Op Ar dest_address
47.Oc
48.Op Ar parameters
49.Nm ifconfig
50.Ar interface
51.Op Ar protocol_family
52.Nm ifconfig
53.Ar -a
54.Nm ifconfig
55.Ar -au
56.Nm ifconfig
57.Ar -ad
58.Sh DESCRIPTION
59.Nm Ifconfig
60is used to assign an address
61to a network interface and/or configure
62network interface parameters.
63.Nm Ifconfig
64must be used at boot time to define the network address
65of each interface present on a machine; it may also be used at
66a later time to redefine an interface's address
67or other operating parameters.
68.Pp
69Available operands for
70.Nm ifconfig:
71.Bl -tag -width Ds
72.It Ar Address
73For the
74.Tn DARPA-Internet
75family,
76the address is either a host name present in the host name data
77base,
78.Xr hosts 5 ,
79or a
80.Tn DARPA
81Internet address expressed in the Internet standard
82.Dq dot notation .
83.\" For the Xerox Network Systems(tm) family,
84.\" addresses are
85.\" .Ar net:a.b.c.d.e.f ,
86.\" where
87.\" .Ar net
88.\" is the assigned network number (in decimal),
89.\" and each of the six bytes of the host number,
90.\" .Ar a
91.\" through
92.\" .Ar f ,
93.\" are specified in hexadecimal.
94.\" The host number may be omitted on 10Mb/s Ethernet interfaces,
95.\" which use the hardware physical address,
96.\" and on interfaces other than the first.
97.\" For the
98.\" .Tn ISO
99.\" family, addresses are specified as a long hexadecimal string,
100.\" as in the Xerox family.  However, two consecutive dots imply a zero
101.\" byte, and the dots are optional, if the user wishes to (carefully)
102.\" count out long strings of digits in network byte order.
103.It Ar address_family
104Specifies the
105.Ar address family
106which affects interpretation of the remaining parameters.
107Since an interface can receive transmissions in differing protocols
108with different naming schemes, specifying the address family is recommended.
109The address or protocol families currently
110supported are
111.Dq inet ,
112.Dq atalk ,
113.\" .Dq iso ,
114and
115.Dq ipx .
116.\" and
117.\" .Dq ns .
118.It Ar Interface
119The
120.Ar interface
121parameter is a string of the form
122.Dq name unit ,
123for example,
124.Dq en0
125.El
126.Pp
127The following parameters may be set with
128.Nm ifconfig :
129.Bl -tag -width dest_addressxx
130.It Cm alias
131Establish an additional network address for this interface.
132This is sometimes useful when changing network numbers, and
133one wishes to accept packets addressed to the old interface.
134.It Cm arp
135Enable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol in mapping
136between network level addresses and link level addresses (default).
137This is currently implemented for mapping between
138.Tn DARPA
139Internet
140addresses and 10Mb/s Ethernet addresses.
141.It Fl arp
142Disable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol.
143.It Cm broadcast
144(Inet only)
145Specify the address to use to represent broadcasts to the
146network.
147The default broadcast address is the address with a host part of all 1's.
148.It Cm debug
149Enable driver dependent debugging code; usually, this turns on
150extra console error logging.
151.It Fl debug
152Disable driver dependent debugging code.
153.It Cm delete
154Remove the network address specified.
155This would be used if you incorrectly specified an alias, or it
156was no longer needed.
157If you have incorrectly set an NS address having the side effect
158of specifying the host portion, removing all NS addresses will
159allow you to respecify the host portion.
160.It Cm dest_address
161Specify the address of the correspondent on the other end
162of a point to point link.
163.It Cm down
164Mark an interface ``down''.  When an interface is
165marked ``down'', the system will not attempt to
166transmit messages through that interface.
167If possible, the interface will be reset to disable reception as well.
168This action does not automatically disable routes using the interface.
169.\" .It Cm ipdst
170.\" This is used to specify an Internet host who is willing to receive
171.\" ip packets encapsulating NS packets bound for a remote network.
172.\" An apparent point to point link is constructed, and
173.\" the address specified will be taken as the NS address and network
174.\" of the destination.
175.\" IP encapsulation of
176.\" .Tn CLNP
177.\" packets is done differently.
178.It Cm metric Ar n
179Set the routing metric of the interface to
180.Ar n ,
181default 0.
182The routing metric is used by the routing protocol
183.Pq Xr routed 8 .
184Higher metrics have the effect of making a route
185less favorable; metrics are counted as addition hops
186to the destination network or host.
187.It Cm mtu Ar n
188Set the maximum transmission unit of the interface to
189.Ar n ,
190default is interface specific.
191The mtu is used to limit the size of packets that are transmitted on an
192interface.
193Not all interfaces support setting the mtu, and some interfaces have
194range restrictions.
195.It Cm netmask Ar mask
196.\" (Inet and ISO)
197(Inet only)
198Specify how much of the address to reserve for subdividing
199networks into sub-networks.
200The mask includes the network part of the local address
201and the subnet part, which is taken from the host field of the address.
202The mask can be specified as a single hexadecimal number
203with a leading 0x, with a dot-notation Internet address,
204or with a pseudo-network name listed in the network table
205.Xr networks 5 .
206The mask contains 1's for the bit positions in the 32-bit address
207which are to be used for the network and subnet parts,
208and 0's for the host part.
209The mask should contain at least the standard network portion,
210and the subnet field should be contiguous with the network
211portion.
212.\" see
213.\" Xr eon 5 .
214.\" .It Cm nsellength Ar n
215.\" .Pf ( Tn ISO
216.\" only)
217.\" This specifies a trailing number of bytes for a received
218.\" .Tn NSAP
219.\" used for local identification, the remaining leading part of which is
220.\" taken to be the
221.\" .Tn NET
222.\" (Network Entity Title).
223.\" The default value is 1, which is conformant to US
224.\" .Tn GOSIP .
225.\" When an ISO address is set in an ifconfig command,
226.\" it is really the
227.\" .Tn NSAP
228.\" which is being specified.
229.\" For example, in
230.\" .Tn US GOSIP ,
231.\" 20 hex digits should be
232.\" specified in the
233.\" .Tn ISO NSAP
234.\" to be assigned to the interface.
235.\" There is some evidence that a number different from 1 may be useful
236.\" for
237.\" .Tn AFI
238.\" 37 type addresses.
239.It Cm range
240Under appletalk, set the interface to respond to a
241.Em netrange.
242of the form startnet-endnet. Appletalk uses this scheme instead of
243netmasks though FreeBSD impliments it internally as a set of netmasks.
244.It Cm phase
245The argument following this specifies the version (phase) of the
246Appletalk network attached to the interface. Values of 1 or 2 are permitted.
247.It Cm link[0-2]
248Enable special processing of the link level of the interface.
249These three options are interface specific in actual effect, however,
250they are in general used to select special modes of operation. An example
251of this is to enable SLIP compression.
252.It Fl link[0-2]
253Disable special processing at the link level with the specified interface.
254.It Cm up
255Mark an interface ``up''.
256This may be used to enable an interface after an ``ifconfig down.''
257It happens automatically when setting the first address on an interface.
258If the interface was reset when previously marked down,
259the hardware will be re-initialized.
260.El
261.Pp
262.Pp
263The
264.Nm ifconfig
265.Fl a
266command
267displays information on all interfaces.  When followed by a configuration
268parameter, it will also set the configuration on all interfaces.
269.Pp
270.Nm Ifconfig
271.Fl au
272is similar to
273.Nm ifconfig
274.Fl a ,
275except it only affects interfaces that are currently marked as up.
276Similarly,
277.Nm ifconfig
278.Fl ad
279affects only interfaces that are marked down.
280.Pp
281The
282.Nm
283program
284displays the current configuration for a network interface
285when no optional parameters are supplied.
286If a protocol family is specified,
287.Nm ifconfig
288will report only the details specific to that protocol family.
289.Pp
290Only the super-user may modify the configuration of a network interface.
291.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
292Messages indicating the specified interface does not exit, the
293requested address is unknown, or the user is not privileged and
294tried to alter an interface's configuration.
295.Sh SEE ALSO
296.Xr netstat 1 ,
297.Xr netintro 4 ,
298.Xr rc 8 ,
299.Xr routed 8
300.\" .Xr eon 5
301.Sh HISTORY
302The
303.Nm
304command appeared in
305.Bx 4.2 .
306