xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ifmib.4 (revision 42c159fe388a3765f69860c84183700af37aca8a)
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28.\" $FreeBSD$
29.\"
30.Dd November 15, 1996
31.Dt IFMIB 4
32.Os
33.Sh NAME
34.Nm ifmib
35.Nd Management Information Base for network interfaces
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.In sys/types.h
38.In sys/socket.h
39.In sys/sysctl.h
40.In sys/time.h
41.In net/if.h
42.In net/if_mib.h
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm
46facility is an application of the
47.Xr sysctl 3
48interface to provide management information about network interfaces
49to client applications such as
50.Xr netstat 1 ,
51.Xr slstat 8 ,
52and
53.Tn SNMP
54management agents.  This information is structured as a table, where
55each row in the table represents a logical network interface (either a
56hardware device or a software pseudo-device like
57.Xr lo 4 ) .
58There are two columns in the table, each containing a single
59structure: one column contains generic information relevant to all
60interfaces, and the other contains information specific to the
61particular class of interface.  (Generally the latter will implement
62the
63.Tn SNMP
64.Tn MIB
65defined for that particular interface class, if one exists and can be
66implemented in the kernel.)
67.Pp
68The
69.Nm
70facility is accessed via the
71.Dq Li net.link.generic
72branch of the
73.Xr sysctl 3
74MIB.  The manifest constants for each level in the
75.Xr sysctl 3
76.Ar name
77are defined in
78.Aq Pa net/if_mib.h .
79The index of the last row in the table is given by
80.Dq Li net.link.generic.system.ifcount
81(or, using the manifest constants,
82.Dv CTL_NET ,
83.Dv PF_LINK ,
84.Dv NETLINK_GENERIC ,
85.Dv IFMIB_SYSTEM ,
86.Dv IFMIB_IFCOUNT ) .
87A management application searching for a particular interface should
88start with row 1 and continue through the table row-by-row until the
89desired interface is found, or the interface count is reached.
90Note that the table may be sparse, i.e. a given row may not exist,
91indicated by an
92.Va errno
93of
94.Er ENOENT .
95Such an error should be ignored, and the next row should be checked.
96.Pp
97The generic interface information, common to all interfaces,
98can be accessed via the following procedure:
99.Bd -literal -offset indent
100int
101get_ifmib_general(int row, struct ifmibdata *ifmd)
102{
103	int name[6];
104
105	name[0] = CTL_NET;
106	name[1] = PF_LINK;
107	name[2] = NETLINK_GENERIC;
108	name[3] = IFMIB_IFDATA;
109	name[4] = row;
110	name[5] = IFDATA_GENERAL;
111
112	return sysctl(name, 6, ifmd, sizeof *ifmd, (void *)0, 0);
113}
114.Ed
115.Pp
116The fields in
117.Li struct ifmibdata
118are as follows:
119.Bl -tag -width "ifmd_snd_drops"
120.It Li ifmd_name
121.Pq Li "char []"
122the name of the interface, including the unit number
123.It Li ifmd_pcount
124.Pq Li int
125the number of promiscuous listeners
126.It Li ifmd_flags
127.Pq Li int
128the interface's flags (defined in
129.Aq Pa net/if.h )
130.It Li ifmd_snd_len
131.Pq Li int
132the current instantaneous length of the send queue
133.It Li ifmd_snd_drops
134.Pq Li int
135the number of packets dropped at this interface because the send queue
136was full
137.It Li ifmd_data
138.Pq Li struct if_data
139more information from a structure defined in
140.Aq Pa net/if.h
141(see
142.Xr if_data 9 )
143.El
144.Pp
145Class-specific information can be retrieved by examining the
146.Dv IFDATA_LINKSPECIFIC
147column instead.  Note that the form and length of the structure will
148depend on the class of interface.  For
149.Dv IFT_ETHER ,
150.Dv IFT_ISO88023 ,
151and
152.Dv IFT_STARLAN
153interfaces, the structure is called
154.Dq Li struct ifmib_iso_8802_3
155(defined in
156.Aq Pa net/if_mib.h ) ,
157and implements a superset of the
158.Tn "RFC 1650"
159MIB for Ethernet-like networks.
160.\" This will eventually be defined in an ethermib(4) page.
161For
162.Dv IFT_SLIP ,
163the structure is a
164.Dq Li struct sl_softc
165.Pq Aq Pa net/if_slvar.h .
166.Sh SEE ALSO
167.Xr sysctl 3 ,
168.Xr intro 4 ,
169.Xr ifnet 9
170.\" .Xr ethermib 4 ,
171.Rs
172.%T "Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-like Interface Types Using SMIv2"
173.%A F. Kastenholz
174.%D August 1994
175.%O RFC 1650
176.Re
177.Sh BUGS
178Many Ethernet-like interfaces do not yet support the Ethernet MIB;
179the interfaces known to support it include
180.Xr ed 4
181and
182.Xr de 4 .
183Regardless, all interfaces automatically support the generic MIB.
184.Sh HISTORY
185The
186.Nm
187interface first appeared in
188.Fx 2.2 .
189