1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 13.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 14.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 15.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 17.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 18.\" without specific prior written permission. 19.\" 20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 30.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 31.\" 32.\" @(#)lo.4 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93 33.\" $Id$ 34.\" 35.Dd June 5, 1993 36.Dt LO 4 37.Os BSD 4.2 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm lo 40.Nd software loopback network interface 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Sy pseudo-device 43.Nm loop 44.Sh DESCRIPTION 45The 46.Nm loop 47interface is a software loopback mechanism which may be 48used for performance analysis, software testing, and/or local 49communication. 50As with other network interfaces, the loopback interface must have 51network addresses assigned for each address family with which it is to be used. 52These addresses 53may be set or changed with the 54.Dv SIOCSIFADDR 55.Xr ioctl 2 . 56The loopback interface should be the last interface configured, 57as protocols may use the order of configuration as an indication of priority. 58The loopback should 59.Em never 60be configured first unless no hardware 61interfaces exist. 62.Sh DIAGNOSTICS 63.Bl -diag 64.It lo%d: can't handle af%d. 65The interface was handed 66a message with addresses formatted in an unsuitable address 67family; the packet was dropped. 68.El 69.Sh SEE ALSO 70.Xr inet 4 , 71.Xr intro 4 72.\" .Xr ns 4 73.Sh HISTORY 74The 75.Nm 76device appeared in 77.Bx 4.2 . 78.Sh BUGS 79Previous versions of the system enabled the loopback interface 80automatically, using a nonstandard Internet address (127.1). 81Use of that address is now discouraged; a reserved host address 82for the local network should be used instead. 83