xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/route.4 (revision f126890ac5386406dadf7c4cfa9566cbb56537c5)
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28.Dd November 4, 2004
29.Dt ROUTE 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm route
33.Nd kernel packet forwarding database
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.In sys/types.h
36.In sys/time.h
37.In sys/socket.h
38.In net/if.h
39.In net/route.h
40.Ft int
41.Fn socket PF_ROUTE SOCK_RAW "int family"
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43.Fx
44provides some packet routing facilities.
45The kernel maintains a routing information database, which
46is used in selecting the appropriate network interface when
47transmitting packets.
48.Pp
49A user process (or possibly multiple co-operating processes)
50maintains this database by sending messages over a special kind
51of socket.
52This supplants fixed size
53.Xr ioctl 2 Ns 's
54used in earlier releases.
55Routing table changes may only be carried out by the super user.
56.Pp
57The operating system may spontaneously emit routing messages in response
58to external events, such as receipt of a re-direct, or failure to
59locate a suitable route for a request.
60The message types are described in greater detail below.
61.Pp
62Routing database entries come in two flavors: for a specific
63host, or for all hosts on a generic subnetwork (as specified
64by a bit mask and value under the mask.
65The effect of wildcard or default route may be achieved by using
66a mask of all zeros, and there may be hierarchical routes.
67.Pp
68When the system is booted and addresses are assigned
69to the network interfaces, each protocol family
70installs a routing table entry for each interface when it is ready for traffic.
71Normally the protocol specifies the route
72through each interface as a
73.Dq direct
74connection to the destination host
75or network.
76If the route is direct, the transport layer of
77a protocol family usually requests the packet be sent to the
78same host specified in the packet.
79Otherwise, the interface
80is requested to address the packet to the gateway listed in the routing entry
81(i.e., the packet is forwarded).
82.Pp
83When routing a packet,
84the kernel will attempt to find
85the most specific route matching the destination.
86(If there are two different mask and value-under-the-mask pairs
87that match, the more specific is the one with more bits in the mask.
88A route to a host is regarded as being supplied with a mask of
89as many ones as there are bits in the destination).
90If no entry is found, the destination is declared to be unreachable,
91and a routing-miss message is generated if there are any
92listeners on the routing control socket described below.
93.Pp
94A wildcard routing entry is specified with a zero
95destination address value, and a mask of all zeroes.
96Wildcard routes will be used
97when the system fails to find other routes matching the
98destination.
99The combination of wildcard
100routes and routing redirects can provide an economical
101mechanism for routing traffic.
102.Pp
103One opens the channel for passing routing control messages
104by using the socket call shown in the synopsis above:
105.Pp
106The
107.Fa family
108parameter may be
109.Dv AF_UNSPEC
110which will provide
111routing information for all address families, or can be restricted
112to a specific address family by specifying which one is desired.
113There can be more than one routing socket open per system.
114.Pp
115Messages are formed by a header followed by a small
116number of sockaddrs (now variable length particularly
117in the
118.Tn ISO
119case), interpreted by position, and delimited
120by the new length entry in the sockaddr.
121An example of a message with four addresses might be an
122.Tn ISO
123redirect:
124Destination, Netmask, Gateway, and Author of the redirect.
125The interpretation of which address are present is given by a
126bit mask within the header, and the sequence is least significant
127to most significant bit within the vector.
128.Pp
129Any messages sent to the kernel are returned, and copies are sent
130to all interested listeners.
131The kernel will provide the process
132ID for the sender, and the sender may use an additional sequence
133field to distinguish between outstanding messages.
134However, message replies may be lost when kernel buffers are exhausted.
135.Pp
136The kernel may reject certain messages, and will indicate this
137by filling in the
138.Ar rtm_errno
139field.
140The routing code returns
141.Er EEXIST
142if
143requested to duplicate an existing entry,
144.Er ESRCH
145if
146requested to delete a non-existent entry,
147or
148.Er ENOBUFS
149if insufficient resources were available
150to install a new route.
151In the current implementation, all routing processes run locally,
152and the values for
153.Ar rtm_errno
154are available through the normal
155.Em errno
156mechanism, even if the routing reply message is lost.
157.Pp
158A process may avoid the expense of reading replies to
159its own messages by issuing a
160.Xr setsockopt 2
161call indicating that the
162.Dv SO_USELOOPBACK
163option
164at the
165.Dv SOL_SOCKET
166level is to be turned off.
167A process may ignore all messages from the routing socket
168by doing a
169.Xr shutdown 2
170system call for further input.
171.Pp
172If a route is in use when it is deleted,
173the routing entry will be marked down and removed from the routing table,
174but the resources associated with it will not
175be reclaimed until all references to it are released.
176User processes can obtain information about the routing
177entry to a specific destination by using a
178.Dv RTM_GET
179message, or by calling
180.Xr sysctl 3 .
181.Pp
182Messages include:
183.Bd -literal
184#define	RTM_ADD		0x1    /* Add Route */
185#define	RTM_DELETE	0x2    /* Delete Route */
186#define	RTM_CHANGE	0x3    /* Change Metrics, Flags, or Gateway */
187#define	RTM_GET		0x4    /* Report Information */
188#define	RTM_LOSING	0x5    /* Kernel Suspects Partitioning */
189#define	RTM_REDIRECT	0x6    /* Told to use different route */
190#define	RTM_MISS	0x7    /* Lookup failed on this address */
191#define	RTM_LOCK	0x8    /* fix specified metrics */
192#define	RTM_RESOLVE	0xb    /* request to resolve dst to LL addr - unused */
193#define	RTM_NEWADDR	0xc    /* address being added to iface */
194#define	RTM_DELADDR	0xd    /* address being removed from iface */
195#define	RTM_IFINFO	0xe    /* iface going up/down etc. */
196#define	RTM_NEWMADDR	0xf    /* mcast group membership being added to if */
197#define	RTM_DELMADDR	0x10   /* mcast group membership being deleted */
198#define	RTM_IFANNOUNCE	0x11   /* iface arrival/departure */
199#define	RTM_IEEE80211	0x12   /* IEEE80211 wireless event */
200.Ed
201.Pp
202A message header consists of one of the following:
203.Bd -literal
204struct rt_msghdr {
205    u_short rtm_msglen;         /* to skip over non-understood messages */
206    u_char  rtm_version;        /* future binary compatibility */
207    u_char  rtm_type;           /* message type */
208    u_short rtm_index;          /* index for associated ifp */
209    int     rtm_flags;          /* flags, incl. kern & message, e.g. DONE */
210    int     rtm_addrs;          /* bitmask identifying sockaddrs in msg */
211    pid_t   rtm_pid;            /* identify sender */
212    int     rtm_seq;            /* for sender to identify action */
213    int     rtm_errno;          /* why failed */
214    int     rtm_fmask;          /* bitmask used in RTM_CHANGE message */
215    u_long  rtm_inits;          /* which metrics we are initializing */
216    struct  rt_metrics rtm_rmx;	/* metrics themselves */
217};
218
219struct if_msghdr {
220    u_short ifm_msglen;         /* to skip over non-understood messages */
221    u_char  ifm_version;        /* future binary compatibility */
222    u_char  ifm_type;           /* message type */
223    int     ifm_addrs;          /* like rtm_addrs */
224    int     ifm_flags;          /* value of if_flags */
225    u_short ifm_index;          /* index for associated ifp */
226    struct  if_data ifm_data;   /* statistics and other data about if */
227};
228
229struct ifa_msghdr {
230    u_short ifam_msglen;        /* to skip over non-understood messages */
231    u_char  ifam_version;       /* future binary compatibility */
232    u_char  ifam_type;          /* message type */
233    int     ifam_addrs;         /* like rtm_addrs */
234    int     ifam_flags;         /* value of ifa_flags */
235    u_short ifam_index;         /* index for associated ifp */
236    int     ifam_metric;        /* value of ifa_metric */
237};
238
239struct ifma_msghdr {
240    u_short ifmam_msglen;       /* to skip over non-understood messages */
241    u_char  ifmam_version;      /* future binary compatibility */
242    u_char  ifmam_type;         /* message type */
243    int     ifmam_addrs;        /* like rtm_addrs */
244    int     ifmam_flags;        /* value of ifa_flags */
245    u_short ifmam_index;        /* index for associated ifp */
246};
247
248struct if_announcemsghdr {
249	u_short	ifan_msglen;	/* to skip over non-understood messages */
250	u_char	ifan_version;	/* future binary compatibility */
251	u_char	ifan_type;	/* message type */
252	u_short	ifan_index;	/* index for associated ifp */
253	char	ifan_name[IFNAMSIZ]; /* if name, e.g. "en0" */
254	u_short	ifan_what;	/* what type of announcement */
255};
256.Ed
257.Pp
258The
259.Dv RTM_IFINFO
260message uses a
261.Ar if_msghdr
262header, the
263.Dv RTM_NEWADDR
264and
265.Dv RTM_DELADDR
266messages use a
267.Ar ifa_msghdr
268header, the
269.Dv RTM_NEWMADDR
270and
271.Dv RTM_DELMADDR
272messages use a
273.Vt ifma_msghdr
274header, the
275.Dv RTM_IFANNOUNCE
276message uses a
277.Vt if_announcemsghdr
278header,
279and all other messages use the
280.Ar rt_msghdr
281header.
282.Pp
283The
284.Dq Li "struct rt_metrics"
285and the flag bits are as defined in
286.Xr rtentry 9 .
287.Pp
288Specifiers for metric values in rmx_locks and rtm_inits are:
289.Bd -literal
290#define	RTV_MTU       0x1    /* init or lock _mtu */
291#define	RTV_HOPCOUNT  0x2    /* init or lock _hopcount */
292#define	RTV_EXPIRE    0x4    /* init or lock _expire */
293#define	RTV_RPIPE     0x8    /* init or lock _recvpipe */
294#define	RTV_SPIPE     0x10   /* init or lock _sendpipe */
295#define	RTV_SSTHRESH  0x20   /* init or lock _ssthresh */
296#define	RTV_RTT       0x40   /* init or lock _rtt */
297#define	RTV_RTTVAR    0x80   /* init or lock _rttvar */
298#define	RTV_WEIGHT    0x100  /* init or lock _weight */
299.Ed
300.Pp
301Specifiers for which addresses are present in the messages are:
302.Bd -literal
303#define RTA_DST       0x1    /* destination sockaddr present */
304#define RTA_GATEWAY   0x2    /* gateway sockaddr present */
305#define RTA_NETMASK   0x4    /* netmask sockaddr present */
306#define RTA_GENMASK   0x8    /* cloning mask sockaddr present - unused */
307#define RTA_IFP       0x10   /* interface name sockaddr present */
308#define RTA_IFA       0x20   /* interface addr sockaddr present */
309#define RTA_AUTHOR    0x40   /* sockaddr for author of redirect */
310#define RTA_BRD       0x80   /* for NEWADDR, broadcast or p-p dest addr */
311.Ed
312.Sh SEE ALSO
313.Xr sysctl 3 ,
314.Xr route 8 ,
315.Xr rtentry 9
316.Pp
317The constants for the
318.Va rtm_flags
319field are documented in the manual page for the
320.Xr route 8
321utility.
322.Sh HISTORY
323A
324.Dv PF_ROUTE
325protocol family first appeared in
326.Bx 4.3 reno .
327