xref: /original-bsd/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8 (revision 93ab02a6)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
5.\"
6.\"     @(#)ifconfig.8	6.13 (Berkeley) 03/16/91
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt IFCONFIG 8
10.Os BSD 4.2
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm ifconfig
13.Nd configure network interface parameters
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Nm ifconfig
16.Ar interface address_family
17.Oo
18.Ar address
19.Op Ar dest_address
20.Oc
21.Op Ar parameters
22.Nm ifconfig
23.Ar interface
24.Op Ar protocol_family
25.Sh DESCRIPTION
26.Nm Ifconfig
27is used to assign an address
28to a network interface and/or configure
29network interface parameters.
30.Nm Ifconfig
31must be used at boot time to define the network address
32of each interface present on a machine; it may also be used at
33a later time to redefine an interface's address
34or other operating parameters.
35.Pp
36Available operands for
37.Nm ifconfig:
38.Bl -tag -width Ds
39.It Ar Address
40For the
41.Tn DARPA-Internet
42family,
43the address is either a host name present in the host name data
44base,
45.Xr hosts 5 ,
46or a
47.Tn DARPA
48Internet address expressed in the Internet standard
49.Dq dot notation .
50For the Xerox Network Systems(tm) family,
51addresses are
52.Ar net:a.b.c.d.e.f ,
53where
54.Ar net
55is the assigned network number (in decimal),
56and each of the six bytes of the host number,
57.Ar a
58through
59.Ar f ,
60are specified in hexadecimal.
61The host number may be omitted on 10Mb/s Ethernet interfaces,
62which use the hardware physical address,
63and on interfaces other than the first.
64For the
65.Tn ISO
66family, addresses are specified as a long hexadecimal string,
67as in the Xerox family.  However, two consecutive dots imply a zero
68byte, and the dots are optional, if the user wishes to (carefully)
69count out long strings of digits in network byte order.
70.It Ar address_family
71Specifies the
72.Ar address family
73which affects interpretation of the remaining parameters.
74Since an interface can receive transmissions in differing protocols
75with different naming schemes, specifying the address family is recommeded.
76The address or protocol families currently
77supported are
78.Dq inet ,
79.Dq iso ,
80and
81.Dq ns .
82.It Ar Interface
83The
84.Ar interface
85parameter is a string of the form
86.Dq name unit ,
87for example,
88.Dq en0
89.El
90.Pp
91The following parameters may be set with
92.Nm ifconfig :
93.Bl -tag -width dest_addressxx
94.It Cm alias
95Establish an additional network address for this interface.
96This is sometimes useful when changing network numbers, and
97one wishes to accept packets addressed to the old interface.
98.It Cm arp
99Enable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol in mapping
100between network level addresses and link level addresses (default).
101This is currently implemented for mapping between
102.Tn DARPA
103Internet
104addresses and 10Mb/s Ethernet addresses.
105.It Fl arp
106Disable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol.
107.It Cm broadcast
108(Inet only)
109Specify the address to use to represent broadcasts to the
110network.
111The default broadcast address is the address with a host part of all 1's.
112.It Cm debug
113Enable driver dependent debugging code; usually, this turns on
114extra console error logging.
115.It Fl debug
116Disable driver dependent debugging code.
117.It Cm delete
118Remove the network address specified.
119This would be used if you incorrectly specified an alias, or it
120was no longer needed.
121If you have incorrectly set an NS address having the side effect
122of specifying the host portion, removing all NS addresses will
123allow you to respecify the host portion.
124.It Cm dest_address
125Specify the address of the correspondent on the other end
126of a point to point link.
127.It Cm down
128Mark an interface ``down''.  When an interface is
129marked ``down'', the system will not attempt to
130transmit messages through that interface.
131If possible, the interface will be reset to disable reception as well.
132This action does not automatically disable routes using the interface.
133.It Cm ipdst
134This is used to specify an Internet host who is willing to receive
135ip packets encapsulating NS packets bound for a remote network.
136An apparent point to point link is constructed, and
137the address specified will be taken as the NS address and network
138of the destination.
139IP encapsulation of
140.Tn CLNP
141packets is done differently.
142.It Cm metric Ar n
143Set the routing metric of the interface to
144.Ar n ,
145default 0.
146The routing metric is used by the routing protocol
147.Pq Xr routed 8 .
148Higher metrics have the effect of making a route
149less favorable; metrics are counted as addition hops
150to the destination network or host.
151.It Cm netmask Ar mask
152(Inet and Iso)
153Specify how much of the address to reserve for subdividing
154networks into sub-networks.
155The mask includes the network part of the local address
156and the subnet part, which is taken from the host field of the address.
157The mask can be specified as a single hexadecimal number
158with a leading 0x, with a dot-notation Internet address,
159or with a pseudo-network name listed in the network table
160.Xr networks 5 .
161The mask contains 1's for the bit positions in the 32-bit address
162which are to be used for the network and subnet parts,
163and 0's for the host part.
164The mask should contain at least the standard network portion,
165and the subnet field should be contiguous with the network
166portion.
167.\" see
168.\" Xr eon 5 .
169.It Cm nsellength Ar n
170.Pf ( Tn ISO
171only)
172This specifies a trailing number of bytes for a received
173.Tn NSAP
174used for local identification, the remaining leading part of which is
175taken to be the
176.Tn NET
177(Network Entity Title).
178The default value is 1, which is conformant to US
179.Tn GOSIP .
180When an iso address is set in an ifconfig command,
181it is really the
182.Tn NSAP
183which is being specified.
184For example, in
185.Tn US GOSIP ,
18620 hex digits should be
187specified in the
188.Tn ISO NSAP
189to be assigned to the interface.
190There is some evidence that a number different 1 may be useful
191for
192.Tn AFI
19337 type addresses.
194.It Cm trailers
195Request the use of a ``trailer'' link level encapsulation when
196sending (default).
197If a network interface supports
198.Cm trailers ,
199the system will, when possible, encapsulate outgoing
200messages in a manner which minimizes the number of
201memory to memory copy operations performed by the receiver.
202On networks that support the Address Resolution Protocol (see
203.Xr arp 4 ;
204currently, only 10 Mb/s Ethernet),
205this flag indicates that the system should request that other
206systems use trailers when sending to this host.
207Similarly, trailer encapsulations will be sent to other
208hosts that have made such requests.
209Currently used by Internet protocols only.
210.It Fl trailers
211Disable the use of a ``trailer'' link level encapsulation.
212.It Cm up
213Mark an interface ``up''.
214This may be used to enable an interface after an ``ifconfig down.''
215It happens automatically when setting the first address on an interface.
216If the interface was reset when previously marked down,
217the hardware will be re-initialized.
218.El
219.Pp
220.Pp
221.Nm Ifconfig
222displays the current configuration for a network interface
223when no optional parameters are supplied.
224If a protocol family is specified,
225Ifconfig will report only the details specific to that protocol family.
226.Pp
227Only the super-user may modify the configuration of a network interface.
228.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
229Messages indicating the specified interface does not exit, the
230requested address is unknown, or the user is not privileged and
231tried to alter an interface's configuration.
232.Sh SEE ALSO
233.Xr netstat 1 ,
234.Xr netintro 4 ,
235.Xr rc 8 ,
236.Xr routed 8 ,
237.\" .Xr eon 5
238.Sh HISTORY
239The
240.Nm
241command appeared in
242.Bx 4.2 .
243