.\" .\" Copyright 1996 Massachusetts Institute of Technology .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and .\" its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby .\" granted, provided that both the above copyright notice and this .\" permission notice appear in all copies, that both the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all .\" supporting documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used .\" in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the .\" software without specific, written prior permission. M.I.T. makes .\" no representations about the suitability of this software for any .\" purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied .\" warranty. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY M.I.T. ``AS IS''. M.I.T. DISCLAIMS .\" ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, .\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT .\" SHALL M.I.T. BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, .\" SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT .\" LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF .\" USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND .\" ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, .\" OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT .\" OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .Dd December 16, 1996 .Os FreeBSD 2.2 .Dt IFNET 9 .Sh NAME .Nm ifnet , .Nm ifaddr , .Nm ifqueue , .Nm if_data .Nd kernel interfaces for manipulating network interfaces .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Fd #include .Fd #include .Fd #include .Fd #include .\" .Ss "Interface manipulation functions" .Ft void .Fn if_attach "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft void .Fn if_down "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft int .Fn ifioctl "struct socket *so" "int cmd" "caddr_t data" "struct proc *p" .Ft int .Fn ifpromisc "struct ifnet *ifp" "int pswitch" .Ft "struct ifnet *" .Fn ifunit "char *name" .Ft void .Fn if_up "struct ifnet *ifp" .\" .Ss "Interface address functions" .Ft "struct ifaddr *" .Fn ifa_ifwithaddr "struct sockaddr *addr" .Ft "struct ifaddr *" .Fn ifa_ifwithdstaddr "struct sockaddr *addr" .Ft "struct ifaddr *" .Fn ifa_ifwithnet "struct sockaddr *addr" .Ft "struct ifaddr *" .Fn ifaof_ifpforaddr "struct sockaddr *addr" "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft void .Fn ifafree "struct ifaddr *ifa" .Ft void \"macro .Fn IFAFREE "struct ifaddr *ifa" .\" .Ss "Output queue macros" .Ft void \"macro .Fn IF_ENQ_DROP "struct ifqueue *ifq" "struct mbuf *m" .Ft void \"macro .Fn IF_DEQUEUE "struct ifqueue *ifq" "struct mbuf *m" .\" .Ss "struct ifnet member functions" .Ft int .Fn (*if_output) "struct ifnet *ifp" "struct mbuf *m" "struct sockaddr *dst" "struct rtentry *rt" .Ft void .Fn (*if_start) "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft int .Fn (*if_dont) "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft int .Fn (*if_ioctl) "struct ifnet *ifp" "int cmd" "caddr_t data" .Ft void .Fn (*if_watchdog) "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft int .Fn (*if_poll_recv) "struct ifnet *ifp" "int *quotap" .Ft int .Fn (*if_poll_xmit) "struct ifnet *ifp" "int *quotap" .Ft void .Fn (*if_poll_inttrn) "struct ifnet *ifp" .Ft void .Fn (*if_poll_slowinput) "struct ifnet *ifp" "struct mbuf *m" .Ft void .Fn (*if_init) "void *wtf_is_this" .Ss "struct ifaddr member function" .Ft void .Fn (*ifa_rtrequest) "int cmd" "struct rtentry *rt" "struct sockaddr *dst" .Ss "Global variables" .Fd extern struct ifnethead ifnet; .Fd extern struct ifaddr \&**ifnet_addrs; .Fd extern int if_index; .Fd extern int ifqmaxlen; .Sh DATA STRUCTURES The kernel mechanisms for handling network interfaces reside primarily in the .Li ifnet , .Li if_data , and .Li ifaddr structures in .Aq Pa net/if.h , and the functions named above and defined in .Pa /sys/net/if.c . The system keeps a linked list of interfaces using the .Li TAILQ macros defined in .Xr queue 3 ; this list is headed by a .Li "struct ifnethead" called .Li ifnet . The elements of this list are of type .Li "struct ifnet" , and most kernel routines which manipulate interface as such accept or return pointers to these structures. Each interface structure contains an .Li if_data structure, which contains statistics and identifying information used by management programs, and which is exported to user programs by way of the .Xr ifmib 4 branch of the .Xr sysctl 3 MIB. Each interface also has a .Li TAILQ of interface addresses, described by .Li ifaddr structures; the head of the queue is always an .Dv AF_LINK address (see .Xr link_addr 3 ) describing the link layer implemented by the interface (if any). (Some trivial interfaces do not provide any link layer addresses; this structure, while still present, serves only to identify the interface name and index.) .Pp Interfaces are also associated with an output queue, defined as a .Li "struct ifqueue" ; this structure is used to hold packets while the interface is in the process of sending another. The current implementation implements a drop-tail queuing discipline, but in the future a Random Early Drop discipline is expected to be used. For this reason, kernel code should not depend on the internals of the queue structure; in particular, only the .Fn IF_ENQ_DROP and .Fn IF_DEQUEUE macros will be supported in future implementations. .\" The old structure will probably be retained for compatibility .\" under a different name. .Pp .Ss The ifnet structure The fields of .Li "struct ifnet" are as follows: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "if_poll_slowq" -offset indent .It Li "if_softc" .Pq Li "void *" A pointer to the driver's private state block. (Initialized by driver.) .It Li if_name .Pq Li "char *" The name of the interface, not including the unit number (e.g., .Dq Li de or .Dq Li lo ) . (Initialized by driver.) .It Li if_link .Pq Li "TAILQ_ENTRY(ifnet)" .Xr queue 3 macro glue. .It Li if_addrhead .Pq Li "struct ifaddrhead" The head of the .Xr queue 3 .Li TAILQ containing the list of addresses assigned to this interface. .It Li if_pcount .Pq Li "int" A count of promiscuous listeners on this interface, used to reference-count the .Dv IFF_PROMISC flag. .It Li "if_bpf" .Pq Li "struct bpf_if *" Opaque per-interface data for the packet filter, .Xr bpf 4 . (Initialized by .Fn bpf_attach . ) .It Li "if_index" .Pq Li "u_short" A unique number assigned to each interface in sequence as it is attached. This number can be used in a .Li "struct sockaddr_dl" to refer to a particular interface by index (see .Xr link_addr 3 ) . .It Li "if_unit" .Pq Li "short" A unique number assigned to each interface managed by a particular driver, usually related to the unit number of a physical device in the kernel configuration file (see .Xr config 8 ) . (Initialized by driver.) .It Li "if_timer" .Pq Li "short" Number of seconds until the watchdog timer .Fn if_watchdog is called, or zero if the timer is disabled. (Set by driver, decremented by generic watchdog code.) .It Li "if_flags" .Pq Li "short" Flags describing operational parameters of this interface (see below). (Manipulated by both driver and generic code.) .\" .It Li "if_ipending" .\" Interrupt-pending bits for polled operation: .\" .Dv IFI_XMIT .\" (transmit complete interrupt) .\" and .\" .Dv IFI_RECV .\" (received packet ready interrupt). See the .\" .Sx Polling .\" section, below. (Manipulated by driver.) .It Li "if_linkmib" .Pq Li "void *" A pointer to an interface-specific MIB structure exported by .Xr ifmib 4 . (Initialized by driver.) .It Li "if_linkmiblen" .Pq Li "size_t" The size of said structure. (Initialized by driver.) .It Li "if_data" .Pq Li "struct if_data" More statistics and information; see .Dq Sx "The if_data structure" , below. (Initialized by driver, manipulated by both driver and generic code.) .It Li "if_snd" .Pq Li "struct ifqueue" The output queue. (Manipulated by driver.) .\".It Li "if_poll_slowq" .\".Pq Li "struct ifqueue *" .\"A pointer to the input queue for devices which do not support polling .\"well. See the .\".Sx Polling .\"section, below. (Initialized by driver.) .El .Pp There are in addition a number of function pointers which the driver must initialize to complete its interface with the generic interface layer: .Bl -ohang -offset indent .It Fn if_output Output a packet on interface .Ar ifp , or queue it on the output queue if the interface is already active. .It Fn if_start Start queued output on an interface. This function is exposed in order to provide for some interface classes to share a .Fn if_output among all drivers. .Fn if_start may only be called when the .Dv IFF_OACTIVE flag is not set. (Thus, .Dv IFF_OACTIVE does not literally mean that output is active, but rather that the device's internal output queue is full.) .It Fn if_done Not used. We're not even sure what it was ever for. .It Fn if_ioctl Process interface-related .Xr ioctl 2 requests (defined in .Aq Pa sys/sockio.h ) . Preliminary processing is done by the generic routine .Fn ifioctl to check for appropriate privileges, locate the interface being manipulated, and perform certain generic operations like twiddling flags and flushing queues. See the description of .Fn ifioctl below for more information. .It Fn if_watchdog Routine called by the generic code when the watchdog timer, .Li if_timer , expires. Usually this will reset the interface. .\" .It Fn if_poll_recv .\" .It Fn if_poll_xmit .\" .It Fn if_poll_slowinput .\" .It Fn if_poll_intren .\" See the .\" .Sx Polling .\" section, below. .It Fn if_init XXX fill me in .El .Ss "Interface flags" Interface flags are used for a number of different purposes. Some flags simply indicate information about the type of interface and its capabilities; others are dynamically manipulated to reflect the current state of the interface. Flags of the former kind are marked .Aq S in this table; the latter are marked .Aq D . .Pp .Bl -tag -width "IFF_POINTOPOINT" -compact -offset indent .It Dv IFF_UP .Aq D The interface has been configured up by the user-level code. .It Dv IFF_BROADCAST .Aq S* The interface supports broadcast. .It Dv IFF_DEBUG .Aq D Used to enable/disable driver debugging code. .It Dv IFF_LOOPBACK .Aq S The interface is a loopback device. .It Dv IFF_POINTOPOINT .Aq S* The interface is point-to-point; .Dq broadcast addresses are actually the address of the other end. .It Dv IFF_RUNNING .Aq D* The interface has been configured and dynamic resources were successfully allocated. Probably only useful internal to the interface. .It Dv IFF_NOARP .Aq D Disable network address resolution on this interface. .It Dv IFF_PROMISC .Aq D This interface is in promiscuous mode. .It Dv IFF_ALLMULTI .Aq D* This interface is in all-multicasts mode (used by multicast routers). .It Dv IFF_OACTIVE .Aq D* The interface's hardware output queue (if any) is full; output packets are to be queued. .It Dv IFF_SIMPLEX .Aq S* The interface cannot hear its own transmissions. .It Dv IFF_LINK0 .It Dv IFF_LINK1 .It Dv IFF_LINK2 .Aq D Control flags for the link layer. (Currently abused to select among multiple physical layers on some devices.) .It Dv IFF_MULTICAST .Aq S* This interface supports multicast. .El .Pp The macro .Dv IFF_CANTCHANGE defines the bits which cannot be set by a user program using the .Dv SIOCSIFFLAGS command to .Xr ioctl 2 ; these are indicated by an asterisk in the listing above. .Ss The if_data structure In .Bx 4.4 , a subset of the interface information believed to be of interest to management stations was segregated from the .Li ifnet structure and moved into its own .Li if_data structure to facilitate its use by user programs. The following elements of the .Li if_data structure are initialized by the interface and are not expected to change significantly over the course of normal operation: .Bl -tag -width "ifi_lastchange" -offset indent .It Li ifi_type .Pq Li u_char The type of the interface, as defined in .Aq Pa net/if_types.h and described below in the .Dq Sx "Interface types" section. .It Li ifi_physical .Pq Li u_char Intended to represent a selection of physical layers on devices which support more than one; never implemented. .It Li ifi_addrlen .Pq Li u_char Length of a link-layer address on this device, or zero if there are none. Used to initialized the address length field in .Li "sockaddr_dl" structures referring to this interface. .It Li ifi_hdrlen .Pq Li u_char Maximum length of any link-layer header which might be prepended by the driver to a packet before transmission. The generic code computes the maximum over all interfaces and uses that value to influence the placement of data in .Li mbuf Ns s to attempt to ensure that there is always sufficient space to prepend a link-layer header without allocating an additional .Li mbuf . .\" (See .\" .Xr mbuf 9 . ) .\" .It Li ifi_recvquota .\" .Pq Li u_char .\" Number of packets the interface is permitted to receive at one time .\" when in polled mode. .\" .It Li ifi_xmitquota .\" .Pq Li u_char .\" Number of packets the interface is permitted to queue for transmission .\" at one time when in polled mode. There is some controversy over .\" whether such a restriction makes any sense at all. .It Li ifi_mtu .Pq Li u_long The maximum transmission unit of the medium, exclusive of any link-layer overhead. .It Li ifi_metric .Pq Li u_long A dimensionless metric interpreted by a user-mode routing process. .It Li ifi_baudrate .Pq Li u_long The line rate of the interface, in bits per second. .El .Pp The structure additionally contains generic statistics applicable to a variety of different interface types (except as noted, all members are of type .Li u_long ) : .Bl -tag -width "ifi_lastchange" -offset indent .It Li ifi_ipackets Number of packets received. .It Li ifi_ierrors Number of receive errors detected (e.g., FCS errors, DMA overruns, etc.). More detailed breakdowns can often be had by way of a link-specific MIB. .It Li ifi_opackets Number of packets transmitted. .It Li ifi_oerrors Number of output errors detected (e.g., late collisions, DMA overruns, etc.). More detailed breakdowns can often be had by way of a link-specific MIB. .It Li ifi_collisions Total number of collisions detected on output for CSMA interfaces. (This member is sometimes [ab]used by other types of interfaces for other output error counts.) .It Li ifi_ibytes Total traffic received, in bytes. .It Li ifi_obytes Total traffic transmitted, in bytes. .It Li ifi_imcasts Number of packets received which were sent by link-layer multicast. .It Li ifi_omcasts Number of packets sent by link-layer multicast. .It Li ifi_iqdrops Number of packets dropped on input. Rarely implemented. .It Li ifi_noproto Number of packets received for unknown network-layer protocol. .\" .It Li ifi_recvtiming .\" Amount of time, in microseconds, spent to receive an average packet on .\" this interface. See the .\" .Sx Polling .\" section, below. .\" .It Li ifi_xmittiming .\" Amount of time, in microseconds, spent to service a transmit-complete .\" interrupt on this interface. See the .\" .Sx Polling .\" section, below. .It Li ifi_lastchange .Pq Li "struct timeval" The time of the last administrative change to the interface (as required for .Tn SNMP ) . .El .Ss Interface types The header file .Aq Pa net/if_types.h defines symbolic constants for a number of different types of interfaces. The most common are: .Pp .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width IFT_PROPVIRTUAL .It Dv IFT_OTHER none of the following .It Dv IFT_ETHER Ethernet .It Dv IFT_ISO88023 ISO 8802-3 CSMA/CD .It Dv IFT_ISO88024 ISO 8802-4 Token Bus .It Dv IFT_ISO88025 ISO 8802-5 Token Ring .It Dv IFT_ISO88026 ISO 8802-6 DQDB MAN .It Dv IFT_FDDI FDDI .It Dv IFT_PPP Internet Point-to-Point Protocol .Pq Xr ppp 8 .It Dv IFT_LOOP The loopback .Pq Xr lo 4 interface. .It Dv IFT_SLIP Serial Line IP .It Dv IFT_PARA Parallel-port IP .Pq Dq Tn PLIP .It Dv IFT_ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode .El .Ss The ifaddr structure Every interface is associated with a list (or, rather, a .Dv TAILQ ) of addresses, rooted at the interface structure's .Li if_addrlist member. The first element in this list is always an .Dv AF_LINK address representing the interface itself; multi-access network drivers should complete this structure by filling in their link-layer addresses after calling .Fn if_attach . Other members of the structure represent network-layer addresses which have been configured by means of the .Dv SIOCAIFADDR command to .Xr ioctl 2 , called on a socket of the appropriate protocol family. The elements of this list consist of .Li ifaddr structures. Most protocols will declare their own protocol-specific interface address structures, but all begin with a .Li "struct ifaddr" which provides the most-commonly-needed functionality across all protocols. Interface addresses are reference-counted. .Pp The members of .Li "struct ifaddr" are as follows: .Bl -tag -width ifa_rtrequest -offset indent .It Li ifa_addr .Pq Li "struct sockaddr *" The local address of the interface. .It Li ifa_dstaddr .Pq Li "struct sockaddr *" The remote address of point-to-point interfaces, and the broadcast address of broadcast interfaces. .Po .Li ifa_broadaddr is a macro for .Li ifa_dstaddr . .Pc .It Li ifa_netmask .Pq Li "struct sockaddr *" The network mask for multi-access interfaces, and the confusion generator for point-to-point interfaces. .It Li ifa_ifp .Pq Li "struct ifnet *" A link back to the interface structure. .It Li ifa_link .Pq Li TAILQ_ENTRY(ifaddr) .Xr queue 3 glue for list of addresses on each interface. .It Li ifa_rtrequest See below. .It Li ifa_flags .Pq Li u_short Some of the flags which would be used for a route representing this address in the route table. .It Li ifa_refcnt .Pq Li short The reference count. .It Li ifa_metric .Pq Li int A metric associated with this interface address, for the use of some external routing protocol. .El .Pp References to .Li ifaddr structures are gained manually, by incrementing the .Li ifa_refcnt member. References are released by calling either the .Fn ifafree function or the .Fn IFAFREE macro. .Pp .Fn ifa_rtrequest is a pointer to a function which receives callouts from the routing code .Pq Fn rtrequest to perform link-layer-specific actions upon requests to add, resolve, or delete routes. The .Ar cmd argument indicates the request in question: .Dv RTM_ADD , .Dv RTM_RESOLVE , or .Dv RTM_DELETE . The .Ar rt argument is the route in question; the .Ar sa argument is the specific destination being manipulated for .Dv RTM_RESOLVE , or a null pointer otherwise. .Sh FUNCTIONS The functions provided by the generic interface code can be divided into two groups: those which manipulate interfaces, and those which manipulate interface addresses. In addition to these functions, there may also be link-layer support routines which are used by a number of drivers implementing a specific link layer over different hardware; see the documentation for that link layer for more details. .Ss Interface manipulation functions .Bl -ohang -offset indent .It Fn if_attach Link the specified interface .Ar ifp into the list of network interfaces. Also initialize the list of addresses on that interface, and create a link-layer .Li ifaddr structure to be the first element in that list. (A pointer to this address structure is saved in the global array .Li ifnet_addrs . ) .It Fn if_down Mark the interface .Ar ifp as down (i.e., .Dv IFF_UP is not set), flush its output queue, and call the interface's .Fn if_ioctl routine to notify the driver of the shutdown request. .It Fn if_up Mark the interface .Ar ifp as up, and call the interface's .Fn if_ioctl routine to (re-)initialize the driver. .It Fn ifpromisc Add or remove a promiscuous reference to .Ar ifp . If .Ar pswitch is true, add a reference; if it is false, remove a reference. On reference count transitions from zero to one and one to zero, set the .Dv IFF_PROMISC flag appropriately and call .Fn if_ioctl to set up the interface in the desired mode. .It Fn ifunit Return an .Li ifnet pointer for the interface named .Ar name . .It Fn ifioctl Process the ioctl request .Ar cmd , issued on socket .Ar so by process .Ar p , with data parameter .Ar data . This is the main routine for handling all interface configuration requests from user mode. It is ordinarily only called from the socket-layer .Xr ioctl 2 handler, and only for commands with class .Sq Li i . Any unrecognized commands will be passed down to socket .Ar so Ns 's protocol for further interpretation. The following commands are handled by .Fn ifioctl : .Pp .Bl -tag -width OSIOCGIFNETMASK -compact -offset indent .It Dv SIOCGIFCONF .It Dv OSIOCGIFCONF Get interface configuration. (No call-down to driver.) .It Dv SIOCGIFFLAGS .It Dv SIOCGIFMETRIC .It Dv SIOCGIFMTU .It Dv SIOCGIFPHYS Get interface flags, metric, MTU, medium selection. (No call-down to driver.) .Pp .It Dv SIOCSIFFLAGS Change interface flags. Caller must have appropriate privilege. If requested a change to the IFF_UP flag is requested, .Fn if_up or .Fn if_down is called as appropriate. Flags listed in .Dv IFF_CANTCHANGE are masked off, and the driver .Fn if_ioctl routine is called to perform any setup requested. .It Dv SIOCSIFMETRIC .It Dv SIOCSIFPHYS Change interface metric or medium. Caller must have appropriate privilege. .Pp .It Dv SIOCSIFMTU Change interface MTU. Caller must have appropriate privilege. MTU values less than 72 or greater than 65535 are considered invalid. The driver .Fn if_ioctl routine is called to implement the change; it is responsible for any additional sanity checking and for actually modifying the MTU in the interface structure. .It Dv SIOCADDMULTI .It Dv SIOCDELMULTI Add or delete permanent multicast group memberships on the interface. Caller must have appropriate privilege. The driver .Fn if_ioctl routine is called to perform the requested action. .It Dv SIOCSIFDSTADDR .It Dv SIOCSIFADDR .It Dv SIOCSIFBRDADDR .It Dv SIOCSIFNETMASK The socket's protocol control routine is called to implement the requested action. .It Dv OSIOGIFADDR .It Dv OSIOCGIFDSTADDR .It Dv OSIOCGIFBRDADDR .It Dv OSIOCGIFNETMASK The socket's protocol control routine is called to implement the requested action. On return, .Li sockaddr structures are converted into old-style (no .Li sa_len member). .El .Pp .Fn if_down , .Fn ifioctl , .Fn ifpromisc , and .Fn if_up must be called at .Fn splnet or higher. .Ss "Interface address functions" Several functions exist to look up an interface address structure given an address. .Fn ifa_ifwithaddr returns an interface address with either a local address or a broadcast address precisely matching the parameter .Ar addr . .Fn ifa_ifwithdstaddr returns an interface address for a point-to-point interface whose remote (``destination'') address is .Ar addr . .Pp .Fn ifa_ifwithnet returns the most specific interface address which matches the specified address, .Ar addr , subject to its configured netmask, or a point-to-point interface address whose remote address is .Ar addr if one is found. .Pp .Fn ifaof_ifpforaddr returns the most specific address configured on interface .Ar ifp which matches address .Ar addr , subject to its configured netmask. If the interface is point-to-point, only an interface address whose remote address is precisely .Ar addr will be returned. .Pp All of these functions return a null pointer if no such address can be found. .\" .Sh POLLING .\" XXX write me! .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr ioctl 2 , .Xr link_addr 3 , .Xr queue 3 , .Xr sysctl 3 , .Xr bpf 4 , .Xr ifmib 4 , .Xr lo 4 , .Xr netintro 4 , .Xr config 8 , .Xr ppp 8 , .Xr rtentry 9 .\" .Xr mbuf 9 , .Rs .%A Gary R. Wright and W. Richard Stevens .%B TCP/IP Illustrated .%V vol. 2 .%O Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-63354-X .Re .Sh AUTHOR This manual page was written by Garrett A. Wollman