xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/route.4 (revision b1c86f5f087524e68db12794ee9c3e3da1ab17a0)
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30.\"     @(#)route.4	8.6 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
31.\"
32.Dd April 19, 1994
33.Dt ROUTE 4
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm route
37.Nd kernel packet forwarding database
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.In sys/socket.h
40.In net/if.h
41.In net/route.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn socket PF_ROUTE SOCK_RAW "int family"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Ux
46provides some packet routing facilities.
47The kernel maintains a routing information database, which
48is used in selecting the appropriate network interface when
49transmitting packets.
50.Pp
51A user process (or possibly multiple co-operating processes)
52maintains this database by sending messages over a special kind
53of socket.
54This supplants fixed size
55.Xr ioctl 2 Ns 's
56used in earlier releases.
57Routing table changes may only be carried out by the super user.
58.Pp
59The operating system may spontaneously emit routing messages in response
60to external events, such as receipt of a redirect, or failure to
61locate a suitable route for a request.
62The message types are described in greater detail below.
63.Pp
64Routing database entries come in two flavors: for a specific
65host, or for all hosts on a generic subnetwork (as specified
66by a bit mask and value under the mask.
67The effect of wildcard or default route may be achieved by using
68a mask of all zeros, and there may be hierarchical routes.
69.Pp
70When the system is booted and addresses are assigned
71to the network interfaces, each protocol family
72installs a routing table entry for each interface when it is ready for traffic.
73Normally the protocol specifies the route
74through each interface as a
75.Dq direct
76connection to the destination host
77or network.  If the route is direct, the transport layer of
78a protocol family usually requests the packet be sent to the
79same host specified in the packet.  Otherwise, 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.  The combination of wildcard
99routes and routing redirects can provide an economical
100mechanism for routing traffic.
101.Pp
102One opens the channel for passing routing control messages
103by using the socket call shown in the synopsis above:
104.Pp
105The
106.Fa family
107parameter may be
108.Dv AF_UNSPEC
109which will provide
110routing information for all address families, or can be restricted
111to a specific address family by specifying which one is desired.
112There can be more than one routing socket open per system.
113.Pp
114Messages are formed by a header followed by a small
115number of sockaddrs (now variable length particularly
116in the
117.Tn ISO
118case), interpreted by position, and delimited
119by the new length entry in the sockaddr.
120An example of a message with four addresses might be an
121.Tn ISO
122redirect:
123Destination, Netmask, Gateway, and Author of the redirect.
124The interpretation of which address are present is given by a
125bit mask within the header, and the sequence is least significant
126to most significant bit within the vector.
127.Pp
128Any messages sent to the kernel are returned, and copies are sent
129to all interested listeners.  The kernel will provide the process
130ID for the sender, and the sender may use an additional sequence
131field to distinguish between outstanding messages.  However,
132message replies may be lost when kernel buffers are exhausted.
133.Pp
134The kernel may reject certain messages, and will indicate this
135by filling in the
136.Ar rtm_errno
137field.
138The routing code returns
139.Dv EEXIST
140if
141requested to duplicate an existing entry,
142.Dv ESRCH
143if
144requested to delete a non-existent entry,
145or
146.Dv ENOBUFS
147if insufficient resources were available
148to install a new route.
149In the current implementation, all routing processes run locally,
150and the values for
151.Ar rtm_errno
152are available through the normal
153.Em errno
154mechanism, even if the routing reply message is lost.
155.Pp
156A process may avoid the expense of reading replies to
157its own messages by issuing a
158.Xr setsockopt 2
159call indicating that the
160.Dv SO_USELOOPBACK
161option
162at the
163.Dv SOL_SOCKET
164level is to be turned off.
165A process may ignore all messages from the routing socket
166by doing a
167.Xr shutdown 2
168system call for further input.
169.Pp
170If a route is in use when it is deleted,
171the routing entry will be marked down and removed from the routing table,
172but the resources associated with it will not
173be reclaimed until all references to it are released.
174User processes can obtain information about the routing
175entry to a specific destination by using a
176.Dv RTM_GET
177message,
178or by reading the
179.Pa /dev/kmem
180device, or by calling
181.Xr sysctl 3 .
182.Pp
183The messages are:
184.Bd -literal
185#define	RTM_ADD		0x1    /* Add Route */
186#define	RTM_DELETE	0x2    /* Delete Route */
187#define	RTM_CHANGE	0x3    /* Change Metrics, Flags, or Gateway */
188#define	RTM_GET		0x4    /* Report Information */
189#define	RTM_LOSING	0x5    /* Kernel Suspects Partitioning */
190#define	RTM_REDIRECT	0x6    /* Told to use different route */
191#define	RTM_MISS	0x7    /* Lookup failed on this address */
192#define	RTM_RESOLVE	0xb    /* request to resolve dst to LL addr */
193#define	RTM_NEWADDR	0xc    /* address being added to iface */
194#define	RTM_DELADDR	0xd    /* address being removed from iface */
195#define	RTM_OIFINFO	0xe    /* Old (pre-1.5) RTM_IFINFO message */
196#define	RTM_IFINFO	0xf    /* iface/link going up/down etc. */
197#define	RTM_IFANNOUNCE	0x10   /* iface arrival/departure */
198.Ed
199.Pp
200A message header consists of one of the following:
201.Bd -literal
202struct rt_msghdr {
203    u_short rtm_msglen;        /* to skip over non-understood messages */
204    u_char  rtm_version;       /* future binary compatibility */
205    u_char  rtm_type;          /* message type */
206    u_short rtm_index;         /* index for associated ifp */
207    int     rtm_flags;         /* flags, incl kern \*[Am] message, e.g. DONE */
208    int     rtm_addrs;         /* bitmask identifying sockaddrs in msg */
209    pid_t   rtm_pid;           /* identify sender */
210    int     rtm_seq;           /* for sender to identify action */
211    int     rtm_errno;         /* why failed */
212    int     rtm_use;           /* from rtentry */
213    u_long  rtm_inits;         /* which metrics we are initializing */
214    struct  rt_metrics rtm_rmx;	/* metrics themselves */
215};
216
217struct if_msghdr {
218    u_short ifm_msglen;        /* to skip over non-understood messages */
219    u_char  ifm_version;       /* future binary compatibility */
220    u_char  ifm_type;          /* message type */
221    int     ifm_addrs;         /* like rtm_addrs */
222    int     ifm_flags;         /* value of if_flags */
223    u_short ifm_index;         /* index for associated ifp */
224    struct  if_data ifm_data;  /* statistics and other data about if */
225};
226
227struct ifa_msghdr {
228    u_short ifam_msglen;       /* to skip over non-understood messages */
229    u_char  ifam_version;      /* future binary compatibility */
230    u_char  ifam_type;         /* message type */
231    int     ifam_addrs;        /* like rtm_addrs */
232    int     ifam_flags;        /* value of ifa_flags */
233    u_short ifam_index;        /* index for associated ifp */
234    int     ifam_metric;       /* value of ifa_metric */
235};
236
237struct if_announcemsghdr {
238    u_short ifan_msglen;       /* to skip over non-understood messages */
239    u_char  ifan_version;      /* future binary compatibility */
240    u_char  ifan_type;         /* message type */
241    u_short ifan_index;        /* index for associated ifp */
242    char    ifan_name[IFNAMSIZ]; /* if name, e.g. "en0" */
243    u_short ifan_what;         /* what type of announcement */
244};
245.Ed
246.Pp
247The
248.Dv RTM_IFINFO
249message uses a
250.Ar if_msghdr
251header, the
252.Dv RTM_NEWADDR
253and
254.Dv RTM_DELADDR
255messages use a
256.Ar ifa_msghdr
257header,
258the
259.Dv RTM_IFANNOUNCE
260message uses a
261.Ar if_announcemsghdr
262header,
263and all other messages use the
264.Ar rt_msghdr
265header.
266.Pp
267The metrics structure is:
268.Bd -literal
269struct rt_metrics {
270    u_long rmx_locks;          /* Kernel must leave these values alone */
271    u_long rmx_mtu;            /* MTU for this path */
272    u_long rmx_hopcount;       /* max hops expected */
273    u_long rmx_expire;         /* lifetime for route, e.g. redirect */
274    u_long rmx_recvpipe;       /* inbound delay-bandwidth product */
275    u_long rmx_sendpipe;       /* outbound delay-bandwidth product */
276    u_long rmx_ssthresh;       /* outbound gateway buffer limit */
277    u_long rmx_rtt;            /* estimated round trip time */
278    u_long rmx_rttvar;         /* estimated rtt variance */
279    u_long rmx_pksent;         /* packets sent using this route */
280};
281.Ed
282.Pp
283Flags include the values:
284.Bd -literal
285#define	RTF_UP        0x1      /* route usable */
286#define	RTF_GATEWAY   0x2      /* destination is a gateway */
287#define	RTF_HOST      0x4      /* host entry (net otherwise) */
288#define	RTF_REJECT    0x8      /* host or net unreachable */
289#define	RTF_DYNAMIC   0x10     /* created dynamically (by redirect) */
290#define	RTF_MODIFIED  0x20     /* modified dynamically (by redirect) */
291#define	RTF_DONE      0x40     /* message confirmed */
292#define	RTF_MASK      0x80     /* subnet mask present */
293#define	RTF_CLONING   0x100    /* generate new routes on use */
294#define	RTF_XRESOLVE  0x200    /* external daemon resolves name */
295#define	RTF_LLINFO    0x400    /* generated by ARP or ESIS */
296#define	RTF_STATIC    0x800    /* manually added */
297#define	RTF_BLACKHOLE 0x1000   /* just discard pkts (during updates) */
298#define	RTF_CLONED    0x2000   /* this is a cloned route */
299#define	RTF_PROTO2    0x4000   /* protocol specific routing flag */
300#define	RTF_PROTO1    0x8000   /* protocol specific routing flag */
301.Ed
302.Pp
303Specifiers for metric values in rmx_locks and rtm_inits are:
304.Bd -literal
305#define	RTV_MTU       0x1    /* init or lock _mtu */
306#define	RTV_HOPCOUNT  0x2    /* init or lock _hopcount */
307#define	RTV_EXPIRE    0x4    /* init or lock _expire */
308#define	RTV_RPIPE     0x8    /* init or lock _recvpipe */
309#define	RTV_SPIPE     0x10   /* init or lock _sendpipe */
310#define	RTV_SSTHRESH  0x20   /* init or lock _ssthresh */
311#define	RTV_RTT       0x40   /* init or lock _rtt */
312#define	RTV_RTTVAR    0x80   /* init or lock _rttvar */
313.Ed
314.Pp
315Specifiers for which addresses are present in the messages are:
316.Bd -literal
317#define RTA_DST       0x1    /* destination sockaddr present */
318#define RTA_GATEWAY   0x2    /* gateway sockaddr present */
319#define RTA_NETMASK   0x4    /* netmask sockaddr present */
320#define RTA_GENMASK   0x8    /* cloning mask sockaddr present */
321#define RTA_IFP       0x10   /* interface name sockaddr present */
322#define RTA_IFA       0x20   /* interface addr sockaddr present */
323#define RTA_AUTHOR    0x40   /* sockaddr for author of redirect */
324#define RTA_BRD       0x80   /* for NEWADDR, broadcast or p-p dest addr */
325.Ed
326.Sh SEE ALSO
327.Xr socket 2 ,
328.Xr sysctl 3
329