1*42704c41Swiz.\" $NetBSD: ethers.5,v 1.9 2001/09/11 01:01:57 wiz Exp $ 2cbf57fdfSderaadt.\" 3cbf57fdfSderaadt.\" Written by Roland McGrath <roland@frob.com>. Public domain. 4cbf57fdfSderaadt.\" 5c14de030Slukem.Dd November 7, 2000 6cbf57fdfSderaadt.Dt ETHERS 5 77a1aea16Sgarbled.Os 8cbf57fdfSderaadt.Sh NAME 9cbf57fdfSderaadt.Nm ethers 10cbf57fdfSderaadt.Nd Ethernet host name data base 11cbf57fdfSderaadt.Sh DESCRIPTION 12cbf57fdfSderaadtThe 13fa72f5deSfair.Nm 14fa72f5deSfairfile maps Ethernet MAC addresses to host names. 15fa72f5deSfairLines consist of an address and a host name, separated by any number 16fa72f5deSfairof blanks and/or tab characters. 1771e62d7dSlukemA 1871e62d7dSlukem.Sq \&# 1971e62d7dSlukemcharacter indicates the beginning of a comment; 20fa72f5deSfaircharacters up to the end of 21cbf57fdfSderaadtthe line are not interpreted by routines which search the file. 22cbf57fdfSderaadt.Pp 23c14de030SlukemEach line in 24c14de030Slukem.Nm 25c14de030Slukemhas the format: 26c14de030Slukem.Dl ethernet-MAC-address hostname-or-IP 27c14de030Slukem.Pp 28fa72f5deSfairEthernet MAC addresses are expressed as six hexadecimal numbers separated 29fa72f5deSfairby colons, e.g. "08:00:20:00:5a:bc". 30fa72f5deSfairThe functions described in 31cbf57fdfSderaadt.Xr ethers 3 32cbf57fdfSderaadtand 33cbf57fdfSderaadt.Xr ether_aton 3 34cbf57fdfSderaadtcan read and produce this format. 35c14de030Slukem.Pp 366abe6d18SwizThe traditional use of 37c14de030Slukem.Nm 38c14de030Slukeminvolved using hostnames for the second argument. 39c14de030SlukemThis may not be suitable for machines that don't have a common MAC 40c14de030Slukemaddress for all interfaces (i.e., just about every non 41c14de030Slukem.Tn Sun 42c14de030Slukemmachine). 43c14de030SlukemThere should be no problem in using an IP address as the second field 44c14de030Slukemif you wish to differentiate between different interfaces on a system. 45cbf57fdfSderaadt.Sh FILES 46cbf57fdfSderaadt.Bl -tag -width /etc/ethers -compact 47cbf57fdfSderaadt.It Pa /etc/ethers 48cbf57fdfSderaadtThe 49fa72f5deSfair.Nm 50cbf57fdfSderaadtfile resides in 51cbf57fdfSderaadt.Pa /etc . 52cbf57fdfSderaadt.El 53cbf57fdfSderaadt.Sh SEE ALSO 54cbf57fdfSderaadt.Xr ethers 3 55cbf57fdfSderaadt.Sh HISTORY 56cbf57fdfSderaadtThe 57cbf57fdfSderaadt.Nm ethers 58fa72f5deSfairfile format was adopted from 59fa72f5deSfair.Tn SunOS 60fa72f5deSfairand appeared in 6134a98169Sperry.Nx 1.0 . 62*42704c41Swiz.Sh BUGS 63*42704c41SwizA name server should be used instead of a static file. 64