xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man5/ifconfig.if.5 (revision 181254a7b1bdde6873432bffef2d2decc4b5c22f)
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27.Dd April 15, 2020
28.Dt IFCONFIG.IF 5
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm ifconfig.if
32.Nd interface-specific configuration files or variables
33.Sh DESCRIPTION
34The
35.Nm
36files or variables contain information regarding the configuration
37of each network interface.
38.Nm
39is processed by
40.Pa /etc/rc.d/network
41at system boot time.
42.Pp
43For each interface
44.Pq Ar nnX
45that is to be configured, there should be either an
46.Sy ifconfig_nnX
47variable in
48.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
49or an
50.Pa /etc/ifconfig.nnX
51file
52(such as the
53.Sy ifconfig_fxp0
54variable or the
55.Pa /etc/ifconfig.fxp0
56file for the
57.Sy fxp0
58interface).
59Only characters allowed in
60.Xr sh 1
61variables names should be used for
62.Ar nnX
63.Po Xr ascii 7
64uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and underscore
65.Pc .
66.Pp
67The variable or file will get evaluated only if the interface exists on
68the system.
69Multiple lines can be placed in a variable or file, and will be
70evaluated sequentially.
71In the case of a variable, semicolons may be used instead of
72newlines, as described in
73.Xr rc.conf 5 .
74.Ao backslash Ac Ns Ao newline Ac
75sequences in files are ignored, so long logical lines may be
76made up of several shorter physical lines.
77.Pp
78Normally, a line will be evaluated as command line arguments to
79.Xr ifconfig 8 .
80.Dq Li ifconfig Ar nnX
81will be prepended on evaluation.
82Arguments with embedded shell metacharacters should be quoted in
83.Xr sh 1
84style.
85.Pp
86If the line is equal to
87.Dq dhcp ,
88.Xr dhcpcd 8
89will be started for the interface.
90However, it is instead recommended that
91.Sy dhcpcd
92is set to true in
93.Xr rc.conf 5
94and any per interface configuration or restriction is done in
95.Xr dhcpcd.conf 5 .
96.Pp
97If the line is equal to
98.Dq rtsol ,
99kernel processing of router advertisements will be enabled and an IPv6
100router solicitation message will be sent out on the interface.
101This is useful on networks where default routes can best be learned
102from router advertisements.
103However, if
104.Sy dhcpcd
105has been set to true in
106.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
107it is assumed that
108.Xr dhcpcd 8
109will take care of sending any necessary router solicitation messages and
110processing received router advertisements through its configuration in
111.Xr dhcpcd.conf 5
112instead.
113.Pp
114If a line is empty, or starts with
115.Sq # ,
116the line will be ignored as comment.
117.Pp
118If a line starts with
119.Sq \&! ,
120the rest of line will get evaluated as shell script fragment.
121Shell variables declared in
122.Pa /etc/rc.d/network
123are accessible but may not be modified.
124The most useful variable is
125.Li $int ,
126as it will be bound to the interface being configured with the file.
127.Pp
128For example, the following illustrates static interface configuration:
129.Bd -literal -offset indent
130# IPv4, with an alias
131inet 10.0.1.12 netmask 255.255.255.0 media 100baseTX
132inet 10.0.1.13 netmask 255.255.255.255 alias
133# let us have IPv6 address on this interface
134inet6 2001:db8::1 prefixlen 64 alias
135# have subnet router anycast address too
136inet6 2001:db8:: prefixlen 64 alias anycast
137.Ed
138.Pp
139For networks that do not use a virtual address for the default gateway
140that could be set using a single address in
141.Sy defaultroute6 ,
142static IPv6 address configuration could use the
143.Dq rtsol
144keyword instead to solicit router advertisements for learning a default
145route and even achieving route redundancy given multiple responding
146routers:
147.Bd -literal -offset indent
148inet6 2001:db8::100 prefixlen 64 alias
149rtsol
150.Ed
151.Pp
152The following example sets a network name for a wireless interface
153(using quotes to protect special characters in the name),
154and starts
155.Xr dhcpcd 8 :
156.Bd -literal -offset indent
157ssid 'my network'
158dhcp
159.Ed
160.Pp
161The following example is for dynamically-created pseudo interfaces like
162.Xr gif 4 .
163Earlier versions of
164.Pa /etc/rc.d/network
165required an explicit
166.Sq create
167command for such interfaces,
168but creation is now handled automatically.
169.Bd -literal -offset indent
170up
171# configure IPv6 default route toward the interface
172!route add -inet6 default ::1
173!route change -inet6 default -ifp $int
174.Ed
175.Sh FILES
176.Pa /etc/rc.d/network
177.Sh SEE ALSO
178.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
179.Xr ifconfig 8
180