xref: /netbsd-src/usr.sbin/rtadvd/rtadvd.8 (revision a5847cc334d9a7029f6352b847e9e8d71a0f9e0c)
1.\"	$NetBSD: rtadvd.8,v 1.22 2011/04/28 12:12:47 wiz Exp $
2.\"	$KAME: rtadvd.8,v 1.24 2002/05/31 16:16:08 jinmei Exp $
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31.Dd March 5, 2006
32.Dt RTADVD 8
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm rtadvd
36.Nd router advertisement daemon
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.Nm
39.Op Fl DdfMRs
40.Op Fl c Ar configfile
41.Ar interface ...
42.Sh DESCRIPTION
43.Nm
44sends router advertisement packets to the specified interfaces.
45.Pp
46The program will daemonize itself on invocation.
47It will then send router advertisement packets periodically, as well
48as in response to router solicitation messages sent by end hosts.
49.Pp
50Router advertisements can be configured on a per-interface basis, as
51described in
52.Xr rtadvd.conf 5 .
53.Pp
54If there is no configuration file entry for an interface,
55or if the configuration file does not exist at all,
56.Nm
57sets all the parameters to their default values.
58In particular,
59.Nm
60reads all the interface routes from the routing table and advertises
61them as on-link prefixes.
62.Pp
63.Nm
64also watches the routing table.
65If an interface direct route is
66added on an advertising interface and no static prefixes are
67specified by the configuration file,
68.Nm
69adds the corresponding prefix to its advertising list.
70.Pp
71Similarly, when an interface direct route is deleted,
72.Nm
73will start advertising the prefixes with zero valid and preferred
74lifetimes to help the receiving hosts switch to a new prefix when
75renumbering.
76Note, however, that the zero valid lifetime cannot invalidate the
77autoconfigured addresses at a receiving host immediately.
78According to the specification, the host will retain the address
79for a certain period, which will typically be two hours.
80The zero lifetimes rather intend to make the address deprecated,
81indicating that a new non-deprecated address should be used as the
82source address of a new connection.
83This behavior will last for two hours.
84Then
85.Nm
86will completely remove the prefix from the advertising list,
87and succeeding advertisements will not contain the prefix information.
88.Pp
89Moreover, if the status of an advertising interface changes,
90.Nm
91will start or stop sending router advertisements according
92to the latest status.
93.Pp
94The
95.Fl s
96option may be used to disable this behavior;
97.Nm
98will not watch the routing table and the whole functionality described
99above will be suppressed.
100.Pp
101Basically, hosts MUST NOT send Router Advertisement messages at any
102time (RFC 2461, Section 6.2.3).
103However, it would sometimes be useful to allow hosts to advertise some
104parameters such as prefix information and link MTU.
105Thus,
106.Nm
107can be invoked if router lifetime is explicitly set to zero on every
108advertising interface.
109.Pp
110The command line options are:
111.Bl -tag -width indent
112.\"
113.It Fl c Ar configfile
114Specify an alternate location,
115.Ar configfile ,
116for the configuration file.
117By default,
118.Pa /etc/rtadvd.conf
119is used.
120.It Fl D
121Even more debugging information than that offered by the
122.Fl d
123option is printed.
124.It Fl d
125Print debugging information.
126.It Fl f
127Foreground mode (useful when debugging).
128Log messages will be dumped to stderr when this option is specified.
129.It Fl M
130Specify an interface to join the all-routers site-local multicast group.
131By default,
132.Nm
133tries to join the first advertising interface appearing on the command
134line.
135This option has meaning only with the
136.Fl R
137option, which enables routing renumbering protocol support.
138.\".It Fl m
139.\"Enables mobile IPv6 support.
140.\"This changes the content of router advertisement option, as well as
141.\"permitted configuration directives.
142.It Fl R
143Accept router renumbering requests.
144If you enable it, an
145.Xr ipsec 4
146setup is suggested for security reasons.
147.\"On KAME-based systems,
148.\".Xr rrenumd 8
149.\"generates router renumbering request packets.
150This option is currently disabled, and is ignored by
151.Nm
152with a warning message.
153.It Fl s
154Do not add or delete prefixes dynamically.
155Only statically configured prefixes, if any, will be advertised.
156.El
157.Pp
158Upon receipt of signal
159.Dv SIGUSR1 ,
160.Nm
161will dump the current internal state into
162.Pa /var/run/rtadvd.dump .
163.Pp
164Use
165.Dv SIGTERM
166to kill
167.Nm
168gracefully.
169In this case,
170.Nm
171will transmit router advertisement with router lifetime 0
172to all the interfaces
173.Pq in accordance with RFC 2461 6.2.5 .
174.Sh FILES
175.Bl -tag -width /var/run/rtadvd.dumpXX -compact
176.It Pa /etc/rtadvd.conf
177The default configuration file.
178.It Pa /var/run/rtadvd.pid
179Contains the PID of the currently running
180.Nm .
181.It Pa /var/run/rtadvd.dump
182The file in which
183.Nm
184dumps its internal state.
185.El
186.Sh EXIT STATUS
187.Ex -std rtadvd
188.Sh SEE ALSO
189.Xr rtadvd.conf 5 ,
190.Xr rtsol 8
191.Sh HISTORY
192The
193.Nm
194command first appeared in the WIDE Hydrangea IPv6 protocol stack kit.
195.Sh BUGS
196There used to be some text that recommended users not to let
197.Nm
198advertise Router Advertisement messages on an upstream link to avoid
199undesirable
200.Xr icmp6 4
201redirect messages.
202However, based on later discussion in the IETF IPng working group,
203all routers should rather advertise the messages regardless of
204the network topology, in order to ensure reachability.
205