xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man4/route.4 (revision a28daedfc357b214be5c701aa8ba8adb29a7f1c2)
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31.\"     @(#)route.4	8.6 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: March 31 2009 $
34.Dt ROUTE 4
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm route
38.Nd kernel packet forwarding database
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Fd #include <sys/socket.h>
41.Fd #include <net/if.h>
42.Fd #include <net/route.h>
43.Ft int
44.Fn socket PF_ROUTE SOCK_RAW family
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46.Ox
47provides some packet routing facilities.
48The kernel maintains a routing information database, which
49is used in selecting the appropriate network interface when
50transmitting packets.
51.Pp
52A user process (or possibly multiple co-operating processes)
53maintains this database by sending messages over a special kind
54of socket.
55This supplants fixed size
56.Xr ioctl 2 Ns 's
57used in earlier releases.
58Routing table changes may only be carried out by the super user.
59.Pp
60The operating system may spontaneously emit routing messages in response
61to external events, such as receipt of a redirect, or failure to
62locate a suitable route for a request.
63The message types are described in greater detail below.
64.Pp
65Routing database entries come in two flavors: for a specific
66host, or for all hosts on a generic subnetwork (as specified
67by a bit mask and value under the mask).
68The effect of wildcard or default route may be achieved by using
69a mask of all zeros, and there may be hierarchical routes.
70.Pp
71When the system is booted and addresses are assigned
72to the network interfaces, each protocol family
73installs a routing table entry for each interface when it is ready for traffic.
74Normally the protocol specifies the route
75through each interface as a
76.Dq direct
77connection to the destination host
78or network.
79If the route is direct, the transport layer of a protocol family usually
80requests the packet be sent to the same host specified in the packet.
81Otherwise, the interface is requested to address the packet to the gateway
82listed in the routing entry (i.e., the packet is forwarded).
83.Pp
84When routing a packet,
85the kernel will attempt to find
86the most specific route matching the destination.
87(If there are two different mask and value-under-the-mask pairs
88that match, the more specific is the one with more bits in the mask.
89A route to a host is regarded as being supplied with a mask of
90as many ones as there are bits in the destination.)
91If no entry is found, the destination is declared to be unreachable,
92and a routing\-miss message is generated if there are any
93listeners on the routing control socket described below.
94.Pp
95A wildcard routing entry is specified with a zero
96destination address value and a mask of all zeroes.
97Wildcard routes will be used
98when the system fails to find other routes matching the
99destination.
100The combination of wildcard routes and routing redirects can provide
101an economical mechanism for routing traffic.
102Routes created by redirects from wildcard routes and other routes
103will be marked
104.Em cloned ,
105until their
106.Dq parent
107from which they were created has disappeared.
108.Pp
109Route labels can be attached to routes and may contain arbitrary
110information about the route.
111Labels are sent over the routing socket (see below) as
112.Vt sockaddr_rtlabel
113structures.
114.Ss The Routing Socket
115One opens the channel for passing routing control messages
116by using the
117.Xr socket 2
118call shown in the
119.Sx SYNOPSIS
120above.
121.Pp
122The
123.Fa family
124parameter may be
125.Dv AF_UNSPEC ,
126which will provide
127routing information for all address families, or can be restricted
128to a specific address family by specifying which one is desired.
129There can be more than one routing socket open per system.
130.Pp
131Messages are formed by a header followed by a small
132number of
133.Vt sockaddr
134structures (which are variable length),
135interpreted by position, and delimited
136by the length entry in the
137.Vt sockaddr .
138An example of a message with four addresses might be an
139IPv4 route addition: the destination, netmask, gateway, and label,
140since both netmasks and labels are sent over the routing socket as
141.Vt sockaddr
142structures.
143The interpretation of which addresses are present is given by a
144bit mask within the header, and the sequence is least significant
145to most significant bit within the vector.
146.Pp
147Any messages sent to the kernel are returned, and copies are sent
148to all interested listeners.
149The kernel will provide the process ID
150for the sender, and the sender may use an additional sequence
151field to distinguish between outstanding messages.
152However, message replies may be lost when kernel buffers are exhausted.
153.Pp
154The kernel may reject certain messages, and will indicate this
155by filling in the
156.Va rtm_errno
157field.
158The routing code returns
159.Er EEXIST
160if
161requested to duplicate an existing entry,
162.Er ESRCH
163if
164requested to delete a non-existent entry,
165or
166.Er ENOBUFS
167if insufficient resources were available
168to install a new route.
169In the current implementation, all routing processes run locally,
170and the values for
171.Va rtm_errno
172are available through the normal
173.Va errno
174mechanism, even if the routing reply message is lost.
175.Pp
176A process may avoid the expense of reading replies to
177its own messages by issuing a
178.Xr setsockopt 2
179call indicating that the
180.Dv SO_USELOOPBACK
181option at the
182.Dv SOL_SOCKET
183level is to be turned off.
184A process may ignore all messages from the routing socket
185by doing a
186.Xr shutdown 2
187system call for further input.
188.Pp
189A process can specify which route message types it's interested in
190by using
191.Dv ROUTE_FILTER(int type)
192and issuing a setsockopt call with the
193.Dv ROUTE_MSGFILTER
194option at the
195.Dv AF_ROUTE
196level.
197For example, to only get interface specific messages:
198.Bd -literal -offset indent
199unsigned int rtfilter;
200
201rtfilter = ROUTE_FILTER(RTM_IFINFO) |
202    ROUTE_FILTER(RTM_IFANNOUNCE);
203
204if (setsockopt(routefd, PF_ROUTE, ROUTE_MSGFILTER,
205    &rtfilter, sizeof(rtfilter)) == -1)
206	err(1, "setsockopt(ROUTE_MSGFILTER)");
207.Ed
208.Pp
209If a route is in use when it is deleted,
210the routing entry will be marked down and removed from the routing table,
211but the resources associated with it will not
212be reclaimed until all references to it are released.
213User processes can obtain information about the routing
214entry to a specific destination by using a
215.Dv RTM_GET
216message or via the
217.Dv PF_ROUTE
218.Xr sysctl 3 .
219.Pp
220Messages include:
221.Bd -literal
222#define RTM_ADD		0x1	/* Add Route */
223#define RTM_DELETE	0x2	/* Delete Route */
224#define RTM_CHANGE	0x3	/* Change Metrics or flags */
225#define RTM_GET		0x4	/* Report Metrics */
226#define RTM_LOSING	0x5	/* Kernel Suspects Partitioning */
227#define RTM_REDIRECT	0x6	/* Told to use different route */
228#define RTM_MISS	0x7	/* Lookup failed on this address */
229#define RTM_LOCK	0x8	/* fix specified metrics */
230#define RTM_RESOLVE	0xb	/* req to resolve dst to LL addr */
231#define RTM_NEWADDR	0xc	/* address being added to iface */
232#define RTM_DELADDR	0xd	/* address being removed from iface */
233#define RTM_IFINFO	0xe	/* iface going up/down etc. */
234#define RTM_IFANNOUNCE	0xf	/* iface arrival/departure */
235.Ed
236.Pp
237A message header consists of one of the following:
238.Bd -literal
239struct rt_msghdr {
240	u_short	rtm_msglen;	/* to skip over non-understood messages */
241	u_char	rtm_version;	/* future binary compatibility */
242	u_char	rtm_type;	/* message type */
243	u_short	rtm_index;	/* index for associated ifp */
244	int	rtm_flags;	/* flags, incl. kern & message, eg DONE */
245	int	rtm_addrs;	/* bitmask identifying sockaddrs in msg */
246	pid_t	rtm_pid;	/* identify sender */
247	int	rtm_seq;	/* for sender to identify action */
248	int	rtm_errno;	/* why failed */
249	int	rtm_use;	/* deprecated use rtm_rmx->rmx_pksent */
250#define rtm_fmask	rtm_use	/* bitmask used in RTM_CHANGE message */
251	u_long	rtm_inits;	/* which metrics we are initializing */
252	struct	rt_metrics rtm_rmx; /* metrics themselves */
253};
254
255struct if_msghdr {
256	u_short	ifm_msglen;	/* to skip over non-understood messages */
257	u_char	ifm_version;	/* future binary compatibility */
258	u_char	ifm_type;	/* message type */
259	int	ifm_addrs;	/* like rtm_addrs */
260	int	ifm_flags;	/* value of if_flags */
261	u_short	ifm_index;	/* index for associated ifp */
262	struct	if_data ifm_data;/* statistics and other data about if */
263};
264
265struct ifa_msghdr {
266	u_short	ifam_msglen;	/* to skip over non-understood messages */
267	u_char	ifam_version;	/* future binary compatibility */
268	u_char	ifam_type;	/* message type */
269	int	ifam_addrs;	/* like rtm_addrs */
270	int	ifam_flags;	/* value of ifa_flags */
271	u_short	ifam_index;	/* index for associated ifp */
272	int	ifam_metric;	/* value of ifa_metric */
273};
274
275struct if_announcemsghdr {
276	u_short	ifan_msglen;	/* to skip over non-understood messages */
277	u_char	ifan_version;	/* future binary compatibility */
278	u_char	ifan_type;	/* message type */
279	u_short	ifan_index;	/* index for associated ifp */
280	char	ifan_name[IFNAMSIZ];	/* if name, e.g. "en0" */
281	u_short	ifan_what;	/* what type of announcement */
282};
283.Ed
284.Pp
285The
286.Dv RTM_IFINFO
287message uses an
288.Vt if_msghdr
289header, the
290.Dv RTM_NEWADDR
291and
292.Dv RTM_DELADDR
293messages use an
294.Vt ifa_msghdr
295header,
296the
297.Dv RTM_IFANNOUNCE
298message uses an
299.Vt if_announcemsghdr
300header,
301and all other messages use the
302.Vt rt_msghdr
303header.
304.Pp
305The metrics structure is:
306.Bd -literal
307struct rt_metrics {
308	u_long	rmx_locks;	/* Kernel must leave these values alone */
309	u_long	rmx_mtu;	/* MTU for this path */
310	u_long	rmx_hopcount;	/* max hops expected */
311	u_long	rmx_expire;	/* lifetime for route, e.g. redirect */
312	u_long	rmx_recvpipe;	/* inbound delay-bandwidth product */
313	u_long	rmx_sendpipe;	/* outbound delay-bandwidth product */
314	u_long	rmx_ssthresh;	/* outbound gateway buffer limit */
315	u_long	rmx_rtt;	/* estimated round trip time */
316	u_long	rmx_rttvar;	/* estimated rtt variance */
317	u_long	rmx_pksent;	/* packets sent using this route */
318};
319.Ed
320.Pp
321Only
322.Va rmx_mtu , rmx_expire , rmx_pksent ,
323and
324.Va rmx_locks
325are used by the kernel routing table.
326All other values will be ignored when inserting them into the kernel and are
327set to zero in routing messages sent by the kernel.
328They are left for compatibility reasons with other systems.
329.Pp
330Flags include the values:
331.Bd -literal
332#define	RTF_UP        0x1       /* route usable */
333#define	RTF_GATEWAY   0x2       /* destination is a gateway */
334#define	RTF_HOST      0x4       /* host entry (net otherwise) */
335#define	RTF_REJECT    0x8       /* host or net unreachable */
336#define	RTF_DYNAMIC   0x10      /* created dynamically (by redirect) */
337#define	RTF_MODIFIED  0x20      /* modified dynamically (by redirect) */
338#define	RTF_DONE      0x40      /* message confirmed */
339#define	RTF_MASK      0x80      /* subnet mask present */
340#define	RTF_CLONING   0x100     /* generate new routes on use */
341#define	RTF_XRESOLVE  0x200     /* external daemon resolves name */
342#define	RTF_LLINFO    0x400     /* generated by ARP or ESIS */
343#define	RTF_STATIC    0x800     /* manually added */
344#define	RTF_BLACKHOLE 0x1000    /* just discard pkts (during updates) */
345#define	RTF_PROTO2    0x4000    /* protocol specific routing flag */
346#define	RTF_PROTO1    0x8000    /* protocol specific routing flag */
347#define	RTF_CLONED    0x10000   /* this is a cloned route */
348#define RTF_MPATH     0x40000   /* multipath route or operation */
349.Ed
350.Pp
351Specifiers for metric values in
352.Va rmx_locks
353and
354.Va rtm_inits
355are:
356.Bd -literal
357#define RTV_MTU		0x1	/* init or lock _mtu */
358#define RTV_HOPCOUNT	0x2	/* init or lock _hopcount */
359#define RTV_EXPIRE	0x4	/* init or lock _hopcount */
360#define RTV_RPIPE	0x8	/* init or lock _recvpipe */
361#define RTV_SPIPE	0x10	/* init or lock _sendpipe */
362#define RTV_SSTHRESH	0x20	/* init or lock _ssthresh */
363#define RTV_RTT		0x40	/* init or lock _rtt */
364#define RTV_RTTVAR	0x80	/* init or lock _rttvar */
365.Ed
366.Pp
367Only
368.Dv RTV_MTU
369and
370.Dv RTV_EXPIRE
371should be used; all other flags are ignored.
372.Pp
373Specifiers for which addresses are present in the messages are:
374.Bd -literal
375#define RTA_DST		0x1	/* destination sockaddr present */
376#define RTA_GATEWAY	0x2	/* gateway sockaddr present */
377#define RTA_NETMASK	0x4	/* netmask sockaddr present */
378#define RTA_GENMASK	0x8	/* cloning mask sockaddr present */
379#define RTA_IFP		0x10	/* interface name sockaddr present */
380#define RTA_IFA		0x20	/* interface addr sockaddr present */
381#define RTA_AUTHOR	0x40	/* sockaddr for author of redirect */
382#define RTA_BRD		0x80	/* for NEWADDR, bcast or p-p dest addr */
383#define RTA_LABEL	0x400	/* route label present */
384.Ed
385.Sh SEE ALSO
386.Xr netstat 1 ,
387.Xr socket 2 ,
388.Xr sysctl 3 ,
389.Xr mygate 5 ,
390.Xr route 8
391.Sh HISTORY
392A
393.Dv PF_ROUTE
394protocol family first appeared in
395.Bx 4.3 Reno .
396