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ARP(7)			   Linux Programmers Manual		       ARP(7)



NAME
       arp - Linux ARP kernel module.

DESCRIPTION
       This  kernel protocol module implements the Address Resolution Protocol
       defined in RFC 826.  It is used	to  convert  between  Layer2  hardware
       addresses  and  IPv4 protocol addresses on directly connected networks.
       The user normally doesnt interact directly with this module except  to
       configure  it; instead it provides a service for other protocols in the
       kernel.

       A user process can receive ARP  packets	by  using  packet(7)  sockets.
       There  is  also a mechanism for managing the ARP cache in user-space by
       using netlink(7) sockets.  The ARP table can  also  be  controlled  via
       ioctl(2) on any PF_INET socket.

       The ARP module maintains a cache of mappings between hardware addresses
       and protocol addresses.	The cache has a limited size so old  and  less
       frequently  used  entries  are  garbage-collected.   Entries  which are
       marked as permanent are never deleted by  the  garbage-collector.   The
       cache can be directly manipulated by the use of ioctls and its behavior
       can be tuned by the sysctls defined below.

       When there is no positive feedback for an existing mapping  after  some
       time  (see  the	sysctls  below)  a  neighbor cache entry is considered
       stale.  Positive feedback can be gotten from a higher layer; for  exam
       ple  from  a  successful  TCP  ACK.  Other protocols can signal forward
       progress using the MSG_CONFIRM flag to sendmsg(2).  When  there	is  no
       forward	progress  ARP tries to reprobe.  It first tries to ask a local
       arp daemon app_solicit times for an updated MAC address.  If that fails
       and  an old MAC address is known an unicast probe is send ucast_solicit
       times.  If that fails too it will broadcast a new ARP  request  to  the
       network.  Requests are only send when there is data queued for sending.

       Linux will automatically add a non-permanent proxy arp  entry  when  it
       receives  a  request  for  an  address  it forwards to and proxy arp is
       enabled on the receiving interface.  When there is a reject  route  for
       the target no proxy arp entry is added.

   Ioctls
       Three ioctls are available on all PF_INET sockets.  They take a pointer
       to a struct arpreq as their argument.

	   struct arpreq {
	       struct sockaddr arp_pa;	    /* protocol address */
	       struct sockaddr arp_ha;	    /* hardware address */
	       int	       arp_flags;   /* flags */
	       struct sockaddr arp_netmask; /* netmask of protocol address */
	       char	       arp_dev[16];
	   };

       SIOCSARP, SIOCDARP and SIOCGARP respectively set, delete and get an ARP
       mapping.  Setting & deleting ARP maps are privileged operations and may
       only be performed by a process with the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability or  an
       effective UID of 0.

       arp_pa  must be an AF_INET socket and arp_ha must have the same type as
       the device which is specified in arp_dev.  arp_dev is a zero-terminated
       string which names a device.

	      +-------------------------------------+
	      | 	    arp_flags		    |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |flag	       | meaning	    |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |ATF_COM	       | Lookup complete    |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |ATF_PERM        | Permanent entry    |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |ATF_PUBL        | Publish entry	    |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |ATF_USETRAILERS | Trailers requested |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |ATF_NETMASK     | Use a netmask	    |
	      +----------------+--------------------+
	      |ATF_DONTPUB     | Dont answer	   |
	      +----------------+--------------------+

       If  the	ATF_NETMASK  flag  is  set,  then arp_netmask should be valid.
       Linux 2.2 does not support proxy network ARP entries, so this should be
       set  to	0xffffffff,  or  0  to	remove	an  existing  proxy arp entry.
       ATF_USETRAILERS is obsolete and should not be used.

   Sysctls
       ARP supports a sysctl interface to configure parameters on a global  or
       per-interface basis.  The sysctls can be accessed by reading or writing
       the /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/*/* files or with the sysctl(2) interface.
       Each   interface   in   the   system   has   its   own	directory   in
       /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/.  The setting in the "default"  directory  is
       used  for  all newly created devices.  Unless otherwise specified time-
       related sysctls are specified in seconds.

       anycast_delay
	      The maximum number of jiffies to delay before replying to a IPv6
	      neighbor	solicitation  message.	 Anycast  support  is  not yet
	      implemented.  Defaults to 1 second.

       app_solicit
	      The maximum number of probes to send to the user space ARP  dae
	      mon  via	netlink  before dropping back to multicast probes (see
	      mcast_solicit).  Defaults to 0.

       base_reachable_time
	      Once a neighbor has been found, the entry is  considered	to  be
	      valid  for at least a random value between base_reachable_time/2
	      and  3*base_reachable_time/2.   An  entrys  validity  will   be
	      extended if it receives positive feedback from higher level pro
	      tocols.  Defaults to 30 seconds.

       delay_first_probe_time
	      Delay before first probe after it has been decided that a neigh
	      bor is stale.  Defaults to 5 seconds.

       gc_interval
	      How frequently the garbage collector for neighbor entries should
	      attempt to run.  Defaults to 30 seconds.

       gc_stale_time
	      Determines how often to check for stale neighbor entries.   When
	      a neighbor entry is considered stale it is resolved again before
	      sending data to it.  Defaults to 60 seconds.

       gc_thresh1
	      The minimum number of entries to keep in	the  ARP  cache.   The
	      garbage collector will not run if there are fewer than this num
	      ber of entries in the cache.  Defaults to 128.

       gc_thresh2
	      The soft maximum number of entries to keep  in  the  ARP	cache.
	      The garbage collector will allow the number of entries to exceed
	      this  for  5  seconds  before  collection  will  be   performed.
	      Defaults to 512.

       gc_thresh3
	      The  hard  maximum  number  of entries to keep in the ARP cache.
	      The garbage collector will always run if	there  are  more  than
	      this number of entries in the cache.  Defaults to 1024.

       locktime
	      The minimum number of jiffies to keep an ARP entry in the cache.
	      This prevents ARP cache thrashing if  there  is  more  than  one
	      potential  mapping  (generally due to network misconfiguration).
	      Defaults to 1 second.

       mcast_solicit
	      The maximum number of attempts to resolve an address  by	multi
	      cast/broadcast   before	marking   the  entry  as  unreachable.
	      Defaults to 3.

       proxy_delay
	      When an ARP request for a known proxy-ARP address  is  received,
	      delay  up  to proxy_delay jiffies before replying.  This is used
	      to prevent network flooding in some cases.  Defaults to 0.8 sec
	      onds.

       proxy_qlen
	      The  maximum  number of packets which may be queued to proxy-ARP
	      addresses.  Defaults to 64.

       retrans_time
	      The number of jiffies to delay before retransmitting a  request.
	      Defaults to 1 second.

       ucast_solicit
	      The  maximum  number  of	attempts to send unicast probes before
	      asking the ARP daemon (see app_solicit).	Defaults to 3.

       unres_qlen
	      The maximum number of packets which may be queued for each unre
	      solved address by other network layers.  Defaults to 3.

VERSIONS
       The  struct  arpreq  changed in Linux 2.0 to include the arp_dev member
       and the ioctl numbers changed at the same time.	Support  for  the  old
       ioctls was dropped in Linux 2.2.

       Support	 for  proxy  arp  entries  for	networks  (netmask  not  equal
       0xffffffff) was dropped in Linux 2.2.   It  is  replaced  by  automatic
       proxy  arp  setup by the kernel for all reachable hosts on other inter
       faces (when forwarding and proxy arp is enabled for the interface).

       The neigh/* sysctls did not exist before Linux 2.2.

BUGS
       Some timer settings are specified in jiffies,  which  is  architecture-
       and kernel version-dependent; see time(7).

       There  is  no  way  to  signal positive feedback from user space.  This
       means connection oriented protocols implemented in user space will gen
       erate  excessive  ARP traffic, because ndisc will regularly reprobe the
       MAC address.  The same problem applies for some kernel protocols (e.g.,
       NFS over UDP).

       This  man  page	mashes	IPv4 specific and shared between IPv4 and IPv6
       functionality together.

SEE ALSO
       capabilities(7), ip(7)

       RFC 826 for a description of ARP.
       RFC 2461 for a description of IPv6  neighbor  discovery	and  the  base
       algorithms used.

       Linux 2.2+ IPv4 ARP uses the IPv6 algorithms when applicable.

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux				  2007-07-27				ARP(7)




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