ICMP(7) 		   Linux Programmers Manual		      ICMP(7)



NAME
       icmp, IPPROTO_ICMP - Linux IPv4 ICMP kernel module.

DESCRIPTION
       This  kernel  protocol  module  implements the Internet Control Message
       Protocol defined in RFC 792.  It is used to signal error conditions and
       for  diagnosis.	 The  user doesnt interact directly with this module;
       instead it communicates with the other  protocols  in  the  kernel  and
       these  pass the ICMP errors to the application layers.  The kernel ICMP
       module also answers ICMP requests.

       A user protocol may receive ICMP packets for all local sockets by open
       ing  a  raw socket with the protocol IPPROTO_ICMP.  See raw(7) for more
       information.  The types of ICMP packets passed to  the  socket  can  be
       filtered  using the ICMP_FILTER socket option.  ICMP packets are always
       processed by the kernel too, even when passed to a user socket.

       Linux limits the rate  of  ICMP	error  packets	to  each  destination.
       ICMP_REDIRECT and ICMP_DEST_UNREACH are also limited by the destination
       route of the incoming packets.

   Sysctls
       ICMP supports a sysctl interface to configure some  global  IP  parame
       ters.	The  sysctls  can  be  accessed  by  reading  or  writing  the
       /proc/sys/net/ipv4/* files or with the sysctl(2)  interface.   Most  of
       these  sysctls are rate limitations for specific ICMP types.  Linux 2.2
       uses a token bucket filter to limit ICMPs.  The value is the timeout in
       jiffies	until  the  token  bucket  filter is cleared after a burst.  A
       jiffy is a system dependent unit, usually 10ms on i386 and about 1ms on
       alpha and ia64.

       icmp_destunreach_rate
	      Maximum rate to send ICMP Destination Unreachable packets.  This
	      limits the rate at which packets	are  sent  to  any  individual
	      route  or  destination.	The  limit  does not affect sending of
	      ICMP_FRAG_NEEDED packets needed for path MTU discovery.

       icmp_echo_ignore_all
	      If this value is	non-zero,  Linux  will	ignore	all  ICMP_ECHO
	      requests.

       icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts
	      If this value is non-zero, Linux will ignore all ICMP_ECHO pack
	      ets sent to broadcast addresses.

       icmp_echoreply_rate
	      Maximum rate for sending ICMP_ECHOREPLY packets in  response  to
	      ICMP_ECHOREQUEST packets.

       icmp_paramprob_rate
	      Maximum  rate  for  sending  ICMP_PARAMETERPROB  packets.  These
	      packets are sent when  a	packet	arrives  with  an  invalid  IP
	      header.

       icmp_timeexceed_rate
	      Maximum  rate  for  sending  ICMP_TIME_EXCEEDED  packets.  These
	      packets are sent to prevent loops when a packet has crossed  too
	      many hops.

VERSIONS
       Support for the ICMP_ADDRESS request was removed in 2.2.

       Support for ICMP_SOURCE_QUENCH was removed in Linux 2.2.

NOTES
       As  many  other implementations dont support IPPROTO_ICMP raw sockets,
       this feature should not be relied on in portable programs.

       ICMP_REDIRECT packets are not sent  when  Linux	is  not  acting  as  a
       router.	 They  are  also only accepted from the old gateway defined in
       the routing table and the redirect routes are expired after some  time.

       The  64-bit  timestamp  returned  by  ICMP_TIMESTAMP is in milliseconds
       since January 1, 1970.

       Linux ICMP internally uses a raw socket to send ICMPs.  This raw socket
       may appear in netstat(8) output with a zero inode.

SEE ALSO
       ip(7)

       RFC 792 for a description of the ICMP protocol.

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				  1999-04-27			       ICMP(7)