arp

ARP(7)                     Linux Programmer's 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  ad-
       dresses  and  IPv4  protocol  addresses on directly connected networks.
       The user normally doesn't 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 AF_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 /proc interfaces described below.

       When there is no positive feedback for an existing mapping  after  some
       time  (see  the /proc interfaces below), a neighbor cache entry is con-
       sidered stale.  Positive feedback can be gotten from  a  higher  layer;
       for example from a successful TCP ACK.  Other protocols can signal for-
       ward 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 lo-
       cal arp daemon app_solicit times for an updated MAC address.   If  that
       fails  and  an  old  MAC  address  is  known,  a  unicast probe is sent
       ucast_solicit times.  If that fails too, it will broadcast  a  new  ARP
       request  to  the  network.   Requests  are sent only when there is data
       queued for sending.

       Linux will automatically add a nonpermanent proxy arp entry when it re-
       ceives 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  tar-
       get, no proxy arp entry is added.

   Ioctls
       Three ioctls are available on all AF_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  and deleting ARP maps are privileged operations and
       may be performed only by a process with the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability or
       an effective UID of 0.

       arp_pa must be an AF_INET address 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     | Don't 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.

   /proc interfaces
       ARP supports a range of /proc interfaces to configure parameters  on  a
       global or per-interface basis.  The interfaces can be accessed by read-
       ing or writing the /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/*/* files.  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  de-
       vices.   Unless otherwise specified, time-related interfaces are speci-
       fied in seconds.

       anycast_delay (since Linux 2.2)
              The maximum number of jiffies to delay before replying to a IPv6
              neighbor  solicitation  message.  Anycast support is not yet im-
              plemented.  Defaults to 1 second.

       app_solicit (since Linux 2.2)
              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 (since Linux 2.2)
              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 entry's validity  will  be  ex-
              tended if it receives positive feedback from higher level proto-
              cols.  Defaults to 30 seconds.  This file is now obsolete in fa-
              vor of base_reachable_time_ms.

       base_reachable_time_ms (since Linux 2.6.12)
              As  for  base_reachable_time, but measures time in milliseconds.
              Defaults to 30000 milliseconds.

       delay_first_probe_time (since Linux 2.2)
              Delay before first probe after it has been decided that a neigh-
              bor is stale.  Defaults to 5 seconds.

       gc_interval (since Linux 2.2)
              How frequently the garbage collector for neighbor entries should
              attempt to run.  Defaults to 30 seconds.

       gc_stale_time (since Linux 2.2)
              Determines how often to check for stale neighbor entries.   When
              a  neighbor  entry is considered stale, it is resolved again be-
              fore sending data to it.  Defaults to 60 seconds.

       gc_thresh1 (since Linux 2.2)
              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 (since Linux 2.2)
              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.   De-
              faults to 512.

       gc_thresh3 (since Linux 2.2)
              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 (since Linux 2.2)
              The minimum number of jiffies to keep an ARP entry in the cache.
              This prevents ARP cache thrashing if there is more than one  po-
              tential  mapping  (generally  due  to network misconfiguration).
              Defaults to 1 second.

       mcast_solicit (since Linux 2.2)
              The maximum number of attempts to resolve an address  by  multi-
              cast/broadcast  before  marking  the  entry as unreachable.  De-
              faults to 3.

       proxy_delay (since Linux 2.2)
              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 (since Linux 2.2)
              The  maximum  number of packets which may be queued to proxy-ARP
              addresses.  Defaults to 64.

       retrans_time (since Linux 2.2)
              The number of jiffies to delay before retransmitting a  request.
              Defaults to 1 second.  This file is now obsolete in favor of re-
              trans_time_ms.

       retrans_time_ms (since Linux 2.6.12)
              The number of milliseconds to delay before retransmitting a  re-
              quest.  Defaults to 1000 milliseconds.

       ucast_solicit (since Linux 2.2)
              The  maximum  number  of  attempts to send unicast probes before
              asking the ARP daemon (see app_solicit).  Defaults to 3.

       unres_qlen (since Linux 2.2)
              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/* interfaces 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 together functionality that is IPv4-specific with
       functionality that is shared between IPv4 and IPv6.

SEE ALSO
       capabilities(7), ip(7), arpd(8)

       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 5.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                             2017-09-15                            ARP(7)
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