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ng_ether(4)

NAME

     ng_ether -- Ethernet netgraph node type

SYNOPSIS

     #include <netgraph/ng_ether.h>

DESCRIPTION

     The ether netgraph node type allows Ethernet interfaces to interact with
     the netgraph(4) networking subsystem.  Once the ng_ether module is loaded
     into the kernel, a node is automatically created for each Ethernet inter-
     face in the system.  Each node will attempt to name itself with the same
     name as the associated interface.	All ether nodes are persistent for as
     long as the interface itself exists.

     Three hooks are supported: lower, upper, and orphans.  The hook name
     divert may be used as an alias for lower, and is provided for backward
     compatibility.  In reality, the two names represent the same hook.

     The lower hook is a connection to the raw Ethernet device.  When con-
     nected, all incoming packets are forwarded to this hook, instead of being
     passed to the kernel for upper layer processing.  Writing to this hook
     results in a raw Ethernet frame being transmitted by the device.  Normal
     outgoing packets are not affected by lower being connected.

     The upper hook is a connection to the upper protocol layers.  When con-
     nected, all outgoing packets are forwarded to this hook, instead of being
     transmitted by the device.  Writing to this hook results in a raw Ether-
     net frame being received by the kernel just as if it had come in over the
     wire.  Normal incoming packets are not affected by upper being connected.

     The orphans hook is equivalent to lower, except that only unrecognized
     packets (that would otherwise be discarded) are written to the hook,
     while other normal incoming traffic is unaffected.  Unrecognized packets
     written to upper will be forwarded back out to orphans if connected.

     In all cases, frames are raw Ethernet frames with the standard 14 byte
     Ethernet header (but no checksum).

     When no hooks are connected, upper and lower are in effect connected
     together, so that packets flow normally upwards and downwards.

HOOKS

     This node type supports the following hooks:

     lower    Connection to the lower device link layer.

     upper    Connection to the upper protocol layers.

     orphans  Like lower, but only receives unrecognized packets.

CONTROL MESSAGES

     This node type supports the generic control messages, plus the following:

     NGM_ETHER_GET_IFNAME (getifname)
	     Returns the name of the associated interface as a NUL-terminated
	     ASCII string.  Normally this is the same as the name of the node.

	     Sets the device's unique six byte Ethernet address.  This control
	     message is equivalent to using the SIOCSIFLLADDR ioctl(2) system
	     call.

     NGM_ETHER_SET_PROMISC (setpromisc)
	     Enable or disable promiscuous mode.  This message includes a sin-
	     gle 32 bit integer flag that enables or disables promiscuous mode
	     on the interface.	Any non-zero value enables promiscuous mode.

     NGM_ETHER_GET_PROMISC (getpromisc)
	     Get the current value of the node's promiscuous flag.  The
	     returned value is always either one or zero.  Note that this flag
	     reflects the node's own promiscuous setting and does not neces-
	     sarily reflect the promiscuous state of the actual interface,
	     which can be affected by other means (e.g., bpf(4)).

     NGM_ETHER_SET_AUTOSRC (setautosrc)
	     Sets the automatic source address override flag.  This message
	     includes a single 32 bit integer flag that causes all outgoing
	     packets to have their source Ethernet address field overwritten
	     with the device's unique Ethernet address.  If this flag is set
	     to zero, the source address in outgoing packets is not modified.
	     The default setting for this flag is enabled.

     NGM_ETHER_GET_AUTOSRC (getautosrc)
	     Get the current value of the node's source address override flag.
	     The returned value is always either one or zero.

SHUTDOWN

     This node is persistent for as long as the corresponding interface
     exists.  Upon receipt of the NGM_SHUTDOWN control message, all hooks are
     disconnected, promiscuous mode is disabled, and the source address over-
     ride flag is re-enabled, but the node is not removed.  If the interface
     itself is detached (e.g., because of PC Card removal), the node disap-
     pears as well.

EXAMPLES

     This command dumps all unrecognized packets received by the ``fxp0''
     interface to standard output decoded in hex and ASCII:

	   nghook -a fxp0: orphans

     This command sends the contents of sample.pkt out the interface ``fxp0'':

	   cat sample.pkt | nghook fxp0: orphans

     These commands insert an ng_tee(4) node between the lower and upper pro-
     tocol layers, which can be used for tracing packet flow, statistics,
     etc.:

	   ngctl mkpeer fxp0: tee lower right
	   ngctl connect fxp0: lower upper left

BUGS

     The automatic KLD module loading mechanism that works for most other Net-
     graph node types does not work for the ether node type, because ether
     nodes are not created on demand; instead, they are created when Ethernet
     interfaces are attached or when the KLD is first loaded.  Therefore, if
     Archie Cobbs <archie@FreeBSD.org>

FreeBSD 5.4			 May 16, 2004			   FreeBSD 5.4

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