NETINTRO(7)                                                        NETINTRO(7)


NAME
     networking - introduction to networking facilities

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/socket.h>
     #include <net/route.h>
     #include <net/if.h>

DESCRIPTION
     This section briefly describes the networking facilities available in the
     system.  Documentation in this part of section 7 is broken up into three
     areas:  protocol families (domains), protocols, and network interfaces.
     Entries describing a protocol family are marked ``7F,'' while entries
     describing protocol use are marked ``7P.''  Hardware support for network
     interfaces are found among the standard ``7'' entries.

     All network protocols are associated with a specific protocol family.  A
     protocol family provides basic services to the protocol implementation to
     allow it to function within a specific network environment.  These
     services may include packet fragmentation and reassembly, routing,
     addressing, and basic transport.  A protocol family may support multiple
     methods of addressing, though the current protocol implementations do
     not.  A protocol family is normally comprised of a number of protocols,
     one per socket(2) type.  It is not required that a protocol family
     support all socket types.  A protocol family may contain multiple
     protocols supporting the same socket abstraction.

     A protocol supports one of the socket abstractions detailed in socket(2).
     A specific protocol may be accessed either by creating a socket of the
     appropriate type and protocol family, or by requesting the protocol
     explicitly when creating a socket.  Protocols normally accept only one
     type of address format, usually determined by the addressing structure
     inherent in the design of the protocol family/network architecture.
     Certain semantics of the basic socket abstractions are protocol specific.
     All protocols are expected to support the basic model for their
     particular socket type, but may, in addition, provide non-standard
     facilities or extensions to a mechanism.  For example, a protocol
     supporting the SOCK_STREAM abstraction may allow more than one byte of
     out-of-band data to be transmitted per out-of-band message.

     A network interface is similar to a device interface.  Network interfaces
     comprise the lowest layer of the networking subsystem, interacting with
     the actual transport hardware.  An interface may support one or more
     protocol families and/or address formats.  The ethernet(7) manual entry
     lists messages which may appear on the console and/or in the system error
     log, /var/adm/SYSLOG (see syslogd(1M)), due to errors in device
     operation.

PROTOCOLS
     The system currently supports the DARPA Internet protocols.  Raw socket
     interfaces are provided to the IP protocol layer of the DARPA Internet
     and to the link-level layer.  Consult the appropriate manual pages in


     this section for more information regarding the support for each protocol
     family.

ADDRESSING
     Associated with each protocol family is an address format.  The following
     address formats are used by the system (and additional formats are
     defined for possible future implementation):

     #define AF_UNIX           1      /* local to host (pipes) */
     #define AF_INET           2      /* internetwork: UDP, TCP, etc. */

ROUTING
     The network facilities provided limited packet routing.  A simple set of
     data structures comprise a ``routing table'' used in selecting the
     appropriate network interface when transmitting packets.  This table
     contains a single entry for each route to a specific network or host.  A
     user process, the routing daemon, maintains this data base with the aid
     of two socket-specific ioctl(2) commands, SIOCADDRT and SIOCDELRT.  The
     commands allow the addition and deletion of a single routing table entry,
     respectively.  Routing table manipulations may only be carried out by
     super-user.

     A routing table entry has the following form, as defined in
     <net/route.h>;

     struct rtentry {
            u_long    rt_hash;
            struct    sockaddr rt_dst;
            struct    sockaddr rt_gateway;
            short     rt_flags;
            short     rt_refcnt;
            u_long    rt_use;
            struct    ifnet *rt_ifp;
     };

     with rt_flags defined from,

     #define RTF_UP            0x1    /* route usable */
     #define RTF_GATEWAY       0x2    /* destination is a gateway */
     #define RTF_HOST          0x4    /* host entry (net otherwise) */
     #define RTF_DYNAMIC       0x10   /* created dynamically (by redirect) */
     #define RTF_MODIFIED      0x10   /* modified dynamically (by redirect) */

     Routing table entries come in three flavors: for a specific host, for all
     hosts on a specific network, for any destination not matched by entries
     of the first two types (a wildcard route). When the system is booted and
     addresses are assigned to the network interfaces, each protocol family
     installs a routing table entry for each interface when it is ready for
     traffic.  Normally the protocol specifies the route through each
     interface as a ``direct'' connection to the destination host or network.
     If the route is direct, the transport layer of a protocol family usually
     requests the packet be sent to the same host specified in the packet.


     Otherwise, the interface is requested to address the packet to the
     gateway listed in the routing entry (i.e., the packet is forwarded).

     Routing table entries installed by a user process may not specify the
     hash, reference count, use, or interface fields; these are filled in by
     the routing routines.  If a route is in use when it is deleted (rt_refcnt
     is non-zero), the routing entry will be marked down and removed from the
     routing table, but the resources associated with it will not be reclaimed
     until all references to it are released. The routing code returns EEXIST
     if requested to duplicate an existing entry, ESRCH if requested to delete
     a non-existent entry, or ENOBUFS if insufficient resources were available
     to install a new route.  User processes read the routing tables through
     the /dev/kmem device.  The rt_use field contains the number of packets
     sent along the route.

     When routing a packet, the kernel will first attempt to find a route to
     the destination host.  Failing that, a search is made for a route to the
     network of the destination.  Finally, any route to a default
     (``wildcard'') gateway is chosen.  If multiple routes are present in the
     table, the first route found will be used.  If no entry is found, the
     destination is declared to be unreachable.

     A wildcard routing entry is specified with a zero destination address
     value.  Wildcard routes are used only when the system fails to find a
     route to the destination host and network.  The combination of wildcard
     routes and routing redirects can provide an economical mechanism for
     routing traffic.

INTERFACES
     Each network interface in a system corresponds to a path through which
     messages may be sent and received.  A network interface usually has a
     hardware device associated with it, though certain interfaces such as the
     loopback interface, lo(7), do not.

     The following ioctl calls may be used to manipulate network interfaces.
     The ioctl is made on a socket (typically of type SOCK_DGRAM) in the
     desired domain.  Unless specified otherwise, the request takes an
     ifrequest structure as its parameter.  This structure has the form

     struct    ifreq {
     #define   IFNAMSIZ  16
          char ifr_name[IFNAMSIZE];          /* if name, e.g. "enp0" */
          union {
               struct    sockaddr ifru_addr;
               struct    sockaddr ifru_dstaddr;
               struct    sockaddr ifru_broadaddr;
               short     ifru_flags;
               int  ifru_metric;
               caddr_t   ifru_data;
          } ifr_ifru;
     #define   ifr_addr       ifr_ifru.ifru_addr       /* address */
     #define   ifr_dstaddr    ifr_ifru.ifru_dstaddr    /* other end of p-to-p link */


     #define   ifr_broadaddr  ifr_ifru.ifru_broadaddr  /* broadcast address */
     #define   ifr_flags      ifr_ifru.ifru_flags      /* flags */
     #define   ifr_metric     ifr_ifru.ifru_metric          /* metric */
     #define   ifr_data       ifr_ifru.ifru_data       /* for use by interface */
     };

     SIOCSIFADDR
          Set interface address for protocol family.  Following the address
          assignment, the ``initialization'' routine for the interface is
          called.

     SIOCGIFADDR
          Get interface address for protocol family.

     SIOCSIFDSTADDR
          Set point to point address for protocol family and interface.

     SIOCGIFDSTADDR
          Get point to point address for protocol family and interface.

     SIOCSIFBRDADDR
          Set broadcast address for protocol family and interface.

     SIOCGIFBRDADDR
          Get broadcast address for protocol family and interface.

     SIOCSIFFLAGS
          Set interface flags field.  If the interface is marked down, any
          processes currently routing packets through the interface are
          notified; some interfaces may be reset so that incoming packets are
          no longer received.  When marked up again, the interface is
          reinitialized.

     SIOCGIFFLAGS
          Get interface flags.

     SIOCSIFMETRIC
          Set interface routing metric.  The metric is used only by user-level
          routers.

     SIOCGIFMETRIC
          Get interface metric.

     SIOCGIFCONF
          Get interface configuration list.  This request takes an ifconf
          structure (see below) as a value-result parameter.  The ifc_len
          field should be initially set to the size of the buffer pointed to
          by ifc_buf.  On return it will contain the length, in bytes, of the
          configuration list.


     /*
      * Structure used in SIOCGIFCONF request.
      * Used to retrieve interface configuration
      * for machine (useful for programs which
      * must know all networks accessible).
      */
     struct    ifconf {
          int  ifc_len;       /* size of associated buffer */
          union {
               caddr_t   ifcu_buf;
               struct    ifreq *ifcu_req;
          } ifc_ifcu;
     #define   ifc_buf   ifc_ifcu.ifcu_buf   /* buffer address */
     #define   ifc_req   ifc_ifcu.ifcu_req   /* array of structures returned */
     };

SEE ALSO
     socket(2), ioctl(2), routed(1M), route(7F), IRIX Network Programming
     Guide.


                                                                        Page 5