Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
dhclient-script(8)	    System Manager's Manual	    dhclient-script(8)

NAME
       dhclient-script - DHCP client network configuration script

DESCRIPTION
       The  DHCP  client  network configuration	script is invoked from time to
       time by dhclient(8).  This script is used by the	 dhcp  client  to  set
       each  interface's initial configuration prior to	requesting an address,
       to test the address once	it has been offered, and  to  set  the	inter-
       face's final configuration once a lease has been	acquired.  If no lease
       is  acquired, the script	is used	to test	predefined leases, if any, and
       also called once	if no valid lease can be identified.

       This script is not meant	to be customized by the	end  user.   If	 local
       customizations  are needed, they	should be possible using the enter and
       exit hooks provided (see	HOOKS for details).   These hooks  will	 allow
       the  user to override the default behaviour of the client in creating a
       /etc/resolv.conf	file.

       No standard client script  exists  for  some  operating	systems,  even
       though  the  actual client may work, so a pioneering user may well need
       to create a new script or modify	an existing  one.   In	general,  cus-
       tomizations  specific  to  a  particular	computer should	be done	in the
       ETCDIR/dhclient.conf file.   If you find	that you  can't	 make  such  a
       customization without customizing ETCDIR/dhclient.conf or using the en-
       ter and exit hooks, please submit a bug report.

HOOKS
       When  it	 starts,  the  client  script  first defines a shell function,
       make_resolv_conf	, which	is later used to create	 the  /etc/resolv.conf
       file.	To  override  the default behaviour, redefine this function in
       the enter hook script.

       On after	defining the  make_resolv_conf	function,  the	client	script
       checks  for  the	 presence of an	executable ETCDIR/dhclient-enter-hooks
       script, and if present, it invokes the script inline, using the	Bourne
       shell  '.' command.   The entire	environment documented under OPERATION
       is available to this script, which may modify the environment if	needed
       to change the behaviour of the script.	If an error occurs during  the
       execution  of  the  script,  it	can  set the exit_status variable to a
       nonzero value, and CLIENTBINDIR/dhclient-script will exit with that er-
       ror code	immediately after the client script exits.

       After all processing has	completed, CLIENTBINDIR/dhclient-script	checks
       for the presence	of an  executable  ETCDIR/dhclient-exit-hooks  script,
       which  if present is invoked using the '.' command.  The	exit status of
       dhclient-script will be passed to dhclient-exit-hooks in	the  exit_sta-
       tus  shell variable, and	will always be zero if the script succeeded at
       the task	for which it was invoked.   The	rest of	the environment	as de-
       scribed previously for  dhclient-enter-hooks  is	 also  present.	   The
       ETCDIR/dhclient-exit-hooks  script  can modify the valid	of exit_status
       to change the exit status of dhclient-script.

OPERATION
       When dhclient needs to invoke the client	configuration script,  it  de-
       fines  a	 set of	variables in the environment, and then invokes CLIENT-
       BINDIR/dhclient-script.	In all cases, $reason is set to	 the  name  of
       the reason why the script has been invoked.   The following reasons are
       currently  defined:  MEDIUM, PREINIT, BOUND, RENEW, REBIND, REBOOT, EX-
       PIRE, FAIL, STOP, RELEASE, NBI and TIMEOUT.

MEDIUM
       The DHCP	client is requesting that an interface's media	type  be  set.
       The  interface  name  is	 passed	 in  $interface, and the media type is
       passed in $medium.

PREINIT
       The DHCP	client is requesting that an interface be  configured  as  re-
       quired  in  order to send packets prior to receiving an actual address.
       For clients which use the BSD socket library,  this  means  configuring
       the  interface with an IP address of 0.0.0.0 and	a broadcast address of
       255.255.255.255.	  For other clients, it	may be possible	to simply con-
       figure the interface up without actually	giving it  an  IP  address  at
       all.    The  interface name is passed in	$interface, and	the media type
       in $medium.

       If an IP	alias has been declared	in dhclient.conf, its address will  be
       passed  in  $alias_ip_address, and that ip alias	should be deleted from
       the interface, along with any routes to it.

BOUND
       The DHCP	client has done	an initial binding to a	new address.   The new
       ip address is passed in $new_ip_address,	 and  the  interface  name  is
       passed  in $interface.	The media type is passed in $medium.   Any op-
       tions acquired from the server are passed using	the  option  name  de-
       scribed	in  dhcp-options, except that dashes ('-') are replaced	by un-
       derscores ('_') in order	to make	valid shell variables, and  the	 vari-
       able  names start with new_.  So	for example, the new subnet mask would
       be passed in $new_subnet_mask.  Options	from  a	 non-default  universe
       will  have  the universe	name prepended to the option name, for example
       $new_dhcp6_server_id.  The options that the client explicitly requested
       via a PRL or ORO	option are passed with the same	option name  as	 above
       but  prepended  with  requested_	and with a value of 1, for example re-
       quested_subnet_mask=1.  No such variable	is defined for options not re-
       quested by the client or	options	that don't require a  request  option,
       such as the ip address (*_ip_address) or	expiration time	(*_expiry).

       Before actually configuring the address,	dhclient-script	should somehow
       ARP  for	it and exit with a nonzero status if it	receives a reply.   In
       this case, the client will send a DHCPDECLINE message to	the server and
       acquire a different address.   This may also be done in the RENEW,  RE-
       BIND,  or REBOOT	states,	but is not required, and indeed	may not	be de-
       sirable.

       When a binding has been completed, a  lot  of  network  parameters  are
       likely  to need to be set up.   A new /etc/resolv.conf needs to be cre-
       ated, using the values of $new_domain_name and $new_domain_name_servers
       (which may list more than one server, separated by spaces).   A default
       route should be set using $new_routers, and static routes may  need  to
       be set up using $new_static_routes.

       If  an  IP alias	has been declared, it must be set up here.   The alias
       IP address will be written as $alias_ip_address,	and other DHCP options
       that are	set for	the alias (e.g., subnet	mask) will be passed in	 vari-
       ables  named  as	 described previously except starting with $alias_ in-
       stead of	$new_.	 Care should be	taken that the alias IP	address	not be
       used if it is identical to  the	bound  IP  address  ($new_ip_address),
       since the other alias parameters	may be incorrect in this case.

RENEW
       When  a binding has been	renewed, the script is called as in BOUND, ex-
       cept that in addition to	all the	variables  starting  with  $new_,  and
       $requested_  there  is  another	set  of	variables starting with	$old_.
       Persistent settings that	may have changed need to be deleted - for  ex-
       ample,  if  a local route to the	bound address is being configured, the
       old local route should be deleted.  If the default route	 has  changed,
       the  old	 default  route	 should	be deleted.  If	the static routes have
       changed,	the old	ones should be deleted.	 Otherwise, processing can  be
       done as with BOUND.

REBIND
       The  DHCP client	has rebound to a new DHCP server.  This	can be handled
       as with RENEW, except that if the IP address has	changed, the ARP table
       should be cleared.

REBOOT
       The DHCP	client has successfully	reacquired its old address after a re-
       boot.   This can	be processed as	with BOUND.

EXPIRE
       The DHCP	client has failed to renew its lease or	acquire	a new one, and
       the lease has expired.	The IP address must be relinquished,  and  all
       related parameters should be deleted, as	in RENEW and REBIND.

FAIL
       The  DHCP  client  has been unable to contact any DHCP servers, and any
       leases that have	been tested have not proved to be valid.   The parame-
       ters from the last lease	tested should be deconfigured.	 This  can  be
       handled in the same way as EXPIRE.

STOP
       The  dhclient  has been informed	to shut	down gracefully, the dhclient-
       script should unconfigure or shutdown the interface as appropriate.

RELEASE
       The dhclient has	been executed using the	-r flag, indicating  that  the
       administrator  wishes  it  to  release  its  lease(s).  dhclient-script
       should unconfigure or shutdown the interface.

NBI
       No-Broadcast-Interfaces...dhclient was unable to	 find  any  interfaces
       upon  which  it believed	it should commence DHCP.  What dhclient-script
       should do in this situation is entirely up to the implementor.

TIMEOUT
       The DHCP	client has been	unable to contact any DHCP servers.   However,
       an  old	lease has been identified, and its parameters have been	passed
       in as with BOUND.   The client configuration script should  test	 these
       parameters and, if it has reason	to believe they	are valid, should exit
       with a value of zero.   If not, it should exit with a nonzero value.

V6ONLY
       The  DHCPv4 client has received a requested valid v6-only-preferred op-
       tion. The system	should disable IPv4 on the interface. On its side  the
       dhclient	waits for V6ONLY_WAIT seconds (the timer is carried by the op-
       tion  with  a  minimum of MIN_V6ONLY_WAIT) before returning in the INIT
       state.

       The usual way to	test a lease is	to set up the network as  with	REBIND
       (since  this  may  be called to test more than one lease) and then ping
       the first router	defined	in $routers.  If a response is	received,  the
       lease must be valid for the network to which the	interface is currently
       connected.    It	 would	be  more  complete  to	try to ping all	of the
       routers listed in $new_routers, as well as those	 listed	 in  $new_sta-
       tic_routes, but current scripts do not do this.

FILES
       Each  operating	system	should generally have its own script file, al-
       though the script files for similar operating systems may be similar or
       even identical.	 The script files included in Internet Systems Consor-
       tium  DHCP  distribution	 appear	 in  the   distribution	  tree	 under
       client/scripts,	and  bear  the names of	the operating systems on which
       they are	intended to work.

BUGS
       If more than one	interface is being used, there's  no  obvious  way  to
       avoid  clashes  between	server-supplied	configuration parameters - for
       example,	the stock dhclient-script rewrites /etc/resolv.conf.   If more
       than one	interface is being configured, /etc/resolv.conf	 will  be  re-
       peatedly	initialized to the values provided by one server, and then the
       other.	 Assuming  the	information provided by	both servers is	valid,
       this shouldn't cause any	real problems, but it could be confusing.

SEE ALSO
       dhclient(8),    dhcpd(8),     dhcrelay(8),     dhclient.conf(5)	   and
       dhclient.leases(5).

AUTHOR
       dhclient-script(8) To learn more	about Internet Systems Consortium, see
       https://www.isc.org.

							    dhclient-script(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dhclient-script&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+14.3.quarterly>

home | help