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ROUTE(4)		     Kernel Interfaces Manual			ROUTE(4)

NAME
     route -- kernel packet forwarding database

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

     int
     socket(PF_ROUTE, SOCK_RAW, int family);

DESCRIPTION
     Unix provides some packet routing facilities.  The kernel maintains a rout-
     ing  information  database, which is used in selecting the appropriate net-
     work interface when transmitting packets.

     A user process (or possibly multiple co-operating processes) maintains this
     database by sending messages over a special kind of socket.  This supplants
     fixed size ioctl(2)'s used in earlier releases.  Routing table changes  may
     only be carried out by the super user.

     The operating system may spontaneously emit routing messages in response to
     external  events,	such  as  receipt  of a redirect, or failure to locate a
     suitable route for a request.  The message types are described  in  greater
     detail below.

     Routing  database	entries come in two flavors: for a specific host, or for
     all hosts on a generic subnetwork (as specified by a bit mask and value un-
     der the mask.  The effect of wildcard or default route may be  achieved  by
     using a mask of all zeros, and there may be hierarchical routes.

     When  the system is booted and addresses are assigned to the network inter-
     faces, each protocol family installs a routing table entry for each  inter-
     face  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).

     When routing a packet, the kernel will attempt to find  the  most	specific
     route  matching  the  destination.   (If  there  are two different mask and
     value-under-the-mask pairs that match, the more specific is  the  one  with
     more  bits  in  the  mask.  A route to a host is regarded as being supplied
     with a mask of as many ones as there are bits in the destination).   If  no
     entry  is found, the destination is declared to be unreachable, and a rout-
     ing-miss message is generated if there are any  listeners	on  the  routing
     control socket described below.

     A	wildcard  routing  entry  is  specified  with a zero destination address
     value, and a mask of all zeroes.  Wildcard routes will  be  used  when  the
     system  fails  to find other routes matching the destination.  The combina-
     tion of wildcard routes and routing redirects  can  provide  an  economical
     mechanism for routing traffic.

     One  opens  the  channel  for passing routing control messages by using the
     socket call shown in the synopsis above:

     The family parameter may be AF_UNSPEC which will provide  routing	informa-
     tion  for	all address families, or can be restricted to a specific address
     family by specifying which one is desired.  There	can  be  more  than  one
     routing socket open per system.

     Messages  are  formed  by	a header followed by a small number of sockaddrs
     (now variable length particularly in the ISO case),  interpreted  by  posi-
     tion, and delimited by the new length entry in the sockaddr.  An example of
     a	message  with four addresses might be an ISO redirect: Destination, Net-
     mask, Gateway, and Author of the redirect.  The interpretation of which ad-
     dress are present is given by a bit mask within the  header,  and	the  se-
     quence is least significant to most significant bit within the vector.

     Any  messages  sent  to the kernel are returned, and copies are sent to all
     interested listeners.  The exception to this is a	new  address  marked  as
     tentative,  where	copies will be sent once Duplicate Address Detection has
     completed and the tentative flag cleared or the duplicated flag set.  Also,
     new address messages will also be emitted when other flags on  the  address
     change  such  as  deprecated  and	detached.   The  kernel will provide the
     process ID for the sender, and the sender may use	an  additional	sequence
     field  to	distinguish  between  outstanding  messages.   However,  message
     replies may be lost when kernel buffers are exhausted.

     The kernel may reject certain messages, and will indicate this  by  filling
     in  the  rtm_errno  field.  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.   In  the current implementation, all routing processes run locally,
     and the values for rtm_errno are available through the normal errno  mecha-
     nism, even if the routing reply message is lost.

     A	process  may avoid the expense of reading replies to its own messages by
     issuing a setsockopt(2) call indicating that the SO_USELOOPBACK  option  at
     the  SOL_SOCKET  level  is to be turned off.  A process may ignore all mes-
     sages from the routing socket by doing a shutdown(2) system call  for  fur-
     ther input.

     A process can specify which route message types it's interested in by pass-
     ing  an  array  of  route	message types to the setsockopt(2) call with the
     RO_MSGFILTER option at the PF_ROUTE level.  For example, to only  get  spe-
     cific messages:

	   unsigned char rtfilter[] = { RTM_IFINFO, RTM_IFANNOUNCE };

	   if (setsockopt(routefd, PF_ROUTE, RO_MSGFILTER,
	       &rtfilter, (socklen_t)sizeof(rtfilter)) == -1)
		   err(1, "setsockopt(RO_MSGFILTER)");

     A	process can specify which RTM_MISS destination addresses it's interested
     in by passing an array of struct sockaddr to the  setsockopt(2)  call  with
     the  RO_MISSFILTER  option at the PF_ROUTE level.	For example, to only get
     RTM_MISS messages for specific destinations:

	   char buf[1024] = { '\0' }, *cp = buf;
	   struct sockaddr_in sin = {
		   .sin_family = AF_INET,
		   .sin_len = sizeof(sin),
	   };

	   inet_aton("192.168.0.1", &sin.sin_addr);
	   memcpy(cp, &sin, sin.sin_len);
	   cp += RT_ROUNDUP(sin.sin_len);

	   inet_aton("192.168.0.2", &sin.sin_addr);
	   memcpy(cp, &sin, sin.sin_len);
	   cp += RT_ROUNDUP(sin.sin_len);

	   if (setsockopt(routefd, PF_ROUTE, RO_MISSFILTER,
	       &sin, (socklen_t)(cp - buf)) == -1)
		   err(1, "setsockopt(RO_MISSFILTER)");

     If a route is in use when it is deleted, 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.   User
     processes can obtain information about the routing entry to a specific des-
     tination by using a RTM_GET message, or by reading the /dev/kmem device, or
     by calling sysctl(3).

     The messages are:

     #define RTM_ADD	     0x1    /* Add Route */
     #define RTM_DELETE      0x2    /* Delete Route */
     #define RTM_CHANGE      0x3    /* Change Metrics, Flags, or Gateway */
     #define RTM_GET	     0x4    /* Report Information */
     #define RTM_LOSING      0x5    /* Kernel Suspects Partitioning */
     #define RTM_REDIRECT    0x6    /* Told to use different route */
     #define RTM_MISS	     0x7    /* Lookup failed on this address */
     #define RTM_LOCK	     0x8     /* fix specified metrics */
     #define RTM_OLDADD      0x9     /* caused by SIOCADDRT */
     #define RTM_OLDDEL      0xa     /* caused by SIOCDELRT */
     #define RTM_ONEWADDR    0xc    /* Old (pre-8.0) RTM_NEWADDR message */
     // #define RTM_RESOLVE  0xb     /* req to resolve dst to LL addr */
     #define RTM_ODELADDR    0xd    /* Old (pre-8.0) RTM_DELADDR message */
     #define RTM_OOIFINFO    0xe    /* Old (pre-1.5) RTM_IFINFO message */
     #define RTM_OIFINFO     0xf    /* Old (pre-6.0) RTM_IFINFO message */
     #define RTM_IFANNOUNCE  0x10   /* iface arrival/departure */
     #define RTM_IEEE80211   0x11    /* IEEE80211 wireless event */
     #define RTM_SETGATE     0x12    /* set prototype gateway for clones
				      * (see example in arp_rtrequest).
				      */
     #define RTM_LLINFO_UPD  0x13    /* indication to ARP/NDP/etc. that link-layer
				      * address has changed
				      */
     #define RTM_IFINFO      0x14   /* iface/link going up/down etc. */
     #define RTM_OCHGADDR    0x15   /* Old (pre-8.0) RTM_CHGADDR message */
     #define RTM_NEWADDR     0x16   /* address being added to iface */
     #define RTM_DELADDR     0x17   /* address being removed from iface */
     #define RTM_CHGADDR     0x18   /* address properties changed */

     A message header consists of one of the following:

     struct rt_msghdr {
	 u_short rtm_msglen;	    /* to skip over non-understood messages */
	 u_char  rtm_version;	    /* future binary compatibility */
	 u_char  rtm_type;	    /* message type */
	 u_short rtm_index;	    /* index for associated ifp */
	 int	 rtm_flags;	    /* flags, incl kern & message, e.g. DONE */
	 int	 rtm_addrs;	    /* bitmask identifying sockaddrs in msg */
	 pid_t	 rtm_pid;	    /* identify sender */
	 int	 rtm_seq;	    /* for sender to identify action */
	 int	 rtm_errno;	    /* why failed */
	 int	 rtm_use;	    /* from rtentry */
	 u_long  rtm_inits;	    /* which metrics we are initializing */
	 struct  rt_metrics rtm_rmx; /* metrics themselves */
     };

     struct if_msghdr {
	 u_short ifm_msglen;	    /* to skip over non-understood messages */
	 u_char  ifm_version;	    /* future binary compatibility */
	 u_char  ifm_type;	    /* message type */
	 int	 ifm_addrs;	    /* like rtm_addrs */
	 int	 ifm_flags;	    /* value of if_flags */
	 u_short ifm_index;	    /* index for associated ifp */
	 struct  if_data ifm_data;  /* statistics and other data about if */
     };

     struct ifa_msghdr {
	 u_short ifam_msglen;	    /* to skip over non-understood messages */
	 u_char  ifam_version;	    /* future binary compatibility */
	 u_char  ifam_type;	    /* message type */
	 u_short ifam_index;	    /* index for associated ifp */
	 int	 ifam_flags;	    /* value of ifa_flags */
	 int	 ifam_addrs;	    /* like rtm_addrs */
	 pid_t	 ifam_pid;	    /* identify sender */
	 int	 ifam_addrflags;    /* family specific address flags */
	 int	 ifam_metric;	    /* value of ifa_metric */
     };

     struct if_announcemsghdr {
	 u_short ifan_msglen;	    /* to skip over non-understood messages */
	 u_char  ifan_version;	    /* future binary compatibility */
	 u_char  ifan_type;	    /* message type */
	 u_short ifan_index;	    /* index for associated ifp */
	 char	 ifan_name[IFNAMSIZ]; /* if name, e.g. "en0" */
	 u_short ifan_what;	    /* what type of announcement */
     };

     The   RTM_IFINFO	message   uses	a  if_msghdr  header,  the  RTM_NEWADDR,
     RTM_CHGADDR,  and	RTM_DELADDR  messages  use  a  ifa_msghdr  header,   the
     RTM_IFANNOUNCE  message uses a if_announcemsghdr header, and all other mes-
     sages use the rt_msghdr header.

     The metrics structure is:

     struct rt_metrics {
	 u_long rmx_locks;	    /* Kernel must leave these values alone */
	 u_long rmx_mtu;	    /* MTU for this path */
	 u_long rmx_hopcount;	    /* max hops expected */
	 u_long rmx_expire;	    /* lifetime for route, e.g. redirect */
	 u_long rmx_recvpipe;	    /* inbound delay-bandwidth product */
	 u_long rmx_sendpipe;	    /* outbound delay-bandwidth product */
	 u_long rmx_ssthresh;	    /* outbound gateway buffer limit */
	 u_long rmx_rtt;	    /* estimated round trip time */
	 u_long rmx_rttvar;	    /* estimated rtt variance */
	 u_long rmx_pksent;	    /* packets sent using this route */
     };

     Flags include the values:

     #define RTF_UP	   0x1	     /* route usable */
     #define RTF_GATEWAY   0x2	     /* destination is a gateway */
     #define RTF_HOST	   0x4	     /* host entry (net otherwise) */
     #define RTF_REJECT    0x8	     /* host or net unreachable */
     #define RTF_DYNAMIC   0x10      /* created dynamically (by redirect) */
     #define RTF_MODIFIED  0x20      /* modified dynamically (by redirect) */
     #define RTF_DONE	   0x40      /* message confirmed */
     #define RTF_MASK	   0x80      /* subnet mask present */
     #define RTF_CONNECTED 0x100     /* hosts on this route are neighbours */
     #define RTF_LLDATA    0x400     /* used by apps to add/del L2 entries */
     #define RTF_STATIC    0x800     /* manually added */
     #define RTF_BLACKHOLE 0x1000    /* just discard pkts (during updates) */
     #define RTF_PROTO2    0x4000    /* protocol specific routing flag */
     #define RTF_PROTO1    0x8000    /* protocol specific routing flag */
     #define RTF_SRC	   0x10000   /* route has fixed source address */
     #define RTF_ANNOUNCE  0x20000   /* announce new ARP or NDP entry */
     #define RTF_LOCAL	   0x40000   /* route represents a local address */
     #define RTF_BROADCAST 0x80000   /* route represents a bcast address */

     Specifiers for metric values in rmx_locks and rtm_inits are:

     #define RTV_MTU	   0x1	  /* init or lock _mtu */
     #define RTV_HOPCOUNT  0x2	  /* init or lock _hopcount */
     #define RTV_EXPIRE    0x4	  /* init or lock _expire */
     #define RTV_RPIPE	   0x8	  /* init or lock _recvpipe */
     #define RTV_SPIPE	   0x10   /* init or lock _sendpipe */
     #define RTV_SSTHRESH  0x20   /* init or lock _ssthresh */
     #define RTV_RTT	   0x40   /* init or lock _rtt */
     #define RTV_RTTVAR    0x80   /* init or lock _rttvar */

     Specifiers for which addresses are present in the messages are:

     #define RTA_DST	   0x1	  /* destination sockaddr present */
     #define RTA_GATEWAY   0x2	  /* gateway sockaddr present */
     #define RTA_NETMASK   0x4	  /* netmask sockaddr present */
     #define RTA_GENMASK   0x8	  /* cloning mask sockaddr present */
     #define RTA_IFP	   0x10   /* interface name sockaddr present */
     #define RTA_IFA	   0x20   /* interface addr sockaddr present */
     #define RTA_AUTHOR    0x40   /* sockaddr for author of redirect */
     #define RTA_BRD	   0x80   /* for NEWADDR, broadcast or p-p dest addr */
     #define RTA_TAG	   0x100  /* route tag */

     Flags for IPv6 addresses:

     #define IN6_IFF_ANYCAST	     0x01    /* anycast address */
     #define IN6_IFF_TENTATIVE	     0x02    /* tentative address */
     #define IN6_IFF_DUPLICATED      0x04    /* DAD detected duplicate */
     #define IN6_IFF_DETACHED	     0x08    /* may be detached from the link */
     #define IN6_IFF_DEPRECATED      0x10    /* deprecated address */
     #define IN6_IFF_NODAD	     0x20    /* don't perform DAD on this address
					      * (used only at first SIOC* call)
					      */
     #define IN6_IFF_AUTOCONF	     0x40    /* autoconfigurable address. */
     #define IN6_IFF_TEMPORARY	     0x80    /* temporary (anonymous) address. */

SEE ALSO
     socket(2), sysctl(3)

HISTORY
     Since NetBSD 8.0, RTF_CLONED,  RTF_CLONING,  RTF_LLINFO,  RTF_XRESOLVE  and
     RTM_RESOLVE  were	obsolete.   RTF_CONNECTED  and	RTF_LLDATA  appeared  in
     NetBSD 8.0.

     ifa_msghdr gained the fields ifam_pid and ifam_addrflags in NetBSD 8.0.

NetBSD 11.0			February 4, 2020			ROUTE(4)

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