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

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
IP(4)			 BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual			 IP(4)

NAME
     ip	-- Internet Protocol

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/socket.h>
     #include <netinet/in.h>

     int
     socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, proto);

DESCRIPTION
     IP	is the transport layer protocol	used by	the Internet protocol family.
     Options may be set	at the IP level	when using higher-level	protocols that
     are based on IP (such as TCP and UDP).  It	may also be accessed through a
     "raw socket" when developing new protocols, or special-purpose applica-
     tions.

     There are several IP-level	setsockopt(2) and getsockopt(2)	options.
     IP_OPTIONS	may be used to provide IP options to be	transmitted in the IP
     header of each outgoing packet or to examine the header options on	incom-
     ing packets.  IP options may be used with any socket type in the Internet
     family.  The format of IP options to be sent is that specified by the IP
     protocol specification (RFC-791), with one	exception: the list of ad-
     dresses for Source	Route options must include the first-hop gateway at
     the beginning of the list of gateways.  The first-hop gateway address
     will be extracted from the	option list and	the size adjusted accordingly
     before use.  To disable previously	specified options, use a zero-length
     buffer:

     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_OPTIONS, NULL, 0);

     IP_TOS and	IP_TTL may be used to set the type-of-service and time-to-live
     fields in the IP header for SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM, and certain types of
     SOCK_RAW sockets.	For example,

     int tos = IPTOS_LOWDELAY;	     /*	see <netinet/ip.h> */
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_TOS, &tos, sizeof(tos));

     int ttl = 60;		     /*	max = 255 */
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_TTL, &ttl, sizeof(ttl));

     IP_MINTTL may be used to set the minimum acceptable TTL a packet must
     have when received	on a socket.  All packets with a lower TTL are
     silently dropped.	This option is only really useful when set to 255,
     preventing	packets	from outside the directly connected networks reaching
     local listeners on	sockets.

     IP_DONTFRAG may be	used to	set the	Don't Fragment flag on IP packets.
     Currently this option is respected	only on	udp(4) and raw ip(4) sockets,
     unless the	IP_HDRINCL option has been set.	 On tcp(4) sockets, the	Don't
     Fragment flag is controlled by the	Path MTU Discovery option.  Sending a
     packet larger than	the MTU	size of	the egress interface, determined by
     the destination address, returns an EMSGSIZE error.

     If	the IP_RECVDSTADDR option is enabled on	a SOCK_DGRAM socket, the
     recvmsg(2)	call will return the destination IP address for	a UDP data-
     gram.  The	msg_control field in the msghdr	structure points to a buffer
     that contains a cmsghdr structure followed	by the IP address.  The
     cmsghdr fields have the following values:

     cmsg_len =	sizeof(struct in_addr)
     cmsg_level	= IPPROTO_IP
     cmsg_type = IP_RECVDSTADDR

     The source	address	to be used for outgoing	UDP datagrams on a socket that
     is	not bound to a specific	IP address can be specified as ancillary data
     with a type code of IP_SENDSRCADDR.  The msg_control field	in the msghdr
     structure should point to a buffer	that contains a	cmsghdr	structure fol-
     lowed by the IP address.  The cmsghdr fields should have the following
     values:

     cmsg_len =	sizeof(struct in_addr)
     cmsg_level	= IPPROTO_IP
     cmsg_type = IP_SENDSRCADDR

     For convenience, IP_SENDSRCADDR is	defined	to have	the same value as
     IP_RECVDSTADDR, so	the IP_RECVDSTADDR control message from	recvmsg(2) can
     be	used directly as a control message for sendmsg(2).

     If	the IP_ONESBCAST option	is enabled on a	SOCK_DGRAM or a	SOCK_RAW
     socket, the destination address of	outgoing broadcast datagrams on	that
     socket will be forced to the undirected broadcast address,
     INADDR_BROADCAST, before transmission.  This is in	contrast to the	de-
     fault behavior of the system, which is to transmit	undirected broadcasts
     via the first network interface with the IFF_BROADCAST flag set.

     This option allows	applications to	choose which interface is used to
     transmit an undirected broadcast datagram.	 For example, the following
     code would	force an undirected broadcast to be transmitted	via the	inter-
     face configured with the broadcast	address	192.168.2.255:

     char msg[512];
     struct sockaddr_in	sin;
     u_char onesbcast =	1;   /*	0 = disable (default), 1 = enable */

     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_ONESBCAST, &onesbcast, sizeof(onesbcast));
     sin.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("192.168.2.255");
     sin.sin_port = htons(1234);
     sendto(s, msg, sizeof(msg), 0, &sin, sizeof(sin));

     It	is the application's responsibility to set the IP_TTL option to	an ap-
     propriate value in	order to prevent broadcast storms.  The	application
     must have sufficient credentials to set the SO_BROADCAST socket level op-
     tion, otherwise the IP_ONESBCAST option has no effect.

     If	the IP_BINDANY option is enabled on a SOCK_STREAM, SOCK_DGRAM or a
     SOCK_RAW socket, one can bind(2) to any address, even one not bound to
     any available network interface in	the system.  This functionality	(in
     conjunction with special firewall rules) can be used for implementing a
     transparent proxy.	 The PRIV_NETINET_BINDANY privilege is needed to set
     this option.

     If	the IP_RECVTTL option is enabled on a SOCK_DGRAM socket, the
     recvmsg(2)	call will return the IP	TTL (time to live) field for a UDP
     datagram.	The msg_control	field in the msghdr structure points to	a buf-
     fer that contains a cmsghdr structure followed by the TTL.	 The cmsghdr
     fields have the following values:

     cmsg_len =	sizeof(u_char)
     cmsg_level	= IPPROTO_IP
     cmsg_type = IP_RECVTTL

     If	the IP_RECVIF option is	enabled	on a SOCK_DGRAM	socket,	the recvmsg(2)
     call returns a struct sockaddr_dl corresponding to	the interface on which
     the packet	was received.  The msg_control field in	the msghdr structure
     points to a buffer	that contains a	cmsghdr	structure followed by the
     struct sockaddr_dl.  The cmsghdr fields have the following	values:

     cmsg_len =	sizeof(struct sockaddr_dl)
     cmsg_level	= IPPROTO_IP
     cmsg_type = IP_RECVIF

     IP_PORTRANGE may be used to set the port range used for selecting a local
     port number on a socket with an unspecified (zero)	port number.  It has
     the following possible values:

     IP_PORTRANGE_DEFAULT  use the default range of values, normally
			   IPPORT_HIFIRSTAUTO through IPPORT_HILASTAUTO.  This
			   is adjustable through the sysctl setting:
			   net.inet.ip.portrange.first and
			   net.inet.ip.portrange.last.

     IP_PORTRANGE_HIGH	   use a high range of values, normally
			   IPPORT_HIFIRSTAUTO and IPPORT_HILASTAUTO.  This is
			   adjustable through the sysctl setting:
			   net.inet.ip.portrange.hifirst and
			   net.inet.ip.portrange.hilast.

     IP_PORTRANGE_LOW	   use a low range of ports, which are normally	re-
			   stricted to privileged processes on UNIX systems.
			   The range is	normally from IPPORT_RESERVED -	1 down
			   to IPPORT_RESERVEDSTART in descending order.	 This
			   is adjustable through the sysctl setting:
			   net.inet.ip.portrange.lowfirst and
			   net.inet.ip.portrange.lowlast.

     The range of privileged ports which only may be opened by root-owned pro-
     cesses may	be modified by the net.inet.ip.portrange.reservedlow and
     net.inet.ip.portrange.reservedhigh	sysctl settings.  The values default
     to	the traditional	range, 0 through IPPORT_RESERVED - 1 (0	through	1023),
     respectively.  Note that these settings do	not affect and are not ac-
     counted for in the	use or calculation of the other	net.inet.ip.portrange
     values above.  Changing these values departs from UNIX tradition and has
     security consequences that	the administrator should carefully evaluate
     before modifying these settings.

     Ports are allocated at random within the specified	port range in order to
     increase the difficulty of	random spoofing	attacks.  In scenarios such as
     benchmarking, this	behavior may be	undesirable.  In these cases,
     net.inet.ip.portrange.randomized can be used to toggle randomization off.
     If	more than net.inet.ip.portrange.randomcps ports	have been allocated in
     the last second, then return to sequential	port allocation.  Return to
     random allocation only once the current port allocation rate drops	below
     net.inet.ip.portrange.randomcps for at least
     net.inet.ip.portrange.randomtime seconds.	The default values for
     net.inet.ip.portrange.randomcps and net.inet.ip.portrange.randomtime are
     10	port allocations per second and	45 seconds correspondingly.

   Multicast Options
     IP	multicasting is	supported only on AF_INET sockets of type SOCK_DGRAM
     and SOCK_RAW, and only on networks	where the interface driver supports
     multicasting.

     The IP_MULTICAST_TTL option changes the time-to-live (TTL)	for outgoing
     multicast datagrams in order to control the scope of the multicasts:

     u_char ttl;     /*	range: 0 to 255, default = 1 */
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_MULTICAST_TTL, &ttl, sizeof(ttl));

     Datagrams with a TTL of 1 are not forwarded beyond	the local network.
     Multicast datagrams with a	TTL of 0 will not be transmitted on any	net-
     work, but may be delivered	locally	if the sending host belongs to the
     destination group and if multicast	loopback has not been disabled on the
     sending socket (see below).  Multicast datagrams with TTL greater than 1
     may be forwarded to other networks	if a multicast router is attached to
     the local network.

     For hosts with multiple interfaces, where an interface has	not been spec-
     ified for a multicast group membership, each multicast transmission is
     sent from the primary network interface.  The IP_MULTICAST_IF option
     overrides the default for subsequent transmissions	from a given socket:

     struct in_addr addr;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_MULTICAST_IF,	&addr, sizeof(addr));

     where "addr" is the local IP address of the desired interface or
     INADDR_ANY	to specify the default interface.

     To	specify	an interface by	index, an instance of ip_mreqn may be passed
     instead.  The imr_ifindex member should be	set to the index of the	de-
     sired interface, or 0 to specify the default interface.  The kernel dif-
     ferentiates between these two structures by their size.

     The use of	IP_MULTICAST_IF	is not recommended, as multicast memberships
     are scoped	to each	individual interface.  It is supported for legacy use
     only by applications, such	as routing daemons, which expect to be able to
     transmit link-local IPv4 multicast	datagrams (224.0.0.0/24) on multiple
     interfaces, without requesting an individual membership for each inter-
     face.

     An	interface's local IP address and multicast capability can be obtained
     via the SIOCGIFCONF and SIOCGIFFLAGS ioctls.  Normal applications should
     not need to use this option.

     If	a multicast datagram is	sent to	a group	to which the sending host it-
     self belongs (on the outgoing interface), a copy of the datagram is, by
     default, looped back by the IP layer for local delivery.  The
     IP_MULTICAST_LOOP option gives the	sender explicit	control	over whether
     or	not subsequent datagrams are looped back:

     u_char loop;    /*	0 = disable, 1 = enable	(default) */
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_MULTICAST_LOOP, &loop, sizeof(loop));

     This option improves performance for applications that may	have no	more
     than one instance on a single host	(such as a routing daemon), by elimi-
     nating the	overhead of receiving their own	transmissions.	It should gen-
     erally not	be used	by applications	for which there	may be more than one
     instance on a single host (such as	a conferencing program)	or for which
     the sender	does not belong	to the destination group (such as a time
     querying program).

     The sysctl	setting	net.inet.ip.mcast.loop controls	the default setting of
     the IP_MULTICAST_LOOP socket option for new sockets.

     A multicast datagram sent with an initial TTL greater than	1 may be de-
     livered to	the sending host on a different	interface from that on which
     it	was sent, if the host belongs to the destination group on that other
     interface.	 The loopback control option has no effect on such delivery.

     A host must become	a member of a multicast	group before it	can receive
     datagrams sent to the group.  To join a multicast group, use the
     IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP option:

     struct ip_mreq mreq;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP, &mreq, sizeof(mreq));

     where mreq	is the following structure:

     struct ip_mreq {
	 struct	in_addr	imr_multiaddr; /* IP multicast address of group	*/
	 struct	in_addr	imr_interface; /* local	IP address of interface	*/
     }

     imr_interface should be set to the	IP address of a	particular multicast-
     capable interface if the host is multihomed.  It may be set to INADDR_ANY
     to	choose the default interface, although this is not recommended;	this
     is	considered to be the first interface corresponding to the default
     route.  Otherwise,	the first multicast-capable interface configured in
     the system	will be	used.

     Prior to FreeBSD 7.0, if the imr_interface	member is within the network
     range 0.0.0.0/8, it is treated as an interface index in the system	inter-
     face MIB, as per the RIP Version 2	MIB Extension (RFC-1724).  In versions
     of	FreeBSD	since 7.0, this	behavior is no longer supported.  Developers
     should instead use	the RFC	3678 multicast source filter APIs; in particu-
     lar, MCAST_JOIN_GROUP.

     Up	to IP_MAX_MEMBERSHIPS memberships may be added on a single socket.
     Membership	is associated with a single interface; programs	running	on
     multihomed	hosts may need to join the same	group on more than one inter-
     face.

     To	drop a membership, use:

     struct ip_mreq mreq;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP, &mreq, sizeof(mreq));

     where mreq	contains the same values as used to add	the membership.	 Mem-
     berships are dropped when the socket is closed or the process exits.

     The IGMP protocol uses the	primary	IP address of the interface as its
     identifier	for group membership.  This is the first IP address configured
     on	the interface.	If this	address	is removed or changed, the results are
     undefined,	as the IGMP membership state will then be inconsistent.	 If
     multiple IP aliases are configured	on the same interface, they will be
     ignored.

     This shortcoming was addressed in IPv6; MLDv2 requires that the unique
     link-local	address	for an interface is used to identify an	MLDv2 lis-
     tener.

   Source-Specific Multicast Options
     Since FreeBSD 8.0,	the use	of Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) is sup-
     ported.  These extensions require an IGMPv3 multicast router in order to
     make best use of them.  If	a legacy multicast router is present on	the
     link, FreeBSD will	simply downgrade to the	version	of IGMP	spoken by the
     router, and the benefits of source	filtering on the upstream link will
     not be present, although the kernel will continue to squelch transmis-
     sions from	blocked	sources.

     Each group	membership on a	socket now has a filter	mode:

     MCAST_EXCLUDE  Datagrams sent to this group are accepted, unless the
		    source is in a list	of blocked source addresses.

     MCAST_INCLUDE  Datagrams sent to this group are accepted only if the
		    source is in a list	of accepted source addresses.

     Groups joined using the legacy IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP option are placed	in ex-
     clusive-mode, and are able	to request that	certain	sources	are blocked or
     allowed.  This is known as	the delta-based	API.

     To	block a	multicast source on an existing	group membership:

     struct ip_mreq_source mreqs;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_BLOCK_SOURCE,	&mreqs,	sizeof(mreqs));

     where mreqs is the	following structure:

     struct ip_mreq_source {
	 struct	in_addr	imr_multiaddr; /* IP multicast address of group	*/
	 struct	in_addr	imr_sourceaddr;	/* IP address of source	*/
	 struct	in_addr	imr_interface; /* local	IP address of interface	*/
     }
     imr_sourceaddr should be set to the address of the	source to be blocked.

     To	unblock	a multicast source on an existing group:

     struct ip_mreq_source mreqs;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_UNBLOCK_SOURCE, &mreqs, sizeof(mreqs));

     The IP_BLOCK_SOURCE and IP_UNBLOCK_SOURCE options are not permitted for
     inclusive-mode group memberships.

     To	join a multicast group in MCAST_INCLUDE	mode with a single source, or
     add another source	to an existing inclusive-mode membership:

     struct ip_mreq_source mreqs;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP, &mreqs, sizeof(mreqs));

     To	leave a	single source from an existing group in	inclusive mode:

     struct ip_mreq_source mreqs;
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_DROP_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP, &mreqs, sizeof(mreqs));
     If	this is	the last accepted source for the group,	the membership will be
     dropped.

     The IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP and IP_DROP_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP	options	are
     not accepted for exclusive-mode group memberships.	 However, both exclu-
     sive and inclusive	mode memberships support the use of the	full-state API
     documented	in RFC 3678.  For management of	source filter lists using this
     API, please refer to sourcefilter(3).

     The sysctl	settings net.inet.ip.mcast.maxsocksrc and
     net.inet.ip.mcast.maxgrpsrc are used to specify an	upper limit on the
     number of per-socket and per-group	source filter entries which the	kernel
     may allocate.

   Raw IP Sockets
     Raw IP sockets are	connectionless,	and are	normally used with the
     sendto(2) and recvfrom(2) calls, though the connect(2) call may also be
     used to fix the destination for future packets (in	which case the read(2)
     or	recv(2)	and write(2) or	send(2)	system calls may be used).

     If	proto is 0, the	default	protocol IPPROTO_RAW is	used for outgoing
     packets, and only incoming	packets	destined for that protocol are re-
     ceived.  If proto is non-zero, that protocol number will be used on out-
     going packets and to filter incoming packets.

     Outgoing packets automatically have an IP header prepended	to them	(based
     on	the destination	address	and the	protocol number	the socket is created
     with), unless the IP_HDRINCL option has been set.	Incoming packets are
     received with IP header and options intact.

     IP_HDRINCL	indicates the complete IP header is included with the data and
     may be used only with the SOCK_RAW	type.

     #include <netinet/in_systm.h>
     #include <netinet/ip.h>

     int hincl = 1;		     /*	1 = on,	0 = off	*/
     setsockopt(s, IPPROTO_IP, IP_HDRINCL, &hincl, sizeof(hincl));

     Unlike previous BSD releases, the program must set	all the	fields of the
     IP	header,	including the following:

     ip->ip_v =	IPVERSION;
     ip->ip_hl = hlen >> 2;
     ip->ip_id = 0;  /*	0 means	kernel set appropriate value */
     ip->ip_off	= offset;

     The ip_len	and ip_off fields must be provided in host byte	order .	 All
     other fields must be provided in network byte order.  See byteorder(3)
     for more information on network byte order.  If the ip_id field is	set to
     0 then the	kernel will choose an appropriate value.  If the header	source
     address is	set to INADDR_ANY, the kernel will choose an appropriate ad-
     dress.

ERRORS
     A socket operation	may fail with one of the following errors returned:

     [EISCONN]		when trying to establish a connection on a socket
			which already has one, or when trying to send a	data-
			gram with the destination address specified and	the
			socket is already connected;

     [ENOTCONN]		when trying to send a datagram,	but no destination ad-
			dress is specified, and	the socket has not been	con-
			nected;

     [ENOBUFS]		when the system	runs out of memory for an internal
			data structure;

     [EADDRNOTAVAIL]	when an	attempt	is made	to create a socket with	a net-
			work address for which no network interface exists.

     [EACCES]		when an	attempt	is made	to create a raw	IP socket by a
			non-privileged process.

     The following errors specific to IP may occur when	setting	or getting IP
     options:

     [EINVAL]		An unknown socket option name was given.

     [EINVAL]		The IP option field was	improperly formed; an option
			field was shorter than the minimum value or longer
			than the option	buffer provided.

     The following errors may occur when attempting to send IP datagrams via a
     "raw socket" with the IP_HDRINCL option set:

     [EINVAL]		The user-supplied ip_len field was not equal to	the
			length of the datagram written to the socket.

SEE ALSO
     getsockopt(2), recv(2), send(2), byteorder(3), icmp(4), igmp(4), inet(4),
     intro(4), multicast(4), sourcefilter(3)

     D.	Thaler,	B. Fenner, and B. Quinn, Socket	Interface Extensions for
     Multicast Source Filters, RFC 3678, Jan 2004.

HISTORY
     The ip protocol appeared in 4.2BSD.  The ip_mreqn structure appeared in
     Linux 2.4.

BSD				 June 1, 2009				   BSD

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ERRORS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ip&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+8.1-RELEASE>

home | help