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EPAIR(4)		    Kernel Interfaces Manual		      EPAIR(4)

NAME
       epair --	A pair of virtual back-to-back connected Ethernet interfaces

SYNOPSIS
       To  compile  this  driver  into the kernel, place the following line in
       your kernel configuration file:

	     device epair

       Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at	boot time,  place  the
       following line in loader.conf(5):

	     if_epair_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
       The  epair  is  a  pair of Ethernet-like	software interfaces, which are
       connected back-to-back with a virtual cross-over	cable.

       Each epair  interface  pair  is	created	 at  runtime  using  interface
       cloning.	  This is most easily done with	the ifconfig(8)	create command
       or using	the  cloned_interfaces	variable  in  rc.conf(5).   While  for
       cloning	you  only give either epair or epair_n_	the epair pair will be
       named like epair_n_[ab].	 This means the	names of the first  epair  in-
       terfaces	will be	epair0a	and epair0b.

       Like any	other Ethernet interface, an epair needs to have a network ad-
       dress.	Each  epair will be assigned a locally administered address by
       default,	that is	only guaranteed	to be unique within one	network	stack.
       To change the default addresses one may use the SIOCSIFADDR ioctl(2) or
       ifconfig(8) utility.

       The basic intent	is to provide connectivity between two virtual network
       stack instances.	 When connected	to an if_bridge(4), one	end of the in-
       terface pair can	also be	part of	another	(virtual) LAN.	 As  with  any
       other Ethernet interface, epair can have	a vlan(4) configured on	top of
       it.

SEE ALSO
       ioctl(2),   altq(4),  bpf(4),  if_bridge(4),  vlan(4),  loader.conf(5),
       rc.conf(5), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY
       The epair interface first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

AUTHORS
       The epair interface was written by Bjoern A. Zeeb,  CK  Software	 GmbH,
       under sponsorship from the FreeBSD Foundation.

FreeBSD	13.2			March 18, 2015			      EPAIR(4)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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