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arp(4)

NAME

     arp -- Address Resolution Protocol

SYNOPSIS

     device ether

DESCRIPTION

     The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to dynamically map between
     Protocol Addresses (such as IP addresses) and Local Network Addresses
     (such as Ethernet addresses).  This implementation maps IP addresses to
     Ethernet, ARCnet, or Token Ring addresses.  It is used by all the Ether-
     net interface drivers.

     ARP caches Internet-Ethernet address mappings.  When an interface
     requests a mapping for an address not in the cache, ARP queues the mes-
     sage which requires the mapping and broadcasts a message on the associ-
     ated network requesting the address mapping.  If a response is provided,
     the new mapping is cached and any pending message is transmitted.	ARP
     will queue at most one packet while waiting for a response to a mapping
     request; only the most recently ``transmitted'' packet is kept.  If the
     target host does not respond after several requests, the host is consid-
     ered to be down for a short period (normally 20 seconds), allowing an
     error to be returned to transmission attempts during this interval.  The
     error is EHOSTDOWN for a non-responding destination host, and
     EHOSTUNREACH for a non-responding router.

     The ARP cache is stored in the system routing table as dynamically-cre-
     ated host routes.	The route to a directly-attached Ethernet network is
     installed as a ``cloning'' route (one with the RTF_CLONING flag set),
     causing routes to individual hosts on that network to be created on
     demand.  These routes time out periodically (normally 20 minutes after
     validated; entries are not validated when not in use).  An entry for a
     host which is not responding is a ``reject'' route (one with the
     RTF_REJECT flag set).

     ARP entries may be added, deleted or changed with the arp(8) utility.
     Manually-added entries may be temporary or permanent, and may be
     ``published'', in which case the system will respond to ARP requests for
     that host as if it were the target of the request.

     In the past, ARP was used to negotiate the use of a trailer encapsula-
     tion.  This is no longer supported.

     ARP watches passively for hosts impersonating the local host (i.e., a
     host which responds to an ARP mapping request for the local host's
     address).

     Proxy ARP is a feature whereby the local host will respond to requests
     for addresses other than itself, with its own address.  Normally, proxy
     ARP in FreeBSD is set up on a host-by-host basis using the arp(8) util-
     ity, by adding an entry for each host inside a given subnet for which
     proxying of ARP requests is desired.  However, the ``proxy all'' feature
     causes the local host to act as a proxy for all hosts.  It may be enabled
     by setting the sysctl(8) MIB variable net.link.ether.inet.proxyall to 1.

DIAGNOSTICS

     arp: %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x is using my IP address %d.%d.%d.%d!: ARP has dis-
     indicates a misconfigured or broken device.

     arp: %d.%d.%d.%d moved from %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x to %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x: ARP
     had a cached value for the ethernet address of the referenced host, but
     received a reply indicating that the host is at a new address.  This can
     happen normally when host hardware addresses change, or when a mobile
     node arrives or leaves the local subnet.  It can also indicate a problem
     with proxy ARP.  This message can only be issued if the sysctl
     net.link.ether.inet.log_arp_movements is set to 1, which is the system's
     default behaviour.

     arpresolve: can't allocate llinfo for %d.%d.%d.%d: The route for the ref-
     erenced host points to a device upon which ARP is required, but ARP was
     unable to allocate a routing table entry in which to store the host's MAC
     address.  This usually points to a misconfigured routing table.  It can
     also occur if the kernel cannot allocate memory.

     arp: %d.%d.%d.%d is on if0 but got reply from %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x on if1:
     Physical connections exist to the same logical IP network on both if0 and
     if1.  It can also occur if an entry already exists in the ARP cache for
     the IP address above, and the cable has been disconnected from if0, then
     reconnected to if1.  This message can only be issued if the sysctl
     net.link.ether.inet.log_arp_wrong_iface is set to 1, which is the sys-
     tem's default behaviour.

SEE ALSO

     inet(4), route(4), arp(8), ifconfig(8), route(8), sysctl(8)

     Plummer, D., "RFC826", An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol.

     Leffler, S.J.  and Karels, M.J., "RFC893", Trailer Encapsulations.

FreeBSD 5.4			 June 16, 2004			   FreeBSD 5.4

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