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 Ethernet interface drivers.
ARP caches Internet-Ethernet address mappings.
When an interface requests a mapping for an address not in the cache,
ARP queues the message which requires the mapping and broadcasts
a message on the associated 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 considered to be down allowing an error to be returned to
transmission attempts.
Further demand for this mapping causes ARP request retransmissions, that
are ratelimited to one packet per second.
The error is
Er EHOSTDOWN
for a non-responding destination host, and
Er EHOSTUNREACH
for a non-responding router.
The ARP cache is stored in the system routing table as
dynamically-created 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).
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 encapsulation.
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
Fx is set up on a host-by-host basis using the
arp(8)
utility, 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 reachable through some other network interface,
different from the one the request came in from.
It may be enabled by setting the
sysctl(8)
MIB variable
net.link.ether.inet.proxyall
to 1.
MIB Variables
The ARP protocol implements a number of configrable variables in
net.link.ether.inet
branch
of the
sysctl(3)
MIB.
max_age
How long an ARP entry is held in the cache until it needs to be refreshed.
maxtries
Number of retransmits before host is considered down and error is returned.
useloopback
If an ARP entry is added for local address, force the traffic to go through
the loopback interface.
proxyall
Enables ARP proxying for all hosts on net.
DIAGNOSTICS
"arp: %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x is using my IP address %d.%d.%d.%d!"
ARP has discovered another host on the local network which responds to
mapping requests for its own Internet address with a different Ethernet
address, generally indicating that two hosts are attempting to use the
same Internet address.
"arp: link address is broadcast for IP address %d.%d.%d.%d!"
ARP requested information for a host, and received an answer indicating
that the host's ethernet address is the ethernet broadcast address.
This 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 on %s"
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 referenced 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 system's default behaviour.
"arp: %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x attempts to modify permanent entry for %d.%d.%d.%d on %s"
ARP has received an ARP reply that attempts to overwrite a permanent
entry in the local ARP table.
This error will only be logged if the sysctl
net.link.ether.inet.log_arp_permanent_modify
is set to 1, which is the system's default behaviour.
