tap - Ethernet tunnel software network interface
The driver, like the pty driver, provides two interfaces: an interface like the usual facility it is simulating (an Ethernet network interface in the case of , or a terminal for pty ) and a character-special device ``control'' interface.
The network interfaces are named ``tap0 '' ``tap1 '' etc., one for each control device that has been opened. These Ethernet network interfaces persist until if_tap.ko module is unloaded, or until removed with "ifconfig destroy" (see below).
devices are created using interface cloning. This is done using the ``ifconfig tap N create '' command. This is the preferred method of creating devices. The same method allows removal of interfaces. For this, use the ``ifconfig tap N destroy '' command.
If the sysctl(8) variable net.link.tap.devfs_cloning is non-zero, the interface permits opens on the special control device /dev/tap When this device is opened, will return a handle for the lowest unused device (use devname(3) to determine which).
Bf Em Disabling the legacy devfs cloning functionality may break existing applications which use , such as VMware and ssh(1). It therefore defaults to being enabled until further notice. Ef
Control devices (once successfully opened) persist until if_tap.ko is unloaded or the interface is destroyed.
Each interface supports the usual Ethernet network interface ioctl(2)Nss, such as SIOCSIFADDR and SIOCSIFNETMASK and thus can be used with ifconfig(8) like any other Ethernet interface. When the system chooses to transmit an Ethernet frame on the network interface, the frame can be read from the control device (it appears as ``input'' there); writing an Ethernet frame to the control device generates an input frame on the network interface, as if the (non-existent) hardware had just received it.
The Ethernet tunnel device, normally
/dev/tap N
is exclusive-open
(it cannot be opened if it is already open)
and is restricted to the super-user, unless the
sysctl(8)
variable
net.link.tap.user_open
is non-zero.
If the
sysctl(8)
variable
net.link.tap.up_on_open
is non-zero, the tunnel device will be marked
``up''
when the control device is opened.
A
read ();
call will return an error
(Er EHOSTDOWN
)
if the interface is not
``ready''
Once the interface is ready,
read ();
will return an Ethernet frame if one is available; if not, it will
either block until one is or return
Er EWOULDBLOCK ,
depending on whether non-blocking I/O has been enabled.
If the frame
is longer than is allowed for in the buffer passed to
read (,);
the extra data will be silently dropped.
A
write(2)
call passes an Ethernet frame in to be
``received''
on the pseudo-interface.
Each
write ();
call supplies exactly one frame; the frame length is taken from the
amount of data provided to
write (.);
Writes will not block; if the frame cannot be accepted
for a transient reason
(e.g., no buffer space available),
it is silently dropped; if the reason is not transient
(e.g., frame too large),
an error is returned.
The following
ioctl(2)
calls are supported
(defined in
In net/if_tap.h ) :
The control device also supports select(2) for read; selecting for write is pointless, and always succeeds, since writes are always non-blocking.
On the last close of the data device, the interface is brought down (as if with ``ifconfig tap N down '' unless the device is a VMnet device. All queued frames are thrown away. If the interface is up when the data device is not open, output frames are thrown away rather than letting them pile up.
The device can also be used with the VMware port as a replacement for the old VMnet device driver. The driver uses the minor number to select between and vmnet devices. VMnet minor numbers begin at 0x800000 + N where N is a VMnet unit number. In this case the control device is expected to be /dev/vmnet N and the network interface will be vmnet N Additionally, VMnet devices do not ifconfig(8) themselves down when the control device is closed. Everything else is the same.
In addition to the above mentioned ioctl(2) calls, there is an additional one for the VMware port.
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