1 .\" $NetBSD: rtadvd.8,v 1.24 2012/12/13 21:49:38 wiz Exp $
2 .\" $KAME: rtadvd.8,v 1.24 2002/05/31 16:16:08 jinmei Exp $
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36 .Nd router advertisement daemon
40 .Op Fl c Ar configfile
45 sends router advertisement packets to the specified interfaces.
47 The program will daemonize itself on invocation.
48 It will then send router advertisement packets periodically, as well
49 as in response to router solicitation messages sent by end hosts.
51 Router advertisements can be configured on a per-interface basis, as
55 If there is no configuration file entry for an interface,
56 or if the configuration file does not exist at all,
58 sets all the parameters to their default values.
61 reads all the interface routes from the routing table and advertises
62 them as on-link prefixes.
65 also watches the routing table.
66 If an interface direct route is
67 added on an advertising interface and no static prefixes are
68 specified by the configuration file,
70 adds the corresponding prefix to its advertising list.
72 Similarly, when an interface direct route is deleted,
74 will start advertising the prefixes with zero valid and preferred
75 lifetimes to help the receiving hosts switch to a new prefix when
77 Note, however, that the zero valid lifetime cannot invalidate the
78 autoconfigured addresses at a receiving host immediately.
79 According to the specification, the host will retain the address
80 for a certain period, which will typically be two hours.
81 The zero lifetimes rather intend to make the address deprecated,
82 indicating that a new non-deprecated address should be used as the
83 source address of a new connection.
84 This behavior will last for two hours.
87 will completely remove the prefix from the advertising list,
88 and succeeding advertisements will not contain the prefix information.
90 Moreover, if the status of an advertising interface changes,
92 will start or stop sending router advertisements according
97 option may be used to disable this behavior;
99 will not watch the routing table and the whole functionality described
100 above will be suppressed.
102 Basically, hosts MUST NOT send Router Advertisement messages at any
103 time (RFC 2461, Section 6.2.3).
104 However, it would sometimes be useful to allow hosts to advertise some
105 parameters such as prefix information and link MTU.
108 can be invoked if router lifetime is explicitly set to zero on every
109 advertising interface.
111 The command line options are:
112 .Bl -tag -width indent
114 .It Fl c Ar configfile
115 Specify an alternate location,
117 for the configuration file.
122 Even more debugging information than that offered by the
126 Print debugging information.
128 Foreground mode (useful when debugging).
129 Log messages will be dumped to stderr when this option is specified.
131 Specify an interface to join the all-routers site-local multicast group.
134 tries to join the first advertising interface appearing on the command
136 This option has meaning only with the
138 option, which enables routing renumbering protocol support.
140 .\"Enables mobile IPv6 support.
141 .\"This changes the content of router advertisement option, as well as
142 .\"permitted configuration directives.
144 Accept router renumbering requests.
147 setup is suggested for security reasons.
148 .\"On KAME-based systems,
150 .\"generates router renumbering request packets.
151 This option is currently disabled, and is ignored by
153 with a warning message.
155 Do not add or delete prefixes dynamically.
156 Only statically configured prefixes, if any, will be advertised.
161 to reload the configuration file
162 .Pa /etc/rtadvd.conf .
163 If an invalid parameter is found in the configuration file upon the reload, the
164 entry will be ignored and the old configuration will be used.
165 When parameters in an existing entry are updated,
167 will send Router Advertisement messages with the old configuration but zero
168 router lifetime to the interface first, and then start to send a new message.
170 Upon receipt of signal
173 will dump the current internal state into
174 .Pa /var/run/rtadvd.dump .
183 will transmit router advertisement with router lifetime 0
184 to all the interfaces
185 .Pq in accordance with RFC 2461 6.2.5 .
187 .Bl -tag -width /var/run/rtadvd.dumpXX -compact
188 .It Pa /etc/rtadvd.conf
189 The default configuration file.
190 .It Pa /var/run/rtadvd.pid
191 Contains the PID of the currently running
193 .It Pa /var/run/rtadvd.dump
196 dumps its internal state.
206 command first appeared in the WIDE Hydrangea IPv6 protocol stack kit.
208 There used to be some text that recommended users not to let
210 advertise Router Advertisement messages on an upstream link to avoid
214 However, based on later discussion in the IETF IPng working group,
215 all routers should rather advertise the messages regardless of
216 the network topology, in order to ensure reachability.