ifconfig.if(5) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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IFCONFIG.IF(5)            NetBSD File Formats Manual            IFCONFIG.IF(5)


NAME

     ifconfig.if -- interface-specific configuration files or variables


DESCRIPTION

     The ifconfig.if files or variables contain information regarding the con-
     figuration of each network interface.  ifconfig.if is processed by
     /etc/rc.d/network at system boot time.

     For each interface (nnX) that is to be configured, there should be either
     an ifconfig_nnX variable in rc.conf(5), or an /etc/ifconfig.nnX file
     (such as the ifconfig_fxp0 variable or the /etc/ifconfig.fxp0 file for
     the fxp0 interface).  Only characters allowed in sh(1) variables names
     should be used for nnX (ascii(7) uppercase and lowercase letters, digits,
     and underscore).

     The variable or file will get evaluated only if the interface exists on
     the system.  Multiple lines can be placed in a variable or file, and will
     be evaluated sequentially.  In the case of a variable, semicolons may be
     used instead of newlines, as described in rc.conf(5).
     <backslash><newline> sequences in files are ignored, so long logical
     lines may be made up of several shorter physical lines.

     Normally, a line will be evaluated as command line arguments to
     ifconfig(8).  ``ifconfig nnX'' will be prepended on evaluation.  Argu-
     ments with embedded shell metacharacters should be quoted in sh(1) style.

     If the line is equal to ``dhcp'', dhcpcd(8) will be started for the
     interface.  However, it is instead recommended that dhcpcd is set to true
     in rc.conf(5) and any per interface configuration or restriction is done
     in dhcpcd.conf(5).

     If the line is equal to ``rtsol'', a dedicated dhcpcd(8) process will be
     started for processing received router advertisements and sending out
     IPv6 router solicitation messages on the interface.  This is useful on
     networks where default routes can best be learned from router advertise-
     ments.  However, if dhcpcd has been set to true in rc.conf(5), it is
     assumed that that dhcpcd(8) process will take care of sending any neces-
     sary router solicitation messages and processing received router adver-
     tisements on all interfaces, and therefore no per-interface process is
     started.

     If a line is empty, or starts with `#', the line will be ignored as com-
     ment.

     If a line starts with `!', the rest of line will get evaluated as shell
     script fragment.  Shell variables declared in /etc/rc.d/network are
     accessible but may not be modified.  The most useful variable is $int, as
     it will be bound to the interface being configured with the file.

     For example, the following illustrates static interface configuration:

           # IPv4, with an alias
           inet 10.0.1.12 netmask 255.255.255.0 media 100baseTX
           inet 10.0.1.13 netmask 255.255.255.255 alias
           # let us have IPv6 address on this interface
           inet6 2001:db8::1 prefixlen 64 alias
           # have subnet router anycast address too
           inet6 2001:db8:: prefixlen 64 alias anycast

     For networks that do not use a virtual address for the default gateway
     that could be set using a single address in defaultroute6, static IPv6
     address configuration could use the ``rtsol'' keyword instead to solicit
     router advertisements for learning a default route and even achieving
     route redundancy given multiple responding routers:

           inet6 2001:db8::100 prefixlen 64 alias
           rtsol

     The following example sets a network name for a wireless interface (using
     quotes to protect special characters in the name), and starts dhcpcd(8):

           ssid 'my network'
           dhcp

     The following example is for dynamically-created pseudo interfaces like
     gif(4).  Earlier versions of /etc/rc.d/network required an explicit
     `create' command for such interfaces, but creation is now handled auto-
     matically.

           up
           # configure IPv6 default route toward the interface
           !route add -inet6 default ::1
           !route change -inet6 default -ifp $int


FILES

     /etc/rc.d/network


SEE ALSO

     rc.conf(5), ifconfig(8)

NetBSD 10.1                    October 12, 2020                    NetBSD 10.1