Ubuntu Manpage: arp — Address Resolution Protocol

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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 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 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-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 FreeBSD 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 configurable variables in net.link.ether.inet branch
of the sysctl(3) MIB.

allow_multicast Should the kernel install ARP entries with multicast bit set in
the hardware address. Installing such entries is RFC 1812
violation, but some prorietary load balancing techniques require
routers on network to do so. Turned off by default.

log_arp_movements Should the kernel log movements of IP addresses from one hardware
address to an other. See DIAGNOSTICS below. Turned on by
default.

log_arp_permanent_modify Should the kernel log attempts of remote host on network to modify
a permanent ARP entry. See DIAGNOSTICS below. Turned on by
default.

log_arp_wrong_iface Should the kernel log attempts to insert an ARP entry on an
interface when the IP network the address belongs to is connected
to an other interface. See DIAGNOSTICS below. Turned on by
default.

max_log_per_second Limit number of remotely triggered logging events to a configured
value per second. Default is 1 log message per second.

max_age How long an ARP entry is held in the cache until it needs to be
refreshed. Default is 1200 seconds.

maxhold How many packets hold in the per-entry output queue while the
entry is being resolved. Default is one packet.

maxtries Number of retransmits before host is considered down and error is
returned. Default is 5 tries.

proxyall Enables ARP proxying for all hosts on net. Turned off by default.

useloopback If an ARP entry is added for local address, force the traffic to
go through the loopback interface. Turned on by default.

wait Lifetime of an incomplete ARP entry. Default is 20 seconds.

DIAGNOSTICS

arp: %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x is using my IP address %d.%d.%d.%d on %s! 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.

arp: %x:%x:%x:%x:%x:%x is multicast Kernel refused to install an entry with multicast
hardware address. If you really want such addresses being installed, set the sysctl
net.link.ether.inet.allow_multicast to a positive value.

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

MIB Variables

DIAGNOSTICS

SEE ALSO