dhcpcd.conf

Although dhcpcd can do everything from the command line, there are cases where it's just easier to do it once in a configuration file. Most of the options found in dhcpcd(8) can be used here. The first word on the line is the option and the rest of the line is the value. Leading and trailing whitespace for the option and value are trimmed. You can escape characters in the value using the \ character. Comments can be prefixed with the # character. String values should be quoted with the " character.

Here's a list of available options:

allowinterfaces pattern

When discovering interfaces, the interface name must match pattern which is a space or comma separated list of patterns passed to fnmatch(3). If the same interface is matched in denyinterfaces then it is still denied.

denyinterfaces pattern

When discovering interfaces, the interface name must not match pattern which is a space or comma separated list of patterns passed to fnmatch(3).

arping address [address]

dhcpcd will arping each address in order before attempting DHCP. If an address is found, we will select the replying hardware address as the profile, otherwise the ip address. Example:

interface bge0

arping 192.168.0.1

# My specific 192.168.0.1 network

profile dd:ee:aa:dd:bb:ee

static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24

# A generic 192.168.0.1 network

profile 192.168.0.1

static ip_address=192.168.0.98/24

authprotocol protocol algorithm rdm

Authenticate DHCP messages. See the Supported Authentication Protocols section.

authtoken secretid realm expire key

Define a shared key for use in authentication. realm can be to for use with the delayed prptocol. expire is the date the token expires and should be formatted "yyy-mm-dd HH:MM". You can use the keyword forever or 0 which means the token never expires. For the token protocol, secretid needs to be 0 and realm needs to be "". If dhcpcd has the error

dhcp_auth_encode: Invalid argument

then it means that dhcpcd could not find the correct authentication token in your configuration.

background

Background immediately. This is useful for startup scripts which don't disable link messages for carrier status.

blacklist address[/cidr]

Ignores all packets from address[/cidr].

whitelist address[/cidr]

Only accept packets from address[/cidr]. blacklist is ignored if whitelist is set.

bootp

Be a BOOTP client. Basically, this just doesn't send a DHCP Message Type option and will only interact with a BOOTP server. All other DHCP options still work.

broadcast

Instructs the DHCP server to broadcast replies back to the client. Normally this is only set for non Ethernet interfaces, such as FireWire and InfiniBand. In most cases, dhcpcd will set this automatically.

controlgroup group

Sets the group ownership of /var/run/dhcpcd.sock so that users other than root can connect to dhcpcd.

debug

Echo debug messages to the stderr and syslog.

dev value

Load the value /dev management module. dhcpcd will load the first one found to work, if any.

env value

Push value to the environment for use in dhcpcd-run-hooks(8). For example, you can force the hostname hook to always set the hostname with env force_hostname=YES. Or set which driver wpa_supplicant(8) should use with env wpa_supplicant_driver=nl80211

If the hostname is set, it will be will set to the FQDN if possible as per RFC 4702 section 3.1. If the FQDN option is missing, dhcpcd will still try and set a FQDN from the hostname and domain options for consistency. To override this, set env hostname_fqdn=[YES|NO|SERVER]. A value of server means just what the server says, don't manipulate it. This could lead to an inconsistent hostname on a DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 network where the DHCPv4 hostname is short and the DHCPv6 has an FQDN. DHCPv6 has no hostname option.

clientid string

Send the clientid. If the string is of the format 01:02:03 then it is encoded as hex. For interfaces whose hardware address is longer than 8 bytes, or if the clientid is an empty string then dhcpcd sends a default clientid of the hardware family and the hardware address.

duid

Generate an RFC 4361. compliant DHCP Unique Identifier. If persistent storage is available then a DUID-LLT (link local address + time) is generated, otherwise DUID-LL is generated (link local address). This, plus the IAID will be used as the clientid. The DUID-LLT generated will be held in /etc/dhcpcd.duid and should not be copied to other hosts.

iaid iaid

Set the Interface Association Identifier to iaid. This option must be used in an interface block. This defaults to the last 4 bytes of the hardware address assigned to the interface. Each instance of this should be unique within the scope of the client and dhcpcd warns if a conflict is detected. If there is a conflict, it is only a problem if the conflicted IAIDs are used on the same network.

dhcp

Enable DHCP on the interface, on by default.

dhcp6

Enable DHCPv6 on the interface, on by default.

ipv4

Enable IPv4 on the interface, on by default.

ipv6

Enable IPv6 on the interface, on by default.

request [address]

Request the address in the DHCP DISCOVER message. There is no guarantee this is the address the DHCP server will actually give. If no address is given then the first address currently assigned to the interface is used.

inform [address[/cidr]]

Behaves like request as above, but sends a DHCP INFORM instead of DISCOVER/REQUEST. This does not get a lease as such, just notifies the DHCP server of the address in use. You should also include the optional cidr network number in case the address is not already configured on the interface. dhcpcd remains running and pretends it has an infinite lease. dhcpcd will not de-configure the interface when it exits. If dhcpcd fails to contact a DHCP server then it returns a failure instead of falling back on IPv4LL.

inform6

Performs a DHCPv6 Information Request. No address is requested or specified, but all other DHCPv6 options are allowed. This is normally performed automatically when the IPv6 Router Advertises that the client should perform this operation. This option is only needed when dhcpcd is not processing IPv6RA messages and the need for DHCPv6 Information Request exists.

persistent

dhcpcd normally de-configures the interface and configuration when it exits. Sometimes, this isn't desirable if, for example, you have root mounted over NFS or SSH clients connect to this host and they need to be notified of the host shutting down. You can use this option to stop this from happening.

fallback profile

Fallback to using this profile if DHCP fails. This allows you to configure a static profile instead of using ZeroConf.

hostname name

Sends the hostname name to the DHCP server so it can be registered in DNS. If name is an empty string then the current system hostname is sent. If name is a FQDN (ie, contains a .) then it will be encoded as such.

hostname_short

Sends the short hostname to the DHCP server instead of the FQDN. This is useful because DHCP servers will not register the FQDN in their DNS if the domain part does not match theirs.

Also, see the env option above to control how the hostname is set on the host.

ia_na [iaid [/ address]]

Request a DHCPv6 Normal Address for iaid. iaid defaults to the iaid option as described above. You can request more than one ia_na by specifying a unique iaid for each one.

ia_ta [iaid]

Request a DHCPv6 Temporary Address for iaid. You can request more than one ia_ta by specifying a unique iaid for each one.

ia_pd [iaid [/ prefix / prefix_len] [interface [/ sla_id [/ prefix_len [/ suffix]]]]]

Request a DHCPv6 Delegated Prefix for iaid. This option must be used in an interface block. Unless a sla_id of 0 is assigned with the same resultant prefix length as the delegation, a reject route is installed for the Delegated Prefix to stop unallocated addresses being resolved upstream. If no interface is given then we will assign a prefix to every other interface with a sla_id equivalent to the interface index assigned by the OS. Otherwise addresses are only assigned for each interface and sla_id. Each assigned address will have a suffix, defaulting to 1. If the suffix is 0 then a slaac address is assigned. You cannot assign a prefix to the requesting interface unless the DHCPv6 server supports RFC6603 Prefix Exclude Option. dhcpcd has to be running for all the interfaces it is delegating to. A default prefix_len of 64 is assumed, unless the maximum sla_id does not fit. In this case prefix_len is increased to the highest multiple of 8 that can accommodate the sla_id. sla_id is an integer which must be unique inside the iaid and is added to the prefix which must fit inside prefix_len less the length of the delegated prefix. You can specify multiple interface / sla_id / prefix_len per ia_pd, space separated. IPv6RS should be disabled globally when requesting a Prefix Delegation.

In the following example eth0 is the externally facing interface to be configured for both IPv4 and IPv6. The DHCPv4 server will provide us with an IPv4 address and a default route. The DHCPv6 server is going to provide us with an IPv6 address, a default route and a /64 subnet to be delegated to the internal interface. The eth1 interface will be automatically configured for IPv6 using the first address (::1) from the delegated prefix. A second prefix is requested and assigned to two other interfaces. rtadvd(8) can be used with an empty configuration file on eth1, eth2 and eth3, to provide automatic IPv6 address configuration for the internal network.

noipv6rs                 # disable routing solicitation
denyinterfaces eth2      # Don't touch eth2 at all
interface eth0
  ipv6rs                 # enable routing solicitation get the
                         # default IPv6 route
  ia_na 1                # request an IPv6 address
  ia_pd 2 eth1/0         # request a PD and assign it to eth1
  ia_pd 3 eth2/1 eth3/2  # req a PD and assign it to eth2 and eth3

ipv4only

Only configure IPv4.

ipv6only

Only confgiure IPv6.

fqdn [disable | ptr | both]

ptr just asks the DHCP server to update the PTR record of the host in DNS whereas both also updates the A record. disable will disable the FQDN option. The default is both. dhcpcd itself never does any DNS updates. dhcpcd encodes the FQDN hostname as specified in RFC1035.

interface interface

Subsequent options are only parsed for this interface.

ipv6ra_autoconf

Generate SLAAC addresses for each Prefix advertised by a Router Advertisement message with the Auto flag set. On by default.

ipv6ra_noautoconf

Disables the above option.

ipv6ra_fork

By default, when dhcpcd receives an IPv6 RA, dhcpcd will only fork to the background if the RA contains at least one unexpired RDNSS option and a valid prefix or no DHCPv6 instruction. Set this option so to make dhcpcd always fork on an RA.

ipv6ra_own

Disables kernel IPv6 Router Advertisement processing so dhcpcd can manage addresses and routes.

ipv6ra_own_default

Each time dhcpcd receives an IPv6 Router Adveristment, dhcpcd will manage the default route only. This allows dhcpcd to prefer an interface for outbound traffic based on metric and/or user selection rather than the kernel.

ipv6rs

Enables IPv6 Router Advertisement solicitation. This is on by default, but is documented here in the case where it is disabled globally but needs to be enabled for one interface.

leasetime seconds

Request a leasetime of seconds.

logfile logfile

Writes to the specified logfile rather than syslog(3). The logfile is truncated when opened and is reopened when dhcpcd receives the SIGUSR2 signal.

metric metric

Metrics are used to prefer an interface over another one, lowest wins. dhcpcd will supply a default metric of 200 + if_nametoindex(3). An extra 100 will be added for wireless interfaces.

noalias

Any pre-existing IPv4 addresses existing address will be removed from the interface when adding a new IPv4 address.

noarp

Don't send any ARP requests. This also disables IPv4LL.

noauthrequired

Don't require authentication even though we requested it. Also allows FORCERENEW and RECONFIGURE messages without authentication.

nodelay

Don't delay for an initial randomised time when starting protocols.

nodev

Don't load /dev management modules.

nodhcp

Don't start DHCP or listen to DHCP messages. This is only useful when allowing IPv4LL.

nodhcp6

Don't start DHCPv6 or listen to DHCPv6 messages. Normally DHCPv6 is started by a RA instruction or configuration.

nogateway

Don't install any default routes.

gateway

Install a default route if available (default).

nohook script

Don't run this hook script. Matches full name, or prefixed with 2 numbers optionally ending with .sh.

So to stop dhcpcd from touching your DNS settings or starting wpa_supplicant you would do:-

nohook resolv.conf, wpa_supplicant

noipv4

Don't attempt to configure an IPv4 address.

noipv4ll

Don't attempt to obtain an IPv4LL address if we failed to get one via DHCP. See RFC 3927.

noipv6

Don't attmept to configure an IPv6 address.

noipv6rs

Disable solicitation and receipt of IPv6 Router Advertisements.

nolink

Don't receive link messages about carrier status. You should only set this for buggy interface drivers.

noup

Don't bring the interface up when in master mode. If dhcpcd.conf cannot determine the carrier state, dhcpcd.conf will enter a tight polling loop until the interface is marked up and running or a valid carrier state is reported.

option option

Requests the option from the server. It can be a variable to be used in dhcpcd-run-hooks(8) or the numerical value. You can specify more options separated by commas, spaces or more option lines. option Prepend dhcp6_ to option to request a DHCPv6 option. If no DHCPv6 options are configured, then DHCPv4 options are mapped to equivalent DHCPv6 options.

Prepend nd_ to option to handle ND options, but this only works for the nooption, reject and require options.

To see a list of options you can use, call dhcpcd with the -V, --variables argument.

nooption option

Remove the option from the message before it's processed.

require option

Requires the option to be present in all messages, otherwise the message is ignored. To enforce that dhcpcd only responds to DHCP servers and not BOOTP servers, you can require dhcp_message_type. This isn't an exact science though because a BOOTP server can send DHCP like options.

reject option

Reject a message that contains the option. This is useful when you cannot use require to select / de-select BOOTP messages.

destination option

If dhcpcd.conf detects an address added to a point to point interface (PPP, TUN, etc) then it will set the listed DHCP options to the destination address of the interface.

profile name

Subsequent options are only parsed for this profile name.

quiet

Suppress any dhcpcd output to the console, except for errors.

reboot seconds

Allow reboot seconds before moving to the DISCOVER phase if we have an old lease to use and moving from DISCOVER to IPv4LL if no reply. The default is 5 seconds. A setting of 0 seconds causes dhcpcd to skip the REBOOT phase and go straight into DISCOVER. This is desirable for mobile users because if you change from network A to network B and they use the same subnet and the address from network A isn't in use on network B, then the DHCP server will remain silent even if authoritative which means dhcpcd will timeout before moving back to the DISCOVER phase.

release

dhcpcd will release the lease prior to stopping the interface.

script script

Use script instead of the default /lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-run-hooks.

ssid ssid

Subsequent options are only parsed for this wireless ssid.

slaac [hwaddr | private]

Selects the interface identifier used for SLAAC generated IPv6 addresses. If private is used, a RFC7217 address is generated.

static value

Configures a static value. If you set ip_address then dhcpcd will not attempt to obtain a lease and just use the value for the address with an infinite lease time. If you set ip6_address, dhcpcd will continue auto-configuation as normal.

Here is an example which configures two static address, an IPv4 router, DNS and disables IPv6 auto-configuration. You could also use the inform6 command here if you wished to obtain more information via DHCPv6. For IPv4, you should use the inform ipaddress option instead of setting a static address.

interface eth0

noipv6rs

static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24

static ip6_address=fd51:42f8:caae:d92e::ff/64

static routers=192.168.0.1

static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1 fd51:42f8:caae:d92e::1

Here is an example for PPP which gives the destination a default route. It uses the special destination keyword to insert the destination address into the value.

interface ppp0

static ip_address=

destination routers

timeout seconds

Timeout after seconds, instead of the default 30. A setting of 0 seconds causes dhcpcd to wait forever to get a lease. If dhcpcd is working on a single interface then dhcpcd will exit when a timeout occurs, otherwise dhcpcd will fork into the background. If using IPv4LL then dhcpcd start the IPv4LL process after the timeout and then wait a little longer before really timing out.

userclass string

Tag the DHCPv4 messages with the userclass. You can specify more than one.

vendor code,value

Add an encapsulated vendor option. code should be between 1 and 254 inclusive. To add a raw vendor string, omit code but keep the comma. Examples.

Set the vendor option 01 with an IP address.

vendor 01,192.168.0.2

Set the vendor option 02 with a hex code.

vendor 02,01:02:03:04:05

Set the vendor option 03 with an IP address as a string.

vendor 03,\"192.168.0.2\"

Set un-encapsulated vendor option to hello world.

vendor ,"hello world"

vendorclassid string

Set the DHCP Vendor Class. DHCPv6 has it's own option as shown below. The default is dhcpcd-<version>:<os>:<machine>:<platform>. For example

dhcpcd-5.5.6:NetBSD-6.99.5:i386:i386

If not set then none is sent. Some badly configured DHCP servers reject unknown vendorclassids. To work around it, try and impersonate Windows by using the MSFT vendorclassid.

vendclass en data

Add the DHCPv6 Vendor Indetifying Vendor Class with the IANA assigned Enterprise Number en with the data. This option can be set more than once to add more data, but the behaviour, as per RFC(3925) is undefined if the Enterprise Number differs.

waitip [4 | 6]

Wait for an address to be assigned before forking to the background. 4 means wait for an IPv4 address to be assigned. 6 means wait for an IPv6 address to be assigned. If no argument is given, dhcpcd.conf will wait for any address protocol to be assigned. It is possible to wait for more than one address protocol and dhcpcd.conf will only fork to the background when all waiting conditions are satisfied.

xidhwaddr

Use the last four bytes of the hardware address as the DHCP xid instead of a randomly generated number.

fnmatch(3), if_nametoindex(3), dhcpcd(8), dhcpcd-run-hooks(8)

Roy Marples <roy@marples.name>

Please report them to http://roy.marples.name/projects/dhcpcd