ARP(7) Linux Programmer's Manual ARP(7)
arp - Linux ARP kernel module.
This kernel protocol module implements the Address Resolution
Protocol defined in RFC 826. It is used to convert between Layer2
hardware addresses and IPv4 protocol addresses on directly connected
networks. The user normally doesn't interact directly with this
module except to configure it; instead it provides a service for
other protocols in the kernel.
A user process can receive ARP packets by using packet(7) sockets.
There is also a mechanism for managing the ARP cache in user-space by
using netlink(7) sockets. The ARP table can also be controlled via
ioctl(2) on any AF_INET socket.
The ARP module maintains a cache of mappings between hardware
addresses and protocol addresses. The cache has a limited size so
old and less frequently used entries are garbage-collected. Entries
which are marked as permanent are never deleted by the garbage-
collector. The cache can be directly manipulated by the use of
ioctls and its behavior can be tuned by the /proc interfaces
described below.
When there is no positive feedback for an existing mapping after some
time (see the /proc interfaces below), a neighbor cache entry is
considered stale. Positive feedback can be gotten from a higher
layer; for example from a successful TCP ACK. Other protocols can
signal forward progress using the MSG_CONFIRM flag to sendmsg(2).
When there is no forward progress, ARP tries to reprobe. It first
tries to ask a local arp daemon app_solicit times for an updated MAC
address. If that fails and an old MAC address is known, a unicast
probe is sent ucast_solicit times. If that fails too, it will
broadcast a new ARP request to the network. Requests are sent only
when there is data queued for sending.
Linux will automatically add a nonpermanent proxy arp entry when it
receives a request for an address it forwards to and proxy arp is
enabled on the receiving interface. When there is a reject route for
the target, no proxy arp entry is added.
Ioctls
Three ioctls are available on all AF_INET sockets. They take a
pointer to a struct arpreq as their argument.
struct arpreq {
struct sockaddr arp_pa; /* protocol address */
struct sockaddr arp_ha; /* hardware address */
int arp_flags; /* flags */
struct sockaddr arp_netmask; /* netmask of protocol address */
char arp_dev[16];
};
SIOCSARP, SIOCDARP and SIOCGARP respectively set, delete and get an
ARP mapping. Setting and deleting ARP maps are privileged operations
and may be performed only by a process with the CAP_NET_ADMIN
capability or an effective UID of 0.
arp_pa must be an AF_INET address and arp_ha must have the same type
as the device which is specified in arp_dev. arp_dev is a zero-
terminated string which names a device.
┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ arp_flags │
├────────────────┬────────────────────┤
│flag │ meaning │
├────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ATF_COM │ Lookup complete │
├────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ATF_PERM │ Permanent entry │
├────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ATF_PUBL │ Publish entry │
├────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ATF_USETRAILERS │ Trailers requested │
├────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ATF_NETMASK │ Use a netmask │
├────────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ATF_DONTPUB │ Don't answer │
└────────────────┴────────────────────┘
If the ATF_NETMASK flag is set, then arp_netmask should be valid.
Linux 2.2 does not support proxy network ARP entries, so this should
be set to 0xffffffff, or 0 to remove an existing proxy arp entry.
ATF_USETRAILERS is obsolete and should not be used.
/proc interfaces
ARP supports a range of /proc interfaces to configure parameters on a
global or per-interface basis. The interfaces can be accessed by
reading or writing the /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/*/* files. Each
interface in the system has its own directory in
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/. The setting in the "default" directory is
used for all newly created devices. Unless otherwise specified,
time-related interfaces are specified in seconds.
anycast_delay (since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of jiffies to delay before replying to a
IPv6 neighbor solicitation message. Anycast support is not
yet implemented. Defaults to 1 second.
app_solicit (since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of probes to send to the user space ARP
daemon via netlink before dropping back to multicast probes
(see mcast_solicit). Defaults to 0.
base_reachable_time (since Linux 2.2)
Once a neighbor has been found, the entry is considered to be
valid for at least a random value between
base_reachable_time/2 and 3*base_reachable_time/2. An entry's
validity will be extended if it receives positive feedback
from higher level protocols. Defaults to 30 seconds. This
file is now obsolete in favor of base_reachable_time_ms.
base_reachable_time_ms (since Linux 2.6.12)
As for base_reachable_time, but measures time in milliseconds.
Defaults to 30000 milliseconds.
delay_first_probe_time (since Linux 2.2)
Delay before first probe after it has been decided that a
neighbor is stale. Defaults to 5 seconds.
gc_interval (since Linux 2.2)
How frequently the garbage collector for neighbor entries
should attempt to run. Defaults to 30 seconds.
gc_stale_time (since Linux 2.2)
Determines how often to check for stale neighbor entries.
When a neighbor entry is considered stale, it is resolved
again before sending data to it. Defaults to 60 seconds.
gc_thresh1 (since Linux 2.2)
The minimum number of entries to keep in the ARP cache. The
garbage collector will not run if there are fewer than this
number of entries in the cache. Defaults to 128.
gc_thresh2 (since Linux 2.2)
The soft maximum number of entries to keep in the ARP cache.
The garbage collector will allow the number of entries to
exceed this for 5 seconds before collection will be performed.
Defaults to 512.
gc_thresh3 (since Linux 2.2)
The hard maximum number of entries to keep in the ARP cache.
The garbage collector will always run if there are more than
this number of entries in the cache. Defaults to 1024.
locktime (since Linux 2.2)
The minimum number of jiffies to keep an ARP entry in the
cache. This prevents ARP cache thrashing if there is more
than one potential mapping (generally due to network
misconfiguration). Defaults to 1 second.
mcast_solicit (since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of attempts to resolve an address by
multicast/broadcast before marking the entry as unreachable.
Defaults to 3.
proxy_delay (since Linux 2.2)
When an ARP request for a known proxy-ARP address is received,
delay up to proxy_delay jiffies before replying. This is used
to prevent network flooding in some cases. Defaults to 0.8
seconds.
proxy_qlen (since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of packets which may be queued to proxy-ARP
addresses. Defaults to 64.
retrans_time (since Linux 2.2)
The number of jiffies to delay before retransmitting a
request. Defaults to 1 second. This file is now obsolete in
favor of retrans_time_ms.
retrans_time_ms (since Linux 2.6.12)
The number of milliseconds to delay before retransmitting a
request. Defaults to 1000 milliseconds.
ucast_solicit (since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of attempts to send unicast probes before
asking the ARP daemon (see app_solicit). Defaults to 3.
unres_qlen (since Linux 2.2)
The maximum number of packets which may be queued for each
unresolved address by other network layers. Defaults to 3.
The struct arpreq changed in Linux 2.0 to include the arp_dev member
and the ioctl numbers changed at the same time. Support for the old
ioctls was dropped in Linux 2.2.
Support for proxy arp entries for networks (netmask not equal
0xffffffff) was dropped in Linux 2.2. It is replaced by automatic
proxy arp setup by the kernel for all reachable hosts on other
interfaces (when forwarding and proxy arp is enabled for the
interface).
The neigh/* interfaces did not exist before Linux 2.2.
Some timer settings are specified in jiffies, which is architecture-
and kernel version-dependent; see time(7).
There is no way to signal positive feedback from user space. This
means connection-oriented protocols implemented in user space will
generate excessive ARP traffic, because ndisc will regularly reprobe
the MAC address. The same problem applies for some kernel protocols
(e.g., NFS over UDP).
This man page mashes together functionality that is IPv4-specific
with functionality that is shared between IPv4 and IPv6.
capabilities(7), ip(7)
RFC 826 for a description of ARP. RFC 2461 for a description of IPv6
neighbor discovery and the base algorithms used. Linux 2.2+ IPv4 ARP
uses the IPv6 algorithms when applicable.
This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2008-11-25 ARP(7)
Pages that refer to this page: send(2), ip(7), arp(8)