rarpd(ADMN)

rarpd -- Reverse Address Resolution Protocol daemon

Syntax

/etc/rarpd [ -a ] [ -d ] [ if [ hostname ]]

Description

rarpd starts a daemon that responds to Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) requests. The daemon forks a copy of itself, and requires root privileges.

Machines use RARP at boot time to discover their (32 bit) IP address given their (48 bit) Ethernet address. The booting machine sends its Ethernet address in a RARP request message. For the request to be answered, a machine's name-to-IP-address entry must exist in the /etc/hosts file or must be available from the domain name server and its name-to-Ethernet-address entry must exist in the /etc/ethers file. Using the above two sources, rarpd maps this Ethernet address into the corresponding IP address. Furthermore, the server that runs this daemon must have entries in both files.

Options

-a: invokes the daemon on all the configured interfaces, excluding interfaces marked down; interfaces on which arp has been disabled; the loopback interface; point-to-point interfaces; and interfaces not supporting broadcast packets.
-d: prints debug information to stdout.
if: is the interface parameter string of the form ``name unit'', for example ``wde0''.
hostname: is the interface's corresponding hostname.

The if, hostname pair should be the same as the arguments passed to the ifconfig(ADMN) command.

Files

/etc/ethers
/etc/hosts

Standards conformance