ARP(4) | Device Drivers Manual | ARP(4) |
arp
— Address
Resolution Protocol
pseudo-device ether
The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used to dynamically map between Internet host addresses and Ethernet addresses. It is used by all of the Ethernet interface drivers. It is not specific to Internet protocols or to Ethernet, but this implementation currently supports only that combination.
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 for a
short period (normally 20 seconds), allowing an error to be returned to
transmission attempts during this interval. 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). An entry for a host which is not responding is a
“reject” route (one with the
RTF_REJECT
flag set).
ARP entries may be added, deleted or changed with the arp(8) utility. Manually added entries may be temporary, static 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. A static entry will not time out, but may be overwritten by network traffic, while a permanent entry will not time out and cannot be overwritten.
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).
David C. Plummer, An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol, RFC 826, November 1982.
December 8, 2015 | OpenBSD-6.4 |