ifconfig(1M) System Administration Commands ifconfig(1M)NAMEifconfig - configure network interface parameters
SYNOPSISifconfig interface [address_family] [address [/prefix_length]
[dest_address]] [addif address [/prefix_length]]
[removeif address [/prefix_length]] [arp | -arp]
[auth_algs authentication algorithm] [encr_algs encryption algorithm]
[encr_auth_algs authentication algorithm] [auto-revarp]
[broadcast address] [deprecated | -deprecated]
[preferred | -preferred] [destination dest_address]
[ether [address]] [failover | -failover] [group
[name | ""]] [index if_index] [metric n] [modlist]
[modinsert mod_name@pos] [modremove mod_name@pos]
[mtu n] [netmask mask] [plumb] [unplumb] [private
| -private] [nud | -nud] [set [address] [/netmask]]
[standby | -standby] [subnet subnet_address] [tdst
tunnel_dest_address] [token address/prefix_length]
[tsrc tunnel_src_address] [trailers | -trailers]
[up] [down] [usesrc [name | none]] [xmit | -xmit]
[encaplimit n | -encaplimit] [thoplimit n] [router
| -router] [zone zonename | -zone | -all-zones]
ifconfig [address_family] interface {auto-dhcp | dhcp} [primary]
[wait seconds] drop | extend | inform | ping
| release | start | status
DESCRIPTION
The command ifconfig is used to assign an address to a network inter‐
face and to configure network interface parameters. The ifconfig com‐
mand must be used at boot time to define the network address of each
interface present on a machine; it may also be used at a later time to
redefine an interface's address or other operating parameters. If no
option is specified, ifconfig displays the current configuration for a
network interface. If an address family is specified, ifconfig reports
only the details specific to that address family. Only privileged users
may modify the configuration of a network interface. Options appearing
within braces ({}) indicate that one of the options must be specified.
DHCP Configuration
The forms of ifconfig that use the auto-dhcp or dhcp arguments are used
to control the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol ("DHCP") configura‐
tion of the interface. In this mode, ifconfig is used to control opera‐
tion of dhcpagent(1M), the DHCP client daemon. Once an interface is
placed under DHCP control by using the start operand, ifconfig should
not, in normal operation, be used to modify the address or characteris‐
tics of the interface. If the address of an interface under DHCP is
changed, dhcpagent will remove the interface from its control.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
addif address
Create the next unused logical interface on the specified physical
interface. If the physical interface is part of a multipathing
group, the logical interface can be added to a different physical
interface in the same group.
all-zones
Make the interface available to every shared-IP zone on the system.
The appropriate zone to which to deliver data is determined using
the tnzonecfg database. This option is available only if the system
is configured with the Solaris Trusted Extensions feature.
The tnzonecfg database is described in the tnzonecfg(4) man page,
which is part of the Solaris Trusted Extensions Reference Manual.
anycast
Marks the logical interface as an anycast address by setting the
ANYCAST flag. See "INTERFACE FLAGS," below, for more information on
anycast.
-anycast
Marks the logical interface as not an anycast address by clearing
the ANYCAST flag.
arp
Enable the use of the Address Resolution Protocol ("ARP") in map‐
ping between network level addresses and link level addresses
(default). This is currently implemented for mapping between IPv4
addresses and MAC addresses.
-arp
Disable the use of the ARP on a physical interface.
auth_algs authentication algorithm
For a tunnel, enable IPsec AH with the authentication algorithm
specified. The algorithm can be either a number or an algorithm
name, including any to express no preference in algorithm. All
IPsec tunnel properties must be specified on the same command line.
To disable tunnel security, specify an auth_alg of none.
It is now preferable to use the ipsecconf(1M) command when config‐
uring a tunnel's security properties. If ipsecconf was used to set
a tunnel's security properties, this keyword will not affect the
tunnel.
auto-dhcp
Use DHCP to automatically acquire an address for this interface.
This option has a completely equivalent alias called dhcp.
For IPv6, the interface specified must be the zeroth logical inter‐
face (the physical interface name), which has the link-local
address.
primary
Defines the interface as the primary. The interface is defined
as the preferred one for the delivery of client-wide configura‐
tion data. Only one interface can be the primary at any given
time. If another interface is subsequently selected as the pri‐
mary, it replaces the previous one. Nominating an interface as
the primary one will not have much significance once the client
work station has booted, as many applications will already have
started and been configured with data read from the previous
primary interface.
wait seconds
The ifconfig command will wait until the operation either com‐
pletes or for the interval specified, whichever is the sooner.
If no wait interval is given, and the operation is one that
cannot complete immediately, ifconfig will wait 30 seconds for
the requested operation to complete. The symbolic value forever
may be used as well, with obvious meaning.
drop
Remove the specified interface from DHCP control without noti‐
fying the DHCP server, and record the current lease for later
use. Additionally, for IPv4, set the IP address to zero and
mark the interface as "down." For IPv6, unplumb all logical
interfaces plumbed by dhcpagent.
extend
Attempt to extend the lease on the interface's IP address. This
is not required, as the agent will automatically extend the
lease well before it expires.
inform
Obtain network configuration parameters from DHCP without
obtaining a lease on IP addresses. This is useful in situations
where an IP address is obtained through mechanisms other than
DHCP.
ping
Check whether the interface given is under DHCP control, which
means that the interface is managed by the DHCP agent and is
working properly. An exit status of 0 means success.
release
Relinquish the IP addresses on the interface by notifying the
server and discard the current lease. For IPv4, mark the inter‐
face as "down." For IPv6, all logical interfaces plumbed by
dhcpagent are unplumbed.
start
Start DHCP on the interface.
status
Display the DHCP configuration status of the interface.
auto-revarp
Use the Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) to automatically
acquire an address for this interface. This will fail if the inter‐
face does not support RARP; for example, IPoIB (IP over Infini‐
Band), and on IPv6 interfaces.
broadcast address
For IPv4 only. Specify the address to use to represent broadcasts
to the network. The default broadcast address is the address with a
host part of all 1's. A "+" (plus sign) given for the broadcast
value causes the broadcast address to be reset to a default appro‐
priate for the (possibly new) address and netmask. The arguments of
ifconfig are interpreted left to right. Therefore
example% ifconfig-a netmask + broadcast +
and
example% ifconfig-a broadcast + netmask +
may result in different values being assigned for the broadcast
addresses of the interfaces.
deprecated
Marks the logical interface as deprecated. An address associated
with a deprecated interface will not be used as source address for
outbound packets unless either there are no other addresses avail‐
able on the interface or the application has bound to this address
explicitly. The status display shows DEPRECATED as part of flags.
See for information on the flags supported by ifconfig.
-deprecated
Marks a logical interface as not deprecated. An address associated
with such an interface could be used as a source address for out‐
bound packets.
preferred
Marks the logical interface as preferred. This option is only valid
for IPv6 addresses. Addresses assigned to preferred logical inter‐
faces are preferred as source addresses over all other addresses
configured on the system, unless the address is of an inappropriate
scope relative to the destination address. Preferred addresses are
used as source addresses regardless of which physical interface
they are assigned to. For example, you can configure a preferred
source address on the loopback interface and advertise reachability
of this address by using a routing protocol.
-preferred
Marks the logical interface as not preferred.
destination dest_address
Set the destination address for a point-to point interface.
dhcp
This option is an alias for option auto-dhcp
down
Mark a logical interface as "down". (That is, turn off the IFF_UP
bit.) When a logical interface is marked "down," the system does
not attempt to use the address assigned to that interface as a
source address for outbound packets and will not recognize inbound
packets destined to that address as being addressed to this host.
Additionally, when all logical interfaces on a given physical
interface are "down," the physical interface itself is disabled.
When a logical interface is down, all routes that specify that
interface as the output (using the -ifp option in the route(1M)
command or RTA_IFP in a route(7P) socket) are removed from the for‐
warding table. Routes marked with RTF_STATIC are returned to the
table if the interface is brought back up, while routes not marked
with RTF_STATIC are simply deleted.
When all logical interfaces that could possibly be used to reach a
particular gateway address are brought down (specified without the
interface option as in the previous paragraph), the affected gate‐
way routes are treated as though they had the RTF_BLACKHOLE flag
set. All matching packets are discarded because the gateway is
unreachable.
encaplimit n
Set the tunnel encapsulation limit for the interface to n. This
option applies to IPv4-in-IPv6 and IPv6-in-IPv6 tunnels only. The
tunnel encapsulation limit controls how many more tunnels a packet
may enter before it leaves any tunnels, that is, the tunnel nesting
level.
-encaplimit
Disable generation of the tunnel encapsulation limit. This option
applies only to IPv4-in-IPv6 and IPv6-in-IPv6 tunnels.
encr_auth_algs authentication algorithm
For a tunnel, enable IPsec ESP with the authentication algorithm
specified. It can be either a number or an algorithm name, includ‐
ing any or none, to indicate no algorithm preference. If an ESP
encryption algorithm is specified but the authentication algorithm
is not, the default value for the ESP authentication algorithm will
be any.
It is now preferable to use the ipsecconf(1M) command when config‐
uring a tunnel's security properties. If ipsecconf was used to set
a tunnel's security properties, this keyword will not affect the
tunnel.
encr_algs encryption algorithm
For a tunnel, enable IPsec ESP with the encryption algorithm speci‐
fied. It can be either a number or an algorithm name. Note that all
IPsec tunnel properties must be specified on the same command line.
To disable tunnel security, specify the value of encr_alg as none.
If an ESP authentication algorithm is specified, but the encryption
algorithm is not, the default value for the ESP encryption will be
null.
It is now preferable to use the ipsecconf(1M) command when config‐
uring a tunnel's security properties. If ipsecconf was used to set
a tunnel's security properties, this keyword will not affect the
tunnel.
ether [ address ]
If no address is given and the user is root or has sufficient priv‐
ileges to open the underlying device, then display the current Eth‐
ernet address information.
Otherwise, if the user is root or has sufficient privileges, set
the Ethernet address of the interfaces to address. The address is
an Ethernet address represented as x:x:x:x:x:x where x is a hexa‐
decimal number between 0 and FF. Similarly, for the IPoIB (IP over
InfiniBand) interfaces, the address will be 20 bytes of colon-sepa‐
rated hex numbers between 0 and FF.
Some, though not all, Ethernet interface cards have their own
addresses. To use cards that do not have their own addresses, refer
to section 3.2.3(4) of the IEEE 802.3 specification for a defini‐
tion of the locally administered address space. The use of multi‐
pathing groups should be restricted to those cards with their own
addresses (see MULTIPATHING GROUPS).
-failover
Mark the logical interface as a non-failover interface. Addresses
assigned to non-failover logical interfaces will not failover when
the interface fails. Status display shows NOFAILOVER as part of
flags.
failover
Mark the logical interface as a failover interface. An address
assigned to such an interface will failover when the interface
fails. Status display does not show NOFAILOVER as part of flags.
group [ name |""]
Insert the logical interface in the multipathing group specified by
name. To delete an interface from a group, use a null string "".
When invoked on the logical interface with id zero, the status dis‐
play shows the group name.
index n
Change the interface index for the interface. The value of n must
be an interface index (if_index) that is not used on another inter‐
face. if_index will be a non-zero positive number that uniquely
identifies the network interface on the system.
metric n
Set the routing metric of the interface to n; if no value is speci‐
fied, the default is 0. The routing metric is used by the routing
protocol. Higher metrics have the effect of making a route less
favorable. Metrics are counted as addition hops to the destination
network or host.
modinsert mod_name@pos
Insert a module with name mod_name to the stream of the device at
position pos. The position is relative to the stream head. Position
0 means directly under stream head.
Based upon the example in the modlist option, use the following
command to insert a module with name ipqos under the ip module and
above the firewall module:
example% ifconfig eri0 modinsert ipqos@2
A subsequent listing of all the modules in the stream of the device
follows:
example% ifconfig eri0 modlist
0 arp
1 ip
2 ipqos
3 firewall
4 eri
modlist
List all the modules in the stream of the device.
The following example lists all the modules in the stream of the
device:
example% ifconfig eri0 modlist
0 arp
1 ip
2 firewall
4 eri
modremove mod_name@pos
Remove a module with name mod_name from the stream of the device at
position pos. The position is relative to the stream head.
Based upon the example in the modinsert option, use the following
command to remove the firewall module from the stream after insert‐
ing the ipqos module:
example% ifconfig eri0 modremove firewall@3
A subsequent listing of all the modules in the stream of the device
follows:
example% ifconfig eri0 modlist
0 arp
1 ip
2 ipqos
3 eri
Note that the core IP stack modules, for example, ip and tun mod‐
ules, cannot be removed.
mtu n
Set the maximum transmission unit of the interface to n. For many
types of networks, the mtu has an upper limit, for example, 1500
for Ethernet. This option sets the FIXEDMTU flag on the affected
interface.
netmask mask
For IPv4 only. Specify how much of the address to reserve for sub‐
dividing networks into subnetworks. The mask includes the network
part of the local address and the subnet part, which is taken from
the host field of the address. The mask contains 1's for the bit
positions in the 32-bit address which are to be used for the net‐
work and subnet parts, and 0's for the host part. The mask should
contain at least the standard network portion, and the subnet field
should be contiguous with the network portion. The mask can be
specified in one of four ways:
1. with a single hexadecimal number with a leading 0x,
2. with a dot-notation address,
3. with a "+" (plus sign) address, or
4. with a pseudo host name/pseudo network name found in the
network database networks(4).
If a "+" (plus sign) is given for the netmask value, the mask is
looked up in the netmasks(4) database. This lookup finds the long‐
est matching netmask in the database by starting with the inter‐
face's IPv4 address as the key and iteratively masking off more and
more low order bits of the address. This iterative lookup ensures
that the netmasks(4) database can be used to specify the netmasks
when variable length subnetmasks are used within a network number.
If a pseudo host name/pseudo network name is supplied as the net‐
mask value, netmask data may be located in the hosts or networks
database. Names are looked up by first using gethostbyname(3NSL).
If not found there, the names are looked up in getnetby‐
name(3SOCKET). These interfaces may in turn use nsswitch.conf(4) to
determine what data store(s) to use to fetch the actual value.
For both inet and inet6, the same information conveyed by mask can
be specified as a prefix_length attached to the address parameter.
nud
Enables the neighbor unreachability detection mechanism on a point-
to-point physical interface.
-nud
Disables the neighbor unreachability detection mechanism on a
point-to-point physical interface.
plumb
Open the device associated with the physical interface name and set
up the streams needed for IP to use the device. When used with a
logical interface name, this command is used to create a specific
named logical interface. An interface must be separately plumbed
for use by IPv4 and IPv6. The address_family parameter controls
whether the ifconfig command applies to IPv4 or IPv6.
Before an interface has been plumbed, the interface will not show
up in the output of the ifconfig-a command.
private
Tells the in.routed routing daemon that a specified logical inter‐
face should not be advertised.
-private
Specify unadvertised interfaces.
removeif address
Remove the logical interface on the physical interface specified
that matches the address specified. When the interface is part of a
multipathing group, the logical interface will be removed from the
physical interface in the group that holds the address.
router
Enable IP forwarding on the interface. When enabled, the interface
is marked ROUTER, and IP packets can be forwarded to and from the
interface.
-router
Disable IP forwarding on the interface. IP packets are not for‐
warded to and from the interface.
set
Set the address, prefix_length or both, for a logical interface.
standby
Marks the physical interface as a standby interface. If the inter‐
face is marked STANDBY and is part of the multipathing group, the
interface will not be selected to send out packets unless some
other interface in the group has failed and the network access has
been failed over to this standby interface.
The status display shows "STANDBY, INACTIVE" indicating that that
the interface is a standby and is also inactive. IFF_INACTIVE will
be cleared when some other interface belonging to the same multi‐
pathing group fails over to this interface. Once a failback hap‐
pens, the status display will return to INACTIVE.
-standby
Turns off standby on this interface.
subnet
Set the subnet address for an interface.
tdst tunnel_dest_address
Set the destination address of a tunnel. The address should not be
the same as the dest_address of the tunnel, because no packets
leave the system over such a tunnel.
thoplimit n
Set the hop limit for a tunnel interface. The hop limit value is
used as the TTL in the IPv4 header for the IPv6-in-IPv4 and
IPv4-in-IPv4 tunnels. For IPv6-in-IPv6 and IPv4-in-IPv6 tunnels,
the hop limit value is used as the hop limit in the IPv6 header.
token address/prefix_length
Set the IPv6 token of an interface to be used for address autocon‐
figuration.
example% ifconfig eri0 inet6 token ::1/64
trailers
This flag previously caused a nonstandard encapsulation of IPv4
packets on certain link levels. Drivers supplied with this release
no longer use this flag. It is provided for compatibility, but is
ignored.
-trailers
Disable the use of a "trailer" link level encapsulation.
tsrc tunnel_src_address
Set the source address of a tunnel. This is the source address on
an outer encapsulating IP header. It must be an address of another
interface already configured using ifconfig.
unplumb
Close the device associated with this physical interface name and
any streams that ifconfig set up for IP to use the device. When
used with a logical interface name, the logical interface is
removed from the system. After this command is executed, the device
name will no longer appear in the output of ifconfig-a.
up
Mark a logical interface "up". This happens automatically when
assigning the first address to a logical interface. The up option
enables an interface after an ifconfig down, which reinitializes
the hardware.
usesrc [ name | none ]
Specify a physical interface to be used for source address selec‐
tion. If the keyword none is used, then any previous selection is
cleared.
When an application does not choose a non-zero source address using
bind(3SOCKET), the system will select an appropriate source address
based on the outbound interface and the address selection rules
(see ipaddrsel(1M)).
When usesrc is specified and the specified interface is selected in
the forwarding table for output, the system looks first to the
specified physical interface and its associated logical interfaces
when selecting a source address. If no usable address is listed in
the forwarding table, the ordinary selection rules apply. For exam‐
ple, if you enter:
# ifconfig eri0 usesrc vni0
...and vni0 has address 10.0.0.1 assigned to it, the system will
prefer 10.0.0.1 as the source address for any packets originated by
local connections that are sent through eri0. Further examples are
provided in the EXAMPLES section.
While you can specify any physical interface (or even loopback), be
aware that you can also specify the virtual IP interface (see
vni(7D)). The virtual IP interface is not associated with any phys‐
ical hardware and is thus immune to hardware failures. You can
specify any number of physical interfaces to use the source address
hosted on a single virtual interface. This simplifies the configu‐
ration of routing-based multipathing. If one of the physical inter‐
faces were to fail, communication would continue through one of the
remaining, functioning physical interfaces. This scenario assumes
that the reachability of the address hosted on the virtual inter‐
face is advertised in some manner, for example, through a routing
protocol.
Because the ifconfig preferred option is applied to all interfaces,
it is coarser-grained than the usesrc option. It will be overridden
by usesrc and setsrc (route subcommand), in that order.
The use of the usesrc option is mutually exclusive of the IP multi‐
pathing ifconfig options, group and standby. That is, if an inter‐
face is already part of a IP multipathing group or specified as a
standby interface, then it cannot be specified with a usesrc
option, and vice-versa. For more details on IP multipathing, see
in.mpathd(1M) and the .
xmit
Enable a logical interface to transmit packets. This is the default
behavior when the logical interface is up.
-xmit
Disable transmission of packets on an interface. The interface will
continue to receive packets.
zone zonename
Place the logical interface in zone zonename. The named zone must
be active in the kernel in the ready or running state. The inter‐
face is unplumbed when the zone is halted or rebooted. The zone
must be configure to be an shared-IP zone. zonecfg(1M) is used to
assign network interface names to exclusive-IP zones.
-zone
Place IP interface in the global zone. This is the default.
OPERANDS
The interface operand, as well as address parameters that affect it,
are described below.
interface
A string of one of the following forms:
o name physical-unit, for example, eri0 or ce1
o name physical-unit:logical-unit, for example, eri0:1
o ip.tunN or ip6.tunN, for tunnels
If the interface name starts with a dash (-), it is interpreted as
a set of options which specify a set of interfaces. In such a case,
-a must be part of the options and any of the additional options
below can be added in any order. If one of these interface names is
given, the commands following it are applied to all of the inter‐
faces that match.
-a
Apply the command to all interfaces of the specified address
family. If no address family is supplied, either on the command
line or by means of /etc/default/inet_type, then all address
families will be selected.
-d
Apply the commands to all "down" interfaces in the system.
-D
Apply the commands to all interfaces not under DHCP (Dynamic
Host Configuration Protocol) control.
-u
Apply the commands to all "up" interfaces in the system.
-Z
Apply the commands to all interfaces in the user's zone.
-4
Apply the commands to all IPv4 interfaces.
-6
Apply the commands to all IPv6 interfaces.
address_family
The address family is specified by the address_family parameter.
The ifconfig command currently supports the following families:
inet and inet6. If no address family is specified, the default is
inet.
ifconfig honors the DEFAULT_IP setting in the
/etc/default/inet_type file when it displays interface information
. If DEFAULT_IP is set to IP_VERSION4, then ifconfig will omit
information that relates to IPv6 interfaces. However, when you
explicitly specify an address family (inet or inet6) on the ifcon‐
fig command line, the command line overrides the DEFAULT_IP set‐
tings.
address
For the IPv4 family (inet), the address is either a host name
present in the host name data base (see hosts(4)) or in the Network
Information Service (NIS) map hosts, or an IPv4 address expressed
in the Internet standard "dot notation".
For the IPv6 family (inet6), the address is either a host name
present in the host name data base (see hosts(4)) or in the Network
Information Service (NIS) map ipnode, or an IPv6 address expressed
in the Internet standard colon-separated hexadecimal format repre‐
sented as x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x where x is a hexadecimal number between 0
and FFFF.
prefix_length
For the IPv4 and IPv6 families (inet and inet6), the prefix_length
is a number between 0 and the number of bits in the address. For
inet, the number of bits in the address is 32; for inet6, the num‐
ber of bits in the address is 128. The prefix_length denotes the
number of leading set bits in the netmask.
dest_address
If the dest_address parameter is supplied in addition to the
address parameter, it specifies the address of the correspondent on
the other end of a point-to-point link.
tunnel_dest_address
An address that is or will be reachable through an interface other
than the tunnel being configured. This tells the tunnel where to
send the tunneled packets. This address must not be the same as the
interface destination address being configured.
tunnel_src_address
An address that is attached to an already configured interface that
has been configured "up" with ifconfig.
INTERFACE FLAGS
The ifconfig command supports the following interface flags. The term
"address" in this context refers to a logical interface, for example,
eri0:0, while "interface " refers to the physical interface, for exam‐
ple, eri0.
ADDRCONF
The address is from stateless addrconf. The stateless mechanism
allows a host to generate its own address using a combination of
information advertised by routers and locally available informa‐
tion. Routers advertise prefixes that identify the subnet associ‐
ated with the link, while the host generates an "interface identi‐
fier" that uniquely identifies an interface in a subnet. In the
absence of information from routers, a host can generate link-local
addresses. This flag is specific to IPv6.
ANYCAST
Indicates an anycast address. An anycast address identifies the
nearest member of a group of systems that provides a particular
type of service. An anycast address is assigned to a group of sys‐
tems. Packets are delivered to the nearest group member identified
by the anycast address instead of being delivered to all members of
the group.
BROADCAST
This broadcast address is valid. This flag and POINTTOPOINT are
mutually exclusive
CoS
This interface supports some form of Class of Service (CoS) mark‐
ing. An example is the 802.1D user priority marking supported on
VLAN interfaces.
Note that this flag is only set on interfaces over VLAN links and
over Ethernet links that have their dladm(1M) tagmode link property
set to normal.
DEPRECATED
This address is deprecated. This address will not be used as a
source address for outbound packets unless there are no other
addresses on this interface or an application has explicitly bound
to this address. An IPv6 deprecated address will eventually be
deleted when not used, whereas an IPv4 deprecated address is often
used with IP network multipathing IPv4 test addresses, which are
determined by the setting of the NOFAILOVER flag. Further, the DEP‐
RECATED flag is part of the standard mechanism for renumbering in
IPv6.
DHCP
DHCP is used to manage this address.
DUPLICATE
The logical interface has been disabled because the IP address con‐
figured on the interface is a duplicate. Some other node on the
network is using this address. If the address was configured by
DHCP or is temporary, the system will choose another automatically,
if possible. Otherwise, the system will attempt to recover this
address periodically and the interface will recover when the con‐
flict has been removed from the network. Changing the address or
netmask, or setting the logical interface to up will restart dupli‐
cate detection. Setting the interface to down terminates recovery
and removes the DUPLICATE flag.
FAILED
The interface has failed. New addresses cannot be created on this
interface. If this interface is part of an IP network multipathing
group, a failover will occur to another interface in the group, if
possible
FIXEDMTU
The MTU has been set using the -mtu option. This flag is read-only.
Interfaces that have this flag set have a fixed MTU value that is
unaffected by dynamic MTU changes that can occur when drivers
notify IP of link MTU changes.
INACTIVE
Indicates that the interface is not currently being used for regu‐
lar traffic by the system. New addresses cannot be created on this
interface. The flag is set automatically on standby interfaces. It
can also be set when the system detects that a failed interface has
been repaired and FAILBACK=no is configured in /etc/default/mpathd.
The flag is cleared when the interface fails or when a failover to
that interface occurs.
LOOPBACK
Indicates that this is the loopback interface.
MIP
Indicates that mobile IP controls this interface.
MULTI_BCAST
Indicates that the broadcast address is used for multicast on this
interface.
MULTICAST
The interface supports multicast. IP assumes that any interface
that supports hardware broadcast, or that is a point-to-point link,
will support multicast.
NOARP
There is no address resolution protocol (ARP) for this interface
that corresponds to all interfaces for a device without a broadcast
address. This flag is specific to IPv4.
NOFAILOVER
This address will not failover if the interface fails. IP network
multipathing test addresses must be marked nofailover.
NOLOCAL
The interface has no address , just an on-link subnet.
NONUD
NUD is disabled on this interface. NUD (neighbor unreachability
detection) is used by a node to track the reachability state of its
neighbors, to which the node actively sends packets, and to perform
any recovery if a neighbor is detected to be unreachable. This flag
is specific to IPv6.
NORTEXCH
The interface does not exchange routing information. For RIP-2,
routing packets are not sent over this interface. Additionally,
messages that appear to come over this interface receive no
response. The subnet or address of this interface is not included
in advertisements over other interfaces to other routers.
NOXMIT
Indicates that the address does not transmit packets. RIP-2 also
does not advertise this address.
OFFLINE
Indicates that the interface has been offlined. New addresses can‐
not be created on this interface. Interfaces in an IP network mul‐
tipathing group are offlined prior to removal and replacement using
dynamic reconfiguration.
POINTOPOINT
Indicates that the address is a point-to-point link. This flag and
BROADCAST are mutually exclusive
PREFERRED
This address is a preferred IPv6 source address. This address will
be used as a source address for IPv6 communication with all IPv6
destinations, unless another address on the system is of more
appropriate scope. The DEPRECATED flag takes precedence over the
PREFERRED flag.
PRIVATE
Indicates that this address is not advertised. For RIP-2, this
interface is used to send advertisements. However, neither the sub‐
net nor this address are included in advertisements to other
routers.
ROUTER
Indicates that IP packets can be forwarded to and from the inter‐
face.
RUNNING
Indicates that the required resources for an interface are allo‐
cated. For some interfaces this also indicates that the link is up.
STANDBY
Indicates that this is a standby interface to be used on failures.
Only interfaces in an IP network multipathing group should be des‐
ignated as standby interfaces. If this interface is part of a IP
network multipathing group, the interface will not be selected to
send out packets unless some other interface in the group fails
over to it.
TEMPORARY
Indicates that this is a temporary IPv6 address as defined in RFC
3041.
UNNUMBERED
This flag is set when the local IP address on the link matches the
local address of some other link in the system
UP
Indicates that the interface is up, that is, all the routing
entries and the like for this interface have been set up.
VIRTUAL
Indicates that the physical interface has no underlying hardware.
It is not possible to transmit or receive packets through a virtual
interface. These interfaces are useful for configuring local
addresses that can be used on multiple interfaces. (See also the
-usesrc option.)
XRESOLV
Indicates that the interface uses an IPv6 external resolver.
LOGICAL INTERFACES
Solaris TCP/IP allows multiple logical interfaces to be associated with
a physical network interface. This allows a single machine to be
assigned multiple IP addresses, even though it may have only one net‐
work interface. Physical network interfaces have names of the form
driver-name physical-unit-number, while logical interfaces have names
of the form driver-name physical-unit-number:logical-unit-number. A
physical interface is configured into the system using the plumb com‐
mand. For example:
example% ifconfig eri0 plumb
Once a physical interface has been "plumbed", logical interfaces asso‐
ciated with the physical interface can be configured by separate -plumb
or -addif options to the ifconfig command.
example% ifconfig eri0:1 plumb
allocates a specific logical interface associated with the physical
interface eri0. The command
example% ifconfig eri0 addif 192.168.200.1/24 up
allocates the next available logical unit number on the eri0 physical
interface and assigns an address and prefix_length.
A logical interface can be configured with parameters ( address,pre‐
fix_length, and so on) different from the physical interface with which
it is associated. Logical interfaces that are associated with the same
physical interface can be given different parameters as well. Each log‐
ical interface must be associated with an existing and "up" physical
interface. So, for example, the logical interface eri0:1 can only be
configured after the physical interface eri0 has been plumbed.
To delete a logical interface, use the -unplumb or -removeif options.
For example,
example% ifconfig eri0:1 down unplumb
will delete the logical interface eri0:1.
MULTIPATHING GROUPS
Physical interfaces that share the same IP broadcast domain can be col‐
lected into a multipathing group using the group keyword. Interfaces
assigned to the same multipathing group are treated as equivalent and
outgoing traffic is spread across the interfaces on a per-IP-destina‐
tion basis. In addition, individual interfaces in a multipathing group
are monitored for failures; the addresses associated with failed inter‐
faces are automatically transferred to other functioning interfaces
within the group.
For more details on IP multipathing, see in.mpathd(1M) and the . See
netstat(1M) for per-IP-destination information.
CONFIGURING IPV6 INTERFACES
When an IPv6 physical interface is plumbed and configured "up" with
ifconfig, it is automatically assigned an IPv6 link-local address for
which the last 64 bits are calculated from the MAC address of the
interface.
example% ifconfig eri0 inet6 plumb up
The following example shows that the link-local address has a prefix of
fe80::/10.
example% ifconfig eri0 inet6
ce0: flags=2000841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6>
mtu 1500 index 2
inet6 fe80::a00:20ff:fe8e:f3ad/10
Link-local addresses are only used for communication on the local sub‐
net and are not visible to other subnets.
If an advertising IPv6 router exists on the link advertising prefixes,
then the newly plumbed IPv6 interface will autoconfigure logical inter‐
face(s) depending on the prefix advertisements. For example, for the
prefix advertisement 2001:0db8:3c4d:0:55::/64, the autoconfigured
interface will look like:
eri0:2: flags=2080841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ADDRCONF,IPv6>
mtu 1500 index 2
inet6 2001:0db8:3c4d:55:a00:20ff:fe8e:f3ad/64
Even if there are no prefix advertisements on the link, you can still
assign global addresses manually, for example:
example% ifconfig eri0 inet6 addif \
2001:0db8:3c4d:55:a00:20ff:fe8e:f3ad/64 up
To configure boot-time defaults for the interface eri0, place the fol‐
lowing entry in the /etc/hostname6.eri0 file:
addif 2001:0db8:3c4d:55:a00:20ff:fe8e:f3ad/64 up
Configuring IPv6/IPv4 tunnels
An IPv6 over IPv4 tunnel interface can send and receive IPv6 packets
encapsulated in an IPv4 packet. Create tunnels at both ends pointing to
each other. IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels require the tunnel source and tunnel
destination IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Solaris 8 supports both automatic
and configured tunnels. For automatic tunnels, an IPv4-compatible IPv6
address is used. The following demonstrates auto-tunnel configuration:
example% ifconfig ip.atun0 inet6 plumb
example% ifconfig ip.atun0 inet6 tsrc IPv4-address \
::IPv4 address/96 up
where IPv4-address is the IPv4 address of the interface through which
the tunnel traffic will flow, and IPv4-address, ::<IPv4-address>, is
the corresponding IPv4-compatible IPv6 address.
The following is an example of a configured tunnel:
example% ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 plumb tsrc my-ipv4-address \
tdst peer-ipv4-address up
This creates a configured tunnel between my-ipv4-address and peer-
ipv4-address with corresponding link-local addresses. For tunnels with
global or site-local addresses, the logical tunnel interfaces need to
be configured in the following form:
example% ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 addif my-v6-address peer-v6-address up
For example,
example% ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 plumb tsrc 109.146.85.57 \
tdst 109.146.85.212 up
example% ifconfig ip.tun0 inet6 addif 2::45 2::46 up
To show all IPv6 interfaces that are up and configured:
example% ifconfig-au6
ip.tun0: flags=2200851<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST,NONUD,IPv6>
mtu 1480 index 3
inet tunnel src 109.146.85.57 tunnel dst 109.146.85.212
tunnel security settings --> use 'ipsecconf -ln -i ip.tun1'
tunnel hop limit 60
inet6 fe80::6d92:5539/10 --> fe80::6d92:55d4
ip.tun0:1: flags=2200851<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,MULTICAST,NONUD,IPv6>
mtu 1480 index 3
inet6 2::45/128 --> 2::46
In the output above, note the line that begins with "tunnel security
settings". The content of this line varies according to whether and how
you have set your security settings. See "Display of Tunnel Security
Settings," below.
Configuring IPv4/IPv6 Tunnels
An IPv4 over IPv6 tunnel interface can send and receive IPv4 packets
encapsulated in an IPv6 packet. Create tunnels at both ends pointing to
each other. IPv4 over IPv6 tunnels require the tunnel source and tunnel
destination IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. The following demonstrates auto-
tunnel configuration:
example% ifconfig ip6.tun0 inet plumb tsrc my-ipv6-address \
tdst peer-ipv6-address my-ipv4-address \
peer-ipv4-address up
This creates a configured tunnel between my-ipv6-address and peer-
ipv6-address with my-ipv4-address and peer-ipv4-address as the end‐
points of the point-to-point interface, for example:
example% ifconfig ip6.tun0 inet plumb tsrc fe80::1 tdst fe80::2 \
10.0.0.208 10.0.0.210 up
To show all IPv4 interfaces that are up and configured:
example% ifconfig-au4
lo0: flags=1000849<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv4> mtu 8232 index 1
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask ff000000
eri0: flags=1004843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,DHCP,IPv4> mtu 1500 \
index 2
inet 172.17.128.208 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 172.17.128.255
ip6.tun0: flags=10008d1<UP,POINTOPOINT,RUNNING,NOARP,MULTICAST,IPv4> \
mtu 1460
index 3
inet6 tunnel src fe80::1 tunnel dst fe80::2
tunnel security settings --> use 'ipsecconf -ln -i ip.tun1'
tunnel hop limit 60 tunnel encapsulation limit 4
inet 10.0.0.208 --> 10.0.0.210 netmask ff000000
In the output above, note the line that begins with "tunnel security
settings". The content of this line varies according to whether and how
you have set your security settings. See "Display of Tunnel Security
Settings," below.
Display of Tunnel Security Settings
The ifconfig output for tunneled interfaces indicates security set‐
tings, if present, for a tunnel. The content of the line showing your
settings differs depending on how you have made your settings:
o If you set your security policy using the ifconfig-auth_algs, -encr_algs, and -encr_auth_algs options and do
not use ipsecconf(1M), ifconfig displays your settings for
each of these options.
o If you set your security policy using ipsecconf(1M) with the
tunnel keyword (the preferred method), ifconfig displays:
tunnel security settings --> use 'ipsecconf -ln -i ip.tun1'
...in effect, hiding your settings from those without privi‐
leges to view them.
If you do net set security policy, using either ifconfig or
ipsecconf, there is no tunnel security setting displayed.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Using the ifconfig Command
If your workstation is not attached to an Ethernet, the network inter‐
face, for example, eri0, should be marked "down" as follows:
example% ifconfig eri0 down
Example 2 Printing Addressing Information
To print out the addressing information for each interface, use the
following command:
example% ifconfig-a
Example 3 Resetting the Broadcast Address
To reset each interface's broadcast address after the netmasks have
been correctly set, use the next command:
example% ifconfig-a broadcast +
Example 4 Changing the Ethernet Address
To change the Ethernet address for interface ce0, use the following
command:
example% ifconfig ce0 ether aa:1:2:3:4:5
Example 5 Configuring an IP-in-IP Tunnel
To configure an IP-in-IP tunnel, first plumb it with the following com‐
mand:
example% ifconfig ip.tun0 plumb
Then configure it as a point-to-point interface, supplying the tunnel
source and the tunnel destination:
example% ifconfig ip.tun0 myaddr mydestaddr tsrc another_myaddr \
tdst a_dest_addr up
Use ipsecconf(1M), as described above, to configure tunnel security
properties.
Example 6 Configuring 6to4 Tunnels
To configure 6to4 tunnels, use the following commands:
example% ifconfig ip.6to4tun0 inet6 plumb
example% ifconfig ip.6to4tun0 inet6 tsrc IPv4-address 6to4-address/64 up
IPv4-address denotes the address of the encapsulating interface.
6to4-address denotes the address of the local IPv6 address of form
2002:IPv4-address:SUBNET-ID:HOSTID.
The long form should be used to resolve any potential conflicts that
might arise if the system administrator utilizes an addressing plan
where the values for SUBNET-ID or HOSTID are reserved for something
else.
After the interface is plumbed, a 6to4 tunnel can be configured as fol‐
lows:
example% ifconfig ip.6to4tun0 inet6 tsrc IPv4-address up
This short form sets the address. It uses the convention:
2002:IPv4-address::1
The SUBNET-ID is 0, and the HOSTID is 1.
Example 7 Configuring IP Forwarding on an Interface
To enable IP forwarding on a single interface, use the following com‐
mand:
example% ifconfig eri0 router
To disable IP forwarding on a single interface, use the following com‐
mand:
example% ifconfig eri0 -router
Example 8 Configuring Source Address Selection Using a Virtual Inter‐
face
The following command configures source address selection such that
every packet that is locally generated with no bound source address and
going out on qfe2 prefers a source address hosted on vni0.
example% ifconfig qfe2 usesrc vni0
The ifconfig-a output for the qfe2 and vni0 interfaces displays as
follows:
qfe2: flags=1100843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ROUTER,IPv4> mtu
1500 index 4
usesrc vni0
inet 1.2.3.4 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 1.2.3.255
ether 0:3:ba:17:4b:e1
vni0: flags=20011100c1<UP,RUNNING,NOARP,NOXMIT,ROUTER,IPv4,VIRTUAL>
mtu 0 index 5
srcof qfe2
inet 3.4.5.6 netmask ffffffff
Observe, above, the usesrc and srcof keywords in the ifconfig output.
These keywords also appear on the logical instances of the physical
interface, even though this is a per-physical interface parameter.
There is no srcof keyword in ifconfig for configuring interfaces. This
information is determined automatically from the set of interfaces that
have usesrc set on them.
The following command, using the none keyword, undoes the effect of the
preceding ifconfig usersrc command.
example% ifconfig qfe2 usesrc none
Following this command, ifconfig-a output displays as follows:
qfe2: flags=1100843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST,ROUTER,IPv4> mtu
1500 index 4
inet 1.2.3.4 netmask ffffff00 broadcast 1.2.3.255
ether 0:3:ba:17:4b:e1
vni0: flags=20011100c1<UP,RUNNING,NOARP,NOXMIT,ROUTER,IPv4,VIRTUAL>
mtu 0 index 5
inet 3.4.5.6 netmask ffffffff
Note the absence of the usesrc and srcof keywords in the output above.
Example 9 Configuring Source Address Selection for an IPv6 Address
The following command configures source address selection for an IPv6
address, selecting a source address hosted on vni0.
example% ifconfig qfe1 inet6 usesrc vni0
Following this command, ifconfig-a output displays as follows:
qfe1: flags=2000841<UP,RUNNING,MULTICAST,IPv6> mtu 1500 index 3
usesrc vni0
inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe17:4be0/10
ether 0:3:ba:17:4b:e0
vni0: flags=2002210041<UP,RUNNING,NOXMIT,NONUD,IPv6,VIRTUAL> mtu 0
index 5
srcof qfe1
inet6 fe80::203:baff:fe17:4444/128
vni0:1: flags=2002210040<RUNNING,NOXMIT,NONUD,IPv6,VIRTUAL> mtu 0
index 5
srcof qfe1
inet6 fec0::203:baff:fe17:4444/128
vni0:2: flags=2002210040<RUNNING,NOXMIT,NONUD,IPv6,VIRTUAL> mtu 0
index 5
srcof qfe1
inet6 2000::203:baff:fe17:4444/128
Depending on the scope of the destination of the packet going out on
qfe1, the appropriately scoped source address is selected from vni0 and
its aliases.
Example 10 Using Source Address Selection with Shared-IP Zones
The following is an example of how the usesrc feature can be used with
the zones(5) facility in Solaris. The following commands are invoked in
the global zone:
example% ifconfig hme0 usesrc vni0
example% ifconfig eri0 usesrc vni0
example% ifconfig qfe0 usesrc vni0
Following the preceding commands, the ifconfig-a output for the vir‐
tual interfaces would display as:
vni0: flags=20011100c1<UP,RUNNING,NOARP,NOXMIT,ROUTER,IPv4,VIRTUAL>
mtu 0 index 23
srcof hme0 eri0 qfe0
inet 10.0.0.1 netmask ffffffff
vni0:1:
flags=20011100c1<UP,RUNNING,NOARP,NOXMIT,ROUTER,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 0
index 23
zone test1
srcof hme0 eri0 qfe0
inet 10.0.0.2 netmask ffffffff
vni0:2:
flags=20011100c1<UP,RUNNING,NOARP,NOXMIT,ROUTER,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 0
index 23
zone test2
srcof hme0 eri0 qfe0
inet 10.0.0.3 netmask ffffffff
vni0:3:
flags=20011100c1<UP,RUNNING,NOARP,NOXMIT,ROUTER,IPv4,VIRTUAL> mtu 0
index 23
zone test3
srcof hme0 eri0 qfe0
inet 10.0.0.4 netmask ffffffff
There is one virtual interface alias per zone (test1, test2, and
test3). A source address from the virtual interface alias in the same
zone is selected. The virtual interface aliases were created using
zonecfg(1M) as follows:
example% zonecfg -z test1
zonecfg:test1> add net
zonecfg:test1:net> set physical=vni0
zonecfg:test1:net> set address=10.0.0.2
The test2 and test3 zone interfaces and addresses are created in the
same way.
Example 11 Turning Off DHCPv6
The following example shows how to disable automatic use of DHCPv6 on
all interfaces, and immediately shut down DHCPv6 on the interface named
hme0. See in.ndpd(1M) and ndpd.conf(4) for more information on the
automatic DHCPv6 configuration mechanism.
example% echo ifdefault StatefulAddrConf false >> /etc/inet/ndpd.conf
example% pkill -HUP -x in.ndpd
example% ifconfig hme0 dhcp release
FILES
/etc/netmasks
Netmask data.
/etc/default/inet_type
Default Internet protocol type.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌───────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │ SUNWcsu │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability for command-line │ Committed │
│options │ │
├───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability for command output │ Uncommitted │
└───────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOdhcpinfo(1), dhcpagent(1M), dladm(1M), in.mpathd(1M), in.ndpd(1M),
in.routed(1M), ipsecconf(1M), ndd(1M), netstat(1M), zoneadm(1M),
zonecfg(1M), ethers(3SOCKET), gethostbyname(3NSL), getnetby‐
name(3SOCKET), hosts(4), inet_type(4), ndpd.conf(4), netmasks(4), net‐
works(4), nsswitch.conf(4), attributes(5), privileges(5), zones(5),
arp(7P), ipsecah(7P), ipsecesp(7P), tun(7M)DIAGNOSTICSifconfig sends messages that indicate if:
o the specified interface does not exist
o the requested address is unknown
o the user is not privileged and tried to alter an interface's
configuration
NOTES
Do not select the names broadcast, down, private, trailers, up or other
possible option names when you choose host names. If you choose any one
of these names as host names, it can cause unusual problems that are
extremely difficult to diagnose.
SunOS 5.10 2 Jun 2009 ifconfig(1M)
