RARPD(8)

NAME
rarpd - reverse address resolution protocol daemon

SYNOPSIS
rarpd [-d]

DESCRIPTION
Rarpd listens on the ethernet for broadcast packets asking for reverse address resolution. These packets are sent by hosts at boot time to find out their IP address. Rarpd looks up the six octet ethernet number in the /etc/ethers file finding a host name. This name is translated to the IP address of the host by a DNS lookup. The IP address is then sent to the host.

Before rarpd can start its service it first finds out what the IP addresses of the ethernets are. It will look through /etc/ethers to map the ethernet addresses to host names. It then uses /etc/hosts to map the host names to IP addresses. If this lookup fails then several RARP requests are broadcasted in the hope that some RARP server knows the addresses. The IP addresses are eventually set in the same way as ifconfig(8). (The address is not changed if already set with ifconfig.) Note that the host names in the ethers and hosts files must match exactly. The DNS can not be used yet, so a simple name can't be translated to a fully qualified name.

Rarpd exits after startup if there are no active ethernets, or if there is no ethers file.

Warning! Sun diskless workstations assume that the first RARP server that answers is the host they are to boot from. For this to work all other Sun RARP servers delay their answer if they are not also the requestors boot server. The Minix rarpd does not have this kludge so it will happily engage the Sun boot server to see who can answer the client first. Unless your Minix host can actually serve a Sun diskless client, it is better not to list any more hosts in the ethers file than necessary.

OPTIONS

-d  Turns on debugging messages. Debugging can also be turned on at runtime by sending signal SIGUSR1 or turned off with SIGUSR2.

SEE ALSO
ifconfig(8), ethers(5), hosts(5), set_net_default(8), boot(8), inetd(8), irdpd(8), nonamed(8).

AUTHOR
Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)