Interface Manipulation Functions

struct ifnet *
if_alloc(u_char type);

void
if_attach(struct ifnet *ifp);

void
if_detach(struct ifnet *ifp);

void
if_free(struct ifnet *ifp);

void
if_free_type(struct ifnet *ifp, u_char type);

void
if_down(struct ifnet *ifp);

int
ifioctl(struct socket *so, u_long cmd, caddr_t data, struct thread *td);

int
ifpromisc(struct ifnet *ifp, int pswitch);

int
if_allmulti(struct ifnet *ifp, int amswitch);

struct ifnet *
ifunit(const char *name);

struct ifnet *
ifunit_ref(const char *name);

void
if_up(struct ifnet *ifp);

Interface Address Functions

struct ifaddr *
ifaddr_byindex(u_short idx);

struct ifaddr *
ifa_ifwithaddr(struct sockaddr *addr);

struct ifaddr *
ifa_ifwithdstaddr(struct sockaddr *addr, int fib);

struct ifaddr *
ifa_ifwithnet(struct sockaddr *addr, int ignore_ptp, int fib);

struct ifaddr *
ifaof_ifpforaddr(struct sockaddr *addr, struct ifnet *ifp);

void
ifa_ref(struct ifaddr *ifa);

void
ifa_free(struct ifaddr *ifa);

Interface Multicast Address Functions

int
if_addmulti(struct ifnet *ifp, struct sockaddr *sa, struct ifmultiaddr **ifmap);

int
if_delmulti(struct ifnet *ifp, struct sockaddr *sa);

struct ifmultiaddr *
if_findmulti(struct ifnet *ifp, struct sockaddr *sa);

Output queue macros

IF_DEQUEUE(struct ifqueue *ifq, struct mbuf *m);

struct ifnet Member Functions

void
(*if_input)(struct ifnet *ifp, struct mbuf *m);

int
(*if_output)(struct ifnet *ifp, struct mbuf *m, const struct sockaddr *dst, struct route *ro);

void
(*if_start)(struct ifnet *ifp);

int
(*if_transmit)(struct ifnet *ifp, struct mbuf *m);

void
(*if_qflush)(struct ifnet *ifp);

int
(*if_ioctl)(struct ifnet *ifp, u_long cmd, caddr_t data);

void
(*if_init)(void *if_softc);

int
(*if_resolvemulti)(struct ifnet *ifp, struct sockaddr **retsa, struct sockaddr *addr);

struct ifaddr member function

void
(*ifa_rtrequest)(int cmd, struct rtentry *rt, struct rt_addrinfo *info);

Global Variables

extern struct ifnethead ifnet;
extern int if_index;
extern int ifqmaxlen;

The ifnet Structure

The fields of struct ifnet are as follows:

References to ifnet structures are gained by calling the if_ref() function and released by calling the if_rele() function. They are used to allow kernel code walking global interface lists to release the ifnet lock yet keep the ifnet structure stable.

There are in addition a number of function pointers which the driver must initialize to complete its interface with the generic interface layer:

if_input()

Pass a packet to an appropriate upper layer as determined from the link-layer header of the packet. This routine is to be called from an interrupt handler or used to emulate reception of a packet on this interface. A single function implementing if_input() can be shared among multiple drivers utilizing the same link-layer framing, e.g., Ethernet.

if_output()

Output a packet on interface ifp, or queue it on the output queue if the interface is already active.

if_transmit()

Transmit a packet on an interface or queue it if the interface is in use. This function will return ENOBUFS if the devices software and hardware queues are both full. This function must be installed after if_attach() to override the default implementation. This function is exposed in order to allow drivers to manage their own queues and to reduce the latency caused by a frequently gratuitous enqueue / dequeue pair to ifq. The suggested internal software queuing mechanism is buf_ring.

if_qflush()

Free mbufs in internally managed queues when the interface is marked down. This function must be installed after if_attach() to override the default implementation. This function is exposed in order to allow drivers to manage their own queues and to reduce the latency caused by a frequently gratuitous enqueue / dequeue pair to ifq. The suggested internal software queuing mechanism is buf_ring.

if_start()

Start queued output on an interface. This function is exposed in order to provide for some interface classes to share a if_output() among all drivers. if_start() may only be called when the IFF_DRV_OACTIVE flag is not set. (Thus, IFF_DRV_OACTIVE does not literally mean that output is active, but rather that the device's internal output queue is full.) Please note that this function will soon be deprecated.

if_ioctl()

Process interface-related ioctl(2) requests (defined in <sys/sockio.h>). Preliminary processing is done by the generic routine ifioctl() to check for appropriate privileges, locate the interface being manipulated, and perform certain generic operations like twiddling flags and flushing queues. See the description of ifioctl() below for more information.

if_init()

Initialize and bring up the hardware, e.g., reset the chip and enable the receiver unit. Should mark the interface running, but not active (IFF_DRV_RUNNING, ~IIF_DRV_OACTIVE).

if_resolvemulti()

Check the requested multicast group membership, addr, for validity, and if necessary compute a link-layer group which corresponds to that address which is returned in *retsa. Returns zero on success, or an error code on failure.

Interface Flags

Interface flags are used for a number of different purposes. Some flags simply indicate information about the type of interface and its capabilities; others are dynamically manipulated to reflect the current state of the interface. Flags of the former kind are marked ⟨S⟩ in this table; the latter are marked ⟨D⟩. Flags which begin with “IFF_DRV_” are stored in if_drv_flags; all other flags are stored in if_flags.

The macro IFF_CANTCHANGE defines the bits which cannot be set by a user program using the SIOCSIFFLAGS command to ioctl(2); these are indicated by an asterisk (‘*’) in the following listing.

Interface Capabilities Flags

Interface capabilities are specialized features an interface may or may not support. These capabilities are very hardware-specific and allow, when enabled, to offload specific network processing to the interface or to offer a particular feature for use by other kernel parts.

It should be stressed that a capability can be completely uncontrolled (i.e., stay always enabled with no way to disable it) or allow limited control over itself (e.g., depend on another capability's state.) Such peculiarities are determined solely by the hardware and driver of a particular interface. Only the driver possesses the knowledge on whether and how the interface capabilities can be controlled. Consequently, capabilities flags in if_capenable should never be modified directly by kernel code other than the interface driver. The command SIOCSIFCAP to ifioctl() is the dedicated means to attempt altering if_capenable on an interface. Userland code shall use ioctl(2).

The following capabilities are currently supported by the system:

The ability of advanced network interfaces to offload certain computational tasks from the host CPU to the board is limited mostly to TCP/IP. Therefore a separate field associated with an interface (see ifnet.if_data.ifi_hwassist below) keeps a detailed description of its enabled capabilities specific to TCP/IP processing. The TCP/IP module consults the field to see which tasks can be done on an outgoing packet by the interface. The flags defined for that field are a superset of those for mbuf.m_pkthdr.csum_flags, namely:

An interface notifies the TCP/IP module about the tasks the former has performed on an incoming packet by setting the corresponding flags in the field mbuf.m_pkthdr.csum_flags of the mbuf chain containing the packet. See mbuf(9) for details.

The capability of a network interface to operate in polling(4) mode involves several flags in different global variables and per-interface fields. The capability flag IFCAP_POLLING set in interface's if_capabilities indicates support for polling(4) on the particular interface. If set in if_capabilities, the same flag can be marked or cleared in the interface's if_capenable within ifioctl(), thus initiating switch of the interface to polling(4) mode or interrupt mode, respectively. The actual mode change is managed by the driver-specific if_ioctl() routine. The polling(4) handler returns the number of packets processed.

The if_data Structure

The if_data structure contains statistics and identifying information used by management programs, and which is exported to user programs by way of the ifmib(4) branch of the sysctl(3) MIB. The following elements of the if_data structure are initialized by the interface and are not expected to change significantly over the course of normal operation:

The structure additionally contains generic statistics applicable to a variety of different interface types (except as noted, all members are of type u_long):

Interface Types

The header file <net/if_types.h> defines symbolic constants for a number of different types of interfaces. The most common are:

Interface Link States

The following link states are currently defined:

The ifaddr Structure

Every interface is associated with a list (or, rather, a TAILQ) of addresses, rooted at the interface structure's if_addrhead member. The first element in this list is always an AF_LINK address representing the interface itself; multi-access network drivers should complete this structure by filling in their link-layer addresses after calling if_attach(). Other members of the structure represent network-layer addresses which have been configured by means of the SIOCAIFADDR command to ioctl(2), called on a socket of the appropriate protocol family. The elements of this list consist of ifaddr structures. Most protocols will declare their own protocol-specific interface address structures, but all begin with a struct ifaddr which provides the most-commonly-needed functionality across all protocols. Interface addresses are reference-counted.

The members of struct ifaddr are as follows:

References to ifaddr structures are gained by calling the ifa_ref() function and released by calling the ifa_free() function.

ifa_rtrequest() is a pointer to a function which receives callouts from the routing code (rtrequest()) to perform link-layer-specific actions upon requests to add, or delete routes. The cmd argument indicates the request in question: RTM_ADD, or RTM_DELETE. The rt argument is the route in question; the info argument contains the specific destination being manipulated.

The ifmultiaddr Structure

Every multicast-capable interface is associated with a list of multicast group memberships, which indicate at a low level which link-layer multicast addresses (if any) should be accepted, and at a high level, in which network-layer multicast groups a user process has expressed interest.

The elements of the structure are as follows:

Interface Manipulation Functions

if_alloc()

Allocate and initialize struct ifnet. Initialization includes the allocation of an interface index and may include the allocation of a type specific structure in if_l2com.

if_attach()

Link the specified interface ifp into the list of network interfaces. Also initialize the list of addresses on that interface, and create a link-layer ifaddr structure to be the first element in that list. (A pointer to this address structure is saved in the ifnet structure and is accessed by the ifaddr_byindex() function.) The ifp must have been allocated by if_alloc().

if_detach()

Shut down and unlink the specified ifp from the interface list.

if_free()

Free the given ifp back to the system. The interface must have been previously detached if it was ever attached.

if_free_type()

Identical to if_free() except that the given type is used to free if_l2com instead of the type in if_type. This is intended for use with drivers that change their interface type.

if_down()

Mark the interface ifp as down (i.e., IFF_UP is not set), flush its output queue, notify protocols of the transition, and generate a message from the route(4) routing socket.

if_up()

Mark the interface ifp as up, notify protocols of the transition, and generate a message from the route(4) routing socket.

ifpromisc()

Add or remove a promiscuous reference to ifp. If pswitch is true, add a reference; if it is false, remove a reference. On reference count transitions from zero to one and one to zero, set the IFF_PROMISC flag appropriately and call if_ioctl() to set up the interface in the desired mode.

if_allmulti()

As ifpromisc(), but for the all-multicasts (IFF_ALLMULTI) flag instead of the promiscuous flag.

ifunit()

Return an ifnet pointer for the interface named name.

ifunit_ref()

Return a reference-counted (via ifa_ref()) ifnet pointer for the interface named name. This is the preferred function over ifunit(). The caller is responsible for releasing the reference with if_rele() when it is finished with the ifnet.

ifioctl()

Process the ioctl request cmd, issued on socket so by thread td, with data parameter data. This is the main routine for handling all interface configuration requests from user mode. It is ordinarily only called from the socket-layer ioctl(2) handler, and only for commands with class ‘i’. Any unrecognized commands will be passed down to socket so's protocol for further interpretation. The following commands are handled by ifioctl():

SIOCGIFCONF

Get interface configuration. (No call-down to driver.)

SIOCSIFNAME

Set the interface name. RTM_IFANNOUNCE departure and arrival messages are sent so that routing code that relies on the interface name will update its interface list. Caller must have appropriate privilege. (No call-down to driver.)

SIOCGIFCAP

 

SIOCGIFDATA

 

SIOCGIFFIB

 

SIOCGIFFLAGS

 

SIOCGIFMETRIC

 

SIOCGIFMTU

 

SIOCGIFPHYS

Get interface capabilities, data, FIB, flags, metric, MTU, medium selection. (No call-down to driver.)

SIOCSIFCAP

Enable or disable interface capabilities. Caller must have appropriate privilege. Before a call to the driver-specific if_ioctl() routine, the requested mask for enabled capabilities is checked against the mask of capabilities supported by the interface, if_capabilities. Requesting to enable an unsupported capability is invalid. The rest is supposed to be done by the driver, which includes updating if_capenable and if_data.ifi_hwassist appropriately.

SIOCSIFFIB

Sets interface FIB. Caller must have appropriate privilege. FIB values start at 0 and values greater or equals than net.fibs are considered invalid.

SIOCSIFFLAGS

Change interface flags. Caller must have appropriate privilege. If a change to the IFF_UP flag is requested, if_up() or if_down() is called as appropriate. Flags listed in IFF_CANTCHANGE are masked off, and the field if_flags in the interface structure is updated. Finally, the driver if_ioctl() routine is called to perform any setup requested.

SIOCSIFMETRIC

 

SIOCSIFPHYS

Change interface metric or medium. Caller must have appropriate privilege.

SIOCSIFMTU

Change interface MTU. Caller must have appropriate privilege. MTU values less than 72 or greater than 65535 are considered invalid. The driver if_ioctl() routine is called to implement the change; it is responsible for any additional sanity checking and for actually modifying the MTU in the interface structure.

SIOCADDMULTI

 

SIOCDELMULTI

Add or delete permanent multicast group memberships on the interface. Caller must have appropriate privilege. The if_addmulti() or if_delmulti() function is called to perform the operation; qq.v.

SIOCAIFADDR

 

SIOCDIFADDR

The socket's protocol control routine is called to implement the requested action.

Interface Address Functions

Several functions exist to look up an interface address structure given an address. ifa_ifwithaddr() returns an interface address with either a local address or a broadcast address precisely matching the parameter addr. ifa_ifwithdstaddr() returns an interface address for a point-to-point interface whose remote (“destination”) address is addr and a fib is fib. If fib is RT_ALL_FIBS, then the first interface address matching addr will be returned.

ifa_ifwithnet() returns the most specific interface address which matches the specified address, addr, subject to its configured netmask, or a point-to-point interface address whose remote address is addr if one is found. If ignore_ptp is true, skip point-to-point interface addresses. The fib parameter is handled the same way as by ifa_ifwithdstaddr().

ifaof_ifpforaddr() returns the most specific address configured on interface ifp which matches address addr, subject to its configured netmask. If the interface is point-to-point, only an interface address whose remote address is precisely addr will be returned.

ifaddr_byindex() returns the link-level address of the interface with the given index idx.

All of these functions return a null pointer if no such address can be found.

Interface Multicast Address Functions

The if_addmulti(), if_delmulti(), and if_findmulti() functions provide support for requesting and relinquishing multicast group memberships, and for querying an interface's membership list, respectively. The if_addmulti() function takes a pointer to an interface, ifp, and a generic address, sa. It also takes a pointer to a struct ifmultiaddr * which is filled in on successful return with the address of the group membership control block. The if_addmulti() function performs the following four-step process:

1. Call the interface's if_resolvemulti() entry point to determine the link-layer address, if any, corresponding to this membership request, and also to give the link layer an opportunity to veto this membership request should it so desire.
2. Check the interface's group membership list for a pre-existing membership for this group. If one is not found, allocate a new one; if one is, increment its reference count.
3. If the if_resolvemulti() routine returned a link-layer address corresponding to the group, repeat the previous step for that address as well.
4. If the interface's multicast address filter needs to be changed because a new membership was added, call the interface's if_ioctl() routine (with a cmd argument of SIOCADDMULTI) to request that it do so.

The if_delmulti() function, given an interface ifp and an address, sa, reverses this process. Both functions return zero on success, or a standard error number on failure.

The if_findmulti() function examines the membership list of interface ifp for an address matching sa, and returns a pointer to that struct ifmultiaddr if one is found, else it returns a null pointer.