ef(4) [freebsd man page]

EF(4)							   BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual 						     EF(4)

NAME

     ef -- pseudo-device driver providing support for multiple Ethernet frame types

SYNOPSIS

     device ef

DESCRIPTION

     The ef pseudo-device driver clones each Ethernet type device with four additional interfaces.  Each of them is capable to send or receive
     only one predefined frame type.

     Names for the new interfaces are created by adding a fN suffix to an existing device name.  Where N is a device unit which can have one of
     the following values:

	   0	 interface with an Ethernet_II frame
	   1	 interface with a Novell Ethernet_802.3 frame
	   2	 interface with an Ethernet_802.2 frame
	   3	 interface with an Ethernet_802.2/SNAP frame support.

     For example, device ed0 will be populated with four devices: ed0f0, ed0f1, ed0f2 and ed0f3.

     After that, each device can be configured as usual:
	   # ifconfig ed0f1 ipx 0x105
     This will configure IPX protocol with network number 0x105 and Ethernet_802.3 frame type.

     Please note that it is impossible to configure the IPX protocol on the parent ed0 device after the if_ef.ko driver has been loaded.

     If the parent interface is not configured for any other protocol (IP for example), subinterfaces will not function.  To avoid that, the par-
     ent interface should be manually marked as ``up'':
	   # ifconfig ed0 up

EXAMPLES

     The ef driver can be loaded via the loader.conf(5) file:
	   if_ef_load="YES"

     In this case, ordinary interface configuration commands can be used in the rc.conf(5) file:
	   network_interfaces="ed2 lo0 tun0 ed2f0 ed2f1"
	   ifconfig_ed2f0_ipx="ipx 0x101"
	   ifconfig_ed2f1_ipx="ipx 0x102"

DIAGNOSTICS

     None.

SEE ALSO

     ipx(3), ifconfig(8)

AUTHORS

     Boris Popov <bp@FreeBSD.org>.

CAVEATS

     Avoid to configure the parent Ethernet device for the IPX protocol, after the ef driver is loaded.

BSD
								   June 20, 1999							       BSD

EPAIR(4)                                                   BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual                                                   EPAIR(4)

NAME

     epair -- A pair of virtual back-to-back connected Ethernet interfaces.

SYNOPSIS

     To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following line in your kernel configuration file:

           device epair

     Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):

           if_epair_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION

     The epair is a pair of Ethernet-like software interfaces, which are connected back-to-back with a virtual cross-over cable.

     Each epair interface pair is created at runtime using interface cloning.  This is most easily done with the ifconfig(8) create command or
     using the cloned_interfaces variable in rc.conf(5).  While for cloning you only give either epair or epair<n> the epair pair will be named
     like epair<n>[ab].  This means the names of the first epair interfaces will be epair0a and epair0b.

     Like any other Ethernet interface, an epair needs to have a network address.  Each epair will be assigned a locally administered address by
     default, that is only guaranteed to be unique within one network stack.  To change the default addresses one may use the SIOCSIFADDR ioctl(2)
     or ifconfig(8) utility.

     The basic intend is to provide connectivity between two virtual network stack instances.  When connected to a if_bridge(4) one end of the
     interface pair can also be part of another (virtual) LAN.  As with any other Ethernet interface one can configure vlan(4) support on top of
     it.

SEE ALSO

     ioctl(2), altq(4), bpf(4), if_bridge(4), vlan(4), loader.conf(5,) rc.conf(5), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY

     The epair interface first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.

AUTHORS

     The epair interface was written by Bjoern A. Zeeb, CK Software GmbH, under sponsorship from the FreeBSD Foundation.

BSD                                                                July 26, 2009                                                               BSD