RARPD(8)						      System Manager's Manual							  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  trans-
       lated 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)

																	  RARPD(8)