route(7)						 Miscellaneous Information Manual						  route(7)

NAME

       route - Kernel packet forwarding database

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/socket.h> #include <net/if.h> #include <net/route.h> int family s = socket(PF_ROUTE, SOCK_RAW, family);

DESCRIPTION

       The  UNIX  operating  system  provides  packet  routing	facilities.  The kernel maintains a routing information database, which is used in
       selecting the appropriate network interface when transmitting packets.

       A user process (or possibly multiple cooperating processes) maintains this database by sending messages over  a	special  kind  of  socket.
       Routing table changes may only be carried out by the superuser.

       The  operating  system may spontaneously emit routing messages in response to external events, such as receipt of a redirect, or failure to
       locate a suitable route for a request.

       Routing database entries are of two types: those for a specific host, and those for all hosts on a generic subnetwork (as  specified  by  a
       bit  mask and value under the mask).  The effect of a wildcard or default route may be achieved by using a mask of all zeros.  There may be
       hierarchical routes.

       When the system is booted and addresses are assigned to the network interfaces, each protocol family installs a	routing  table	entry  for
       each  interface	when it is ready for traffic.  Normally the protocol specifies the route through each interface as a ``direct'' connection
       to the destination host or network.  If the route is direct, the transport layer of a protocol family usually requests that the	packet	be
       sent to the host specified in the packet.  Otherwise, the interface is requested to address the packet to the gateway listed in the routing
       entry (that is, the packet is forwarded).

       When routing a packet, the kernel first attempts to find a route to the destination host.  Failing that, a search is made for  a  route	to
       the  network  of  the destination.  Finally, any route to a default (wildcard) gateway is chosen.  If no entry is found, the destination is
       declared to be unreachable, and an error message is generated if there are any listeners on the routing control socket described  later	in
       this section.

       A wildcard routing entry is specified with a zero destination address value.  Wildcard routes are used only when the system fails to find a
       route to the destination host and network.  The combination of wildcard routes and routing redirects can provide  an  economical  mechanism
       for routing traffic.

       To open the channel for passing routing control messages, use the socket call shown in the SYNOPSIS section.

       The  family  parameter may be AF_UNSPEC which will provide routing information for all address families, or can be restricted to a specific
       address family by specifying which one is desired.  There can be more than one routing socket open per system.

       Messages are formed by a header followed by a small number of sockaddrs (now variable length), interpreted by position,	and  delimited	by
       the new length entry in the sockaddr.  An example of a message with four addresses might be an ISO redirect: destination, netmask, gateway,
       and author of the redirect.  The interpretation of which addresses are present is given by a bit mask within the header, and  the  sequence
       is least significant to most significant bit within the vector.

       Any  messages sent to the kernel are returned, and copies are sent to all interested listeners.	The kernel will provide the process ID for
       the sender, and the sender may use an additional sequence field to distinguish between outstanding messages.  However, message replies  may
       be lost when kernel buffers are exhausted.

       The kernel may reject certain messages, and will indicate this by filling in the rtm_errno field.  In the current implementation, all rout-
       ing process run locally, and the values for rtm_errno are available through the normal errno mechanism, even if the routing  reply  message
       is lost.

       A  process  may	avoid the expense of reading replies to its own messages by issuing a setsockopt() call indicating that the SO_USELOOPBACK
       option at the SOL_SOCKET level is to be turned off.  A process may ignore all messages from the routing socket  by  shutting  down  further
       input with the shutdown() function.

       If  a route is in use when it is deleted, the routing entry will be marked down and removed from the routing table, but the resources asso-
       ciated with it will not be reclaimed until all references to it are released.  User processes can  obtain  information  about  the  routing
       entry to a specific destination by using a RTM_GET message, or by reading the /dev/kmem device.

ERRORS

       If  messages  are  rejected,  rtm_errno may be set to one of the following values: The entry to be created already exists.  The entry to be
       deleted does not exist.	Insufficient resources were available to install a new route.  delim off

																	  route(7)