SNMPCMD(1) Net-SNMP SNMPCMD(1)
NAME
snmpcmd - options and behaviour common to most of the Net-SNMP command-line tools
SYNOPSIS
snmpcmd [OPTIONS] AGENT [PARAMETERS]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the common options for the SNMP commands: snmpbulkget, snmpbulkwalk, snmpdelta, snmpget, snmpgetnext, snmpnet-
stat, snmpset, snmpstatus, snmptable, snmptest, snmptrap, snmpdf, snmpusm , snmpwalk . The command line applications use the SNMP proto-
col to communicate with an SNMP capable network entity, an agent. Individual applications typically (but not necessarily) take additional
parameters that are given after the agent specification. These parameters are documented in the manual pages for each application.
OPTIONS
-3[MmKk] 0xHEXKEY
Sets the keys to be used for SNMPv3 transactions. These options allow you to set the master authentication and encryption keys (-3m
and -3M respectively) or set the localized authentication and encryption keys (-3k and -3K respectively). SNMPv3 keys can be either
passed in by hand using these flags, or by the use of keys generated from passwords using the -A and -X flags discussed below. For
further details on SNMPv3 and its usage of keying information, see the Net-SNMP tutorial web site ( http://www.Net-SNMP.org/tuto-
rial-5/commands/ ). Overrides the defAuthMasterKey (-3m), defPrivMasterKey (-3M), defAuthLocalizedKey (-3k) or defPrivLocalizedKey
(-3K) tokens, respectively, in the snmp.conf file, see snmp.conf(5).
-a authProtocol
Set the authentication protocol (MD5 or SHA) used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages. Overrides the defAuthType token in the
snmp.conf file.
-A authPassword
Set the authentication pass phrase used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages. Overrides the defAuthPassphrase token in the snmp.conf
file. It is insecure to specify pass phrases on the command line, see snmp.conf(5).
-c community
Set the community string for SNMPv1/v2c transactions. Overrides the defCommunity token in the snmp.conf file.
-d Dump (in hexadecimal) the raw SNMP packets sent and received.
-D TOKEN[,...]
Turn on debugging output for the given TOKEN(s). Try ALL for extremely verbose output.
-e engineID
Set the authoritative (security) engineID used for SNMPv3 REQUEST messages, given as a hexadecimal string (optionally prefixed by
"0x"). It is typically not necessary to specify this engine ID, as it will usually be discovered automatically.
-E engineID
Set the context engineID used for SNMPv3 REQUEST messages scopedPdu, given as a hexadecimal string. If not specified, this will
default to the authoritative engineID.
-h, --help
Display a brief usage message and then exit.
-H Display a list of configuration file directives understood by the command and then exit.
-I [brRhu]
Specifies input parsing options. See INPUT OPTIONS below.
-l secLevel
Set the securityLevel used for SNMPv3 messages (noAuthNoPriv|authNoPriv|authPriv). Appropriate pass phrase(s) must provided when
using any level higher than noAuthNoPriv. Overrides the defSecurityLevel token in the snmp.conf file.
-L [eEfFoOsS]
Specifies output logging options. See LOGGING OPTIONS below.
-m MIBLIST
Specifies a colon separated list of MIB modules (not files) to load for this application. This overrides (or augments) the environ-
ment variable MIBS, the snmp.conf directive mibs, and the list of MIBs hardcoded into the Net-SNMP library.
If MIBLIST has a leading '-' or '+' character, then the MIB modules listed are loaded in addition to the default list, coming before
or after this list respectively. Otherwise, the specified MIBs are loaded instead of this default list.
The special keyword ALL is used to load all MIB modules in the MIB directory search list. Every file whose name does not begin with
"." will be parsed as if it were a MIB file.
-M DIRLIST
Specifies a colon separated list of directories to search for MIBs. This overrides (or augments) the environment variable MIBDIRS,
the snmp.conf directive mibdirs, and the default directory hardcoded into the Net-SNMP library (/usr/share/snmp/mibs).
If DIRLIST has a leading '-' or '+' character, then the given directories are added to the default list, being searched before or
after the directories on this list respectively. Otherwise, the specified directories are searched instead of this default list.
Note that the directories appearing later in the list have have precedence over earlier ones. To avoid searching any MIB directo-
ries, set the MIBDIRS environment variable to the empty string ("").
Note that MIBs specified using the -m option or the mibs configuration directive will be loaded from one of the directories listed
by the -M option (or equivalents). The mibfile directive takes a full path to the specified MIB file, so this does not need to be
in the MIB directory search list.
-n contextName
Set the contextName used for SNMPv3 messages. The default contextName is the empty string "". Overrides the defContext token in
the snmp.conf file.
-O [abeEfnqQsStTuUvxX]
Specifies output printing options. See OUTPUT OPTIONS below.
-P [cdeRuwW]
Specifies MIB parsing options. See MIB PARSING OPTIONS below.
-r retries
Specifies the number of retries to be used in the requests. The default is 5.
-t timeout
Specifies the timeout in seconds between retries. The default is 1.
-u secName
Set the securityName used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages. Overrides the defSecurityName token in the snmp.conf file.
-v 1 | 2c | 3
Specifies the protocol version to use: 1 (RFCs 1155-1157), 2c (RFCs 1901-1908), or 3 (RFCs 2571-2574). The default is typically
version 3. Overrides the defVersion token in the snmp.conf file.
-V, --version
Display version information for the application and then exit.
-x privProtocol
Set the privacy protocol (DES or AES) used for encrypted SNMPv3 messages. Overrides the defPrivType token in the snmp.conf file.
This option is only valid if the Net-SNMP software was build to use OpenSSL.
-X privPassword
Set the privacy pass phrase used for encrypted SNMPv3 messages. Overrides the defPrivPassphrase token in the snmp.conf file. It is
insecure to specify pass phrases on the command line, see snmp.conf(5).
-Z boots,time
Set the engineBoots and engineTime used for authenticated SNMPv3 messages. This will initialize the local notion of the agents
boots/time with an authenticated value stored in the LCD. It is typically not necessary to specify this option, as these values
will usually be discovered automatically.
-Yname="value"
--name="value"
Allows to specify any token ("name") supported in the snmp.conf file and sets its value to "value". Overrides the corresponding
token in the snmp.conf file. See snmp.conf(5) for the full list of tokens.
AGENT SPECIFICATION
The string AGENT in the SYNOPSIS above specifies the remote SNMP entity with which to communicate. This specification takes the form:
[<transport-specifier>:]<transport-address>
At its simplest, the AGENT specification may consist of a hostname, or an IPv4 address in the standard "dotted quad" notation. In this
case, communication will be attempted using UDP/IPv4 to port 161 of the given host. Otherwise, the <transport-address> part of the speci-
fication is parsed according to the following table:
<transport-specifier> <transport-address> format
udp hostname[:port] or IPv4-address[:port]
tcp hostname[:port] or IPv4-address[:port]
unix pathname
ipx [network]:node[/port]
aal5pvc or pvc [interface.][VPI.]VCI
udp6 or udpv6 or udpipv6 hostname[:port] or IPv6-address:port or
'['IPv6-address']'[:port]
tcp6 or tcpv6 or tcpipv6 hostname[:port] or IPv6-address:port or
'['IPv6-address']'[:port]
Note that <transport-specifier> strings are case-insensitive so that, for example, "tcp" and "TCP" are equivalent. Here are some examples,
along with their interpretation:
hostname:161 perform query using UDP/IPv4 datagrams to hostname on port 161. The ":161" is redundant here since that is the
default SNMP port in any case.
udp:hostname identical to the previous specification. The "udp:" is redundant here since UDP/IPv4 is the default transport.
TCP:hostname:1161 connect to hostname on port 1161 using TCP/IPv4 and perform query over that connection.
ipx::00D0B7AAE308 perform query using IPX datagrams to node number 00D0B7AAE308 on the default network, and using the default IPX
port of 36879 (900F hexadecimal), as suggested in RFC 1906.
ipx:0AE43409:00D0B721C6C0/1161
perform query using IPX datagrams to port 1161 on node number 00D0B721C6C0 on network number 0AE43409.
unix:/tmp/local-agent connect to the Unix domain socket /tmp/local-agent, and perform the query over that connection.
/tmp/local-agent identical to the previous specification, since the Unix domain is the default transport iff the first character of
the <transport-address> is a '/'.
AAL5PVC:100 perform the query using AAL5 PDUs sent on the permanent virtual circuit with VPI=0 and VCI=100 (decimal) on the
first ATM adapter in the machine.
PVC:1.10.32 perform the query using AAL5 PDUs sent on the permanent virtual circuit with VPI=10 (decimal) and VCI=32 (decimal)
on the second ATM adapter in the machine. Note that "PVC" is a synonym for "AAL5PVC".
udp6:hostname:10161 perform the query using UDP/IPv6 datagrams to port 10161 on hostname (which will be looked up as an AAAA record).
UDP6:[fe80::2d0:b7ff:fe21:c6c0]
perform the query using UDP/IPv6 datagrams to port 161 at address fe80::2d0:b7ff:fe21:c6c0.
tcpipv6:[::1]:1611 connect to port 1611 on the local host (::1 in IPv6 parlance) using TCP/IPv6 and perform query over that connec-
tion.
Note that not all the transport domains listed above will always be available; for instance, hosts with no IPv6 support will not be able to
use udp6 transport addresses, and attempts to do so will result in the error "Unknown host". Likewise, since AAL5 PVC support is only cur-
rently available on Linux, it will fail with the same error on other platforms.
MIB PARSING OPTIONS
The Net-SNMP MIB parser mostly adheres to the Structure of Management Information (SMI). As that specification has changed through time,
and in recognition of the (ahem) diversity in compliance expressed in MIB files, additional options provide more flexibility in reading MIB
files.
-Pc Toggles whether ASN.1 comments should extend to the end of the MIB source line. Strictly speaking, a second appearance of "--"
should terminate the comment, but this breaks some MIB files. The default behaviour (to interpret comments correctly) can also be
set with the (misnamed) configuration token strictCommentTerm.
-Pd Disables the loading of MIB object DESCRIPTIONs when parsing MIB files. This reduces the amount of memory used by the running
application.
-Pe Toggles whether to show errors encountered when parsing MIB files. These include references to IMPORTed modules and MIB objects
that cannot be located in the MIB directory search list. The default behaviour can also be set with the configuration token
showMibErrors.
-PR If the same MIB object (parent name and sub-identifier) appears multiple times in the list of MIB definitions loaded, use the last
version to be read in. By default, the first version will be used, and any duplicates discarded. This behaviour can also be set
with the configuration token mibReplaceWithLatest.
Such ordering is normally only relevant if there are two MIB files with conflicting object definitions for the same OID (or differ-
ent revisions of the same basic MIB object).
-Pu Toggles whether to allow the underline character in MIB object names and other symbols. Strictly speaking, this is not valid SMI
syntax, but some vendor MIB files define such names. The default behaviour can also be set with the configuration token mibAllowUn-
derline.
-Pw Show various warning messages in parsing MIB files and building the overall OID tree. This can also be set with the configuration
directive mibWarningLevel 1
-PW Show some additional warning messages, mostly relating to parsing individual MIB objects. This can also be set with the configura-
tion directive mibWarningLevel 2
OUTPUT OPTIONS
The format of the output from SNMP commands can be controlled using various parameters of the -O flag. The effects of these sub-options
can be seen by comparison with the following default output (unless otherwise specified):
$ snmpget -c public -v 1 localhost sysUpTime.0
SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
-Oa Display string values as ASCII strings (unless there is a DISPLAY-HINT defined for the corresponding MIB object). By default, the
library attempts to determine whether the value is a printable or binary string, and displays it accordingly.
This option does not affect objects that do have a Display Hint.
-Ob Display table indexes numerically, rather than trying to interpret the instance subidentifiers as string or OID values:
$ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 localhost vacmSecurityModel
SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0."wes" = xxx
$ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 -Ob localhost vacmSecurityModel
SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0.3.119.101.115 = xxx
-Oe Removes the symbolic labels from enumeration values:
$ snmpget -c public -v 1 localhost ipForwarding.0
IP-MIB::ipForwarding.0 = INTEGER: forwarding(1)
$ snmpget -c public -v 1 -Oe localhost ipForwarding.0
IP-MIB::ipForwarding.0 = INTEGER: 1
-OE Modifies index strings to escape the quote characters:
$ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 localhost vacmSecurityModel
SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0."wes" = xxx
$ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 -OE localhost vacmSecurityModel
SNMP-VIEW-BASED-ACM-MIB::vacmSecurityModel.0."wes" = xxx
This allows the output to be reused in shell commands.
-Of Include the full list of MIB objects when displaying an OID:
.iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2.system.sysUpTime.0 =
Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
-On Displays the OID numerically:
.1.3.6.1.2.1.1.3.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
-Oq Removes the equal sign and type information when displaying varbind values:
SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 1:15:09:27.63
-OQ Removes the type information when displaying varbind values:
SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = 1:15:09:27.63
-Os Display the MIB object name (plus any instance or other subidentifiers):
sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
-OS Display the name of the MIB, as well as the object name:
SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
This is the default OID output format.
-Ot Display TimeTicks values as raw numbers:
SNMPv2-MIB::sysUpTime.0 = 14096763
-OT If values are printed as Hex strings, display a printable version as well.
-Ou Display the OID in the traditional UCD-style (inherited from the original CMU code). That means removing a series of "standard"
prefixes from the OID, and displaying the remaining list of MIB object names (plus any other subidentifiers):
system.sysUpTime.0 = Timeticks: (14096763) 1 day, 15:09:27.63
-OU Do not print the UNITS suffix at the end of the value.
-Ov Display the varbind value only, not the OID:
$ snmpget -c public -v 1 -Ov localhost ipForwarding.0
INTEGER: forwarding(1)
-Ox Display string values as Hex strings (unless there is a DISPLAY-HINT defined for the corresponding MIB object). By default, the
library attempts to determine whether the value is a printable or binary string, and displays it accordingly.
This option does not affect objects that do have a Display Hint.
-OX Display table indexes in a more "program like" output, imitating a traditional array-style index format:
$ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 localhost ipv6RouteTable
IPv6-MIB::ipv6RouteIfIndex.63.254.1.0.255.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.64.1 = INTEGER: 2
$ snmpgetnext -c public -v 1 -OX localhost ipv6RouteTable
IPv6-MIB::ipv6RouteIfIndex[3ffe:100:ff00:0:0:0:0:0][64][1] = INTEGER: 2
Most of these options can also be configured via configuration tokens. See the snmp.conf(5) manual page for details.
LOGGING OPTIONS
The mechanism and destination to use for logging of warning and error messages can be controlled by passing various parameters to the -L
flag.
-Le Log messages to the standard error stream.
-Lf FILE
Log messages to the specified file.
-Lo Log messages to the standard output stream.
-Ls FACILITY
Log messages via syslog, using the specified facility ('d' for LOG_DAEMON, 'u' for LOG_USER, or '0'-'7' for LOG_LOCAL0 through
LOG_LOCAL7).
There are also "upper case" versions of each of these options, which allow the corresponding logging mechanism to be restricted to certain
priorities of message. Using standard error logging as an example:
-LE pri
will log messages of priority 'pri' and above to standard error.
-LE p1-p2
will log messages with priority between 'p1' and 'p2' (inclusive) to standard error.
For -LF and -LS the priority specification comes before the file or facility token. The priorities recognised are:
0 or ! for LOG_EMERG,
1 or a for LOG_ALERT,
2 or c for LOG_CRIT,
3 or e for LOG_ERR,
4 or w for LOG_WARNING,
5 or n for LOG_NOTICE,
6 or i for LOG_INFO, and
7 or d for LOG_DEBUG.
Normal output is (or will be!) logged at a priority level of LOG_NOTICE
INPUT OPTIONS
The interpretation of input object names and the values to be assigned can be controlled using various parameters of the -I flag. The
default behaviour will be described at the end of this section.
-Ib specifies that the given name should be regarded as a regular expression, to match (case-insensitively) against object names in the
MIB tree. The "best" match will be used - calculated as the one that matches the closest to the beginning of the node name and the
highest in the tree. For example, the MIB object vacmSecurityModel could be matched by the expression vacmsecuritymodel (full name,
but different case), or vacm.*model (regexp pattern).
Note that '.' is a special character in regular expression patterns, so the expression cannot specify instance subidentifiers or
more than one object name. A "best match" expression will only be applied against single MIB object names. For example, the
expression sys*ontact.0 would not match the instance sysContact.0 (although sys*ontact would match sysContact). Similarly, specify-
ing a MIB module name will not succeed (so SNMPv2-MIB::sys.*ontact would not match either).
-Ih disables the use of DISPLAY-HINT information when assigning values. This would then require providing the raw value:
snmpset ... HOST-RESOURCES-MIB::hrSystemDate.0
x "07 D2 0C 0A 02 04 06 08"
instead of a formatted version:
snmpset ... HOST-RESOURCES-MIB::hrSystemDate.0
= 2002-12-10,2:4:6.8
-Ir disables checking table indexes and the value to be assigned against the relevant MIB definitions. This will (hopefully) result in
the remote agent reporting an invalid request, rather than checking (and rejecting) this before it is sent to the remote agent.
Local checks are more efficient (and the diagnostics provided also tend to be more precise), but disabling this behaviour is partic-
ularly useful when testing the remote agent.
-IR enables "random access" lookup of MIB names. Rather than providing a full OID path to the desired MIB object (or qualifying this
object with an explicit MIB module name), the MIB tree will be searched for the matching object name. Thus .iso.org.dod.inter-
net.mib-2.system.sysDescr.0 (or SNMPv2-MIB::sysDescr.0) can be specified simply as sysDescr.0.
Warning:
Since MIB object names are not globally unique, this approach may return a different MIB object depending on which MIB files
have been loaded.
The MIB-MODULE::objectName syntax has the advantage of uniquely identifying a particular MIB object, as well as being slightly more
efficient (and automatically loading the necessary MIB file if necessary).
-Is SUFFIX
adds the specified suffix to each textual OID given on the command line. This can be used to retrieve multiple objects from the
same row of a table, by specifying a common index value.
-IS PREFIX
adds the specified prefix to each textual OID given on the command line. This can be used to specify an explicit MIB module name
for all objects being retrieved (or for incurably lazy typists).
-Iu enables the traditional UCD-style approach to interpreting input OIDs. This assumes that OIDs are rooted at the 'mib-2' point in
the tree (unless they start with an explicit '.' or include a MIB module name). So the sysDescr instance above would be referenced
as system.sysDescr.0.
Object names specified with a leading '.' are always interpreted as "fully qualified" OIDs, listing the sequence of MIB objects from the
root of the MIB tree. Such objects and those qualified by an explicit MIB module name are unaffected by the -Ib, -IR and -Iu flags.
Otherwise, if none of the above input options are specified, the default behaviour for a "relative" OID is to try and interpret it as an
(implicitly) fully qualified OID, then apply "random access" lookup (-IR), followed by "best match" pattern matching (-Ib).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
PREFIX The standard prefix for object identifiers (when using UCD-style output). Defaults to .iso.org.dod.internet.mgmt.mib-2
MIBS The list of MIBs to load. Defaults to SNMPv2-TC:SNMPv2-MIB:IF-MIB:IP-MIB:TCP-MIB:UDP-MIB:SNMP-VACM-MIB. Overridden by the -m
option.
MIBDIRS
The list of directories to search for MIBs. Defaults to /usr/share/snmp/mibs. Overridden by the -M option.
FILES
/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
Agent configuration file. See snmpd.conf(5).
/etc/snmp/snmp.conf
~/.snmp/snmp.conf
Application configuration files. See snmp.conf(5).
SEE ALSO
snmpget(1), snmpgetnext(1), snmpset(1), snmpbulkget(1), snmpbulkwalk(1), snmpwalk(1), snmptable(1), snmpnetstat(1), snmpdelta(1),
snmptrap(1), snmpinform(1), snmpusm(1), snmpstatus(1), snmptest(1), snmp.conf(5).
4th Berkeley Distribution 29 Jun 2005 SNMPCMD(1)