NAME

rarpd − DARPA Reverse Address Resolution Protocol service

SYNOPSIS

/usr/etc/rarpd if hostname

AVAILABILITY

This program is available with the Networking Tools and Programs software installation option.  Refer to Installing the SunOS for information on how to install optional software. 

DESCRIPTION

rarpd starts a daemon that responds to Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (Reverse ARP) requests.  The daemon forks a copy of itself, and requires root privileges. 

The Reverse ARP protocol is used by machines at boot time to discover their (32 bit) IP address given their (48 bit) Ethernet address.  In order for the request to be answered, a machine’s name-to-IP-address entry must exist in the /etc/hosts file and its name-to-Ethernet-address entry must exist in the /etc/ethers file.  Furthermore, the server that runs the rarpd daemon must have entries in both files.  Note that if the server machine is using the Yellow Pages service, the server’s files are ignored, and the appropriate Yellow Pages maps queried. 

The first argument, if, is one of the interface parameter strings (listed in boot(8S)), in the form of “name unit”, for example ie0.  The second argument, hostname, is the interface’s corresponding host name.  The if, hostname pair should be the same as the arguments passed to the ifconfig (8) command.  As with ifconfig, rarpd must be invoked for each interface that the server wishes to support.  Therefore a gateway machine may invoke the rarpd multiple times, for example:

/usr/etc/rarpd ie0 host
/usr/etc/rarpd ie1 host-backbone

FILES

/etc/ethers

/etc/hosts

SEE ALSO

boot(8S), ifconfig(8C), ipallocd(8C), netconfig(8C), ethers(5), hosts(5), policies(5)

Finlayson, Ross, Timothy Mann, Jeffrey Mogul, and Marvin Theimer, A Reverse Address Resolution Protocol, RFC 903, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., June 1984. 

Sun Release 4.0  —  Last change: 25 March 1989