ARPD — User Commands

NAME

arpd − Respond to ARP and RARP requests

SYNOPSIS

arpd [options]

OPTIONS

−f fileNameUse fileName as the configuration file containing host network addresses. The file /etc/spritehosts is used by default. If this switch is given, fileName must have the same format as /etc/spritehosts.

−vVerbose: print information on standard output as requests are processed.

−helpPrint a summary of the command-line options and exit immediately.

DESCRIPTION

Arpd is a program that responds to requests made under the Internet Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) and Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP). See RFC826 for details on ARP and RFC903 for details on RARP. Arpd reads a configuration file (normally /etc/spritehosts) that describes a set of hosts and their Internet and Ethernet addresses; it will respond to ARP and RARP requests for any host listed in the file. Note that this differs from the common practice in many UNIX systems, where each host responds to ARP requests for itself; the norm in Sprite is for a single arpd process to handle all requests for the Sprite network.

Although arpd caches the host information in its memory, it checks the last-modified time on the configuration file before responding to each request, and reloads its internal database if the configuration file has changed.

Arpd generates diagnostic messages on its standard output. Normally, only major errors result in output, but if the −v switch is given, then additional output is generated to describe all of the program’s actions.

KEYWORDS

arp, daemon, protocol, rarp, /etc/spritehosts