ip(7) — Linux manual page

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ip(7)               Miscellaneous Information Manual               ip(7)

NAME         top

       ip - Linux IPv4 protocol implementation

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <sys/socket.h>
       #include <netinet/in.h>
       #include <netinet/ip.h> /* superset of previous */

       tcp_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
       udp_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0);
       raw_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, protocol);

DESCRIPTION         top

       Linux implements the Internet Protocol, version 4, described in
       RFC 791 and RFC 1122.  ip contains a level 2 multicasting
       implementation conforming to RFC 1112.  It also contains an IP
       router including a packet filter.

       The programming interface is BSD-sockets compatible.  For more
       information on sockets, see socket(7).

       An IP socket is created using socket(2):

           socket(AF_INET, socket_type, protocol);

       Valid socket types include SOCK_STREAM to open a stream socket,
       SOCK_DGRAM to open a datagram socket, and SOCK_RAW to open a
       raw(7) socket to access the IP protocol directly.

       protocol is the IP protocol in the IP header to be received or
       sent.  Valid values for protocol include:

       •  0 and IPPROTO_TCP for tcp(7) stream sockets;

       •  0 and IPPROTO_UDP for udp(7) datagram sockets;

       •  IPPROTO_SCTP for sctp(7) stream sockets; and

       •  IPPROTO_UDPLITE for udplite(7) datagram sockets.

       For SOCK_RAW you may specify a valid IANA IP protocol defined in
       RFC 1700 assigned numbers.

       When a process wants to receive new incoming packets or
       connections, it should bind a socket to a local interface address
       using bind(2).  In this case, only one IP socket may be bound to
       any given local (address, port) pair.  When INADDR_ANY is
       specified in the bind call, the socket will be bound to all local
       interfaces.  When listen(2) is called on an unbound socket, the
       socket is automatically bound to a random free port with the
       local address set to INADDR_ANY.  When connect(2) is called on an
       unbound socket, the socket is automatically bound to a random
       free port or to a usable shared port with the local address set
       to INADDR_ANY.

       A TCP local socket address that has been bound is unavailable for
       some time after closing, unless the SO_REUSEADDR flag has been
       set.  Care should be taken when using this flag as it makes TCP
       less reliable.

   Address format
       An IP socket address is defined as a combination of an IP
       interface address and a 16-bit port number.  The basic IP
       protocol does not supply port numbers, they are implemented by
       higher level protocols like udp(7) and tcp(7).  On raw sockets
       sin_port is set to the IP protocol.

           struct sockaddr_in {
               sa_family_t    sin_family; /* address family: AF_INET */
               in_port_t      sin_port;   /* port in network byte order */
               struct in_addr sin_addr;   /* internet address */
           };

           /* Internet address */
           struct in_addr {
               uint32_t       s_addr;     /* address in network byte order */
           };

       sin_family is always set to AF_INET.  This is required; in Linux
       2.2 most networking functions return EINVAL when this setting is
       missing.  sin_port contains the port in network byte order.  The
       port numbers below 1024 are called privileged ports (or
       sometimes: reserved ports).  Only a privileged process (on Linux:
       a process that has the CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE capability in the
       user namespace governing its network namespace) may bind(2) to
       these sockets.  Note that the raw IPv4 protocol as such has no
       concept of a port, they are implemented only by higher protocols
       like tcp(7) and udp(7).

       sin_addr is the IP host address.  The s_addr member of struct
       in_addr contains the host interface address in network byte
       order.  in_addr should be assigned one of the INADDR_* values
       (e.g., INADDR_LOOPBACK) using htonl(3) or set using the
       inet_aton(3), inet_addr(3), inet_makeaddr(3) library functions or
       directly with the name resolver (see gethostbyname(3)).

       IPv4 addresses are divided into unicast, broadcast, and multicast
       addresses.  Unicast addresses specify a single interface of a
       host, broadcast addresses specify all hosts on a network, and
       multicast addresses address all hosts in a multicast group.
       Datagrams to broadcast addresses can be sent or received only
       when the SO_BROADCAST socket flag is set.  In the current
       implementation, connection-oriented sockets are allowed to use
       only unicast addresses.

       Note that the address and the port are always stored in network
       byte order.  In particular, this means that you need to call
       htons(3) on the number that is assigned to a port.  All
       address/port manipulation functions in the standard library work
       in network byte order.

   Special and reserved addresses
       There are several special addresses:

       INADDR_LOOPBACK (127.0.0.1)
              always refers to the local host via the loopback device;

       INADDR_ANY (0.0.0.0)
              means any address for socket binding;

       INADDR_BROADCAST (255.255.255.255)
              has the same effect on bind(2) as INADDR_ANY for
              historical reasons.  A packet addressed to
              INADDR_BROADCAST through a socket which has SO_BROADCAST
              set will be broadcast to all hosts on the local network
              segment, as long as the link is broadcast-capable.

       Highest-numbered address
       Lowest-numbered address
              On any locally-attached non-point-to-point IP subnet with
              a link type that supports broadcasts, the highest-numbered
              address (e.g., the .255 address on a subnet with netmask
              255.255.255.0) is designated as a broadcast address.  It
              cannot usefully be assigned to an individual interface,
              and can only be addressed with a socket on which the
              SO_BROADCAST option has been set.  Internet standards have
              historically also reserved the lowest-numbered address
              (e.g., the .0 address on a subnet with netmask
              255.255.255.0) for broadcast, though they call it
              "obsolete" for this purpose.  (Some sources also refer to
              this as the "network address.")  Since Linux 5.14, it is
              treated as an ordinary unicast address and can be assigned
              to an interface.

       Internet standards have traditionally also reserved various
       addresses for particular uses, though Linux no longer treats some
       of these specially.

       [0.0.0.1, 0.255.255.255]
       [240.0.0.0, 255.255.255.254]
              Addresses in these ranges (0/8 and 240/4) are reserved
              globally.  Since Linux 5.3 and Linux 2.6.25, respectively,
              the 0/8 and 240/4 addresses, other than INADDR_ANY and
              INADDR_BROADCAST, are treated as ordinary unicast
              addresses.  Systems that follow the traditional behaviors
              may not interoperate with these historically reserved
              addresses.

       [127.0.0.1, 127.255.255.254]
              Addresses in this range (127/8) are treated as loopback
              addresses akin to the standardized local loopback address
              INADDR_LOOPBACK (127.0.0.1);

       [224.0.0.0, 239.255.255.255]
              Addresses in this range (224/4) are dedicated to multicast
              use.

   Socket options
       IP supports some protocol-specific socket options that can be set
       with setsockopt(2) and read with getsockopt(2).  The socket
       option level for IP is IPPROTO_IP.  A boolean integer flag is
       zero when it is false, otherwise true.

       When an invalid socket option is specified, getsockopt(2) and
       setsockopt(2) fail with the error ENOPROTOOPT.

       IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP (since Linux 1.2)
              Join a multicast group.  Argument is an ip_mreqn
              structure.

                  struct ip_mreqn {
                      struct in_addr imr_multiaddr; /* IP multicast group
                                                       address */
                      struct in_addr imr_address;   /* IP address of local
                                                       interface */
                      int            imr_ifindex;   /* interface index */
                  };

              imr_multiaddr contains the address of the multicast group
              the application wants to join or leave.  It must be a
              valid multicast address (or setsockopt(2) fails with the
              error EINVAL).  imr_address is the address of the local
              interface with which the system should join the multicast
              group; if it is equal to INADDR_ANY, an appropriate
              interface is chosen by the system.  imr_ifindex is the
              interface index of the interface that should join/leave
              the imr_multiaddr group, or 0 to indicate any interface.

              The ip_mreqn structure is available only since Linux 2.2.
              For compatibility, the old ip_mreq structure (present
              since Linux 1.2) is still supported; it differs from
              ip_mreqn only by not including the imr_ifindex field.
              (The kernel determines which structure is being passed
              based on the size passed in optlen.)

              IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP is valid only for setsockopt(2).

       IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP (since Linux 2.4.22 / Linux 2.5.68)
              Join a multicast group and allow receiving data only from
              a specified source.  Argument is an ip_mreq_source
              structure.

                  struct ip_mreq_source {
                      struct in_addr imr_multiaddr;  /* IP multicast group
                                                        address */
                      struct in_addr imr_interface;  /* IP address of local
                                                        interface */
                      struct in_addr imr_sourceaddr; /* IP address of
                                                        multicast source */
                  };

              The ip_mreq_source structure is similar to ip_mreqn
              described under IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP.  The imr_multiaddr
              field contains the address of the multicast group the
              application wants to join or leave.  The imr_interface
              field is the address of the local interface with which the
              system should join the multicast group.  Finally, the
              imr_sourceaddr field contains the address of the source
              the application wants to receive data from.

              This option can be used multiple times to allow receiving
              data from more than one source.

       IP_BIND_ADDRESS_NO_PORT (since Linux 4.2)
              Inform the kernel to not reserve an ephemeral port when
              using bind(2) with a port number of 0.  The port will
              later be automatically chosen at connect(2) time, in a way
              that allows sharing a source port as long as the 4-tuple
              is unique.

       IP_BLOCK_SOURCE (since Linux 2.4.22 / 2.5.68)
              Stop receiving multicast data from a specific source in a
              given group.  This is valid only after the application has
              subscribed to the multicast group using either
              IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP or IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP.

              Argument is an ip_mreq_source structure as described under
              IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP.

       IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP (since Linux 1.2)
              Leave a multicast group.  Argument is an ip_mreqn or
              ip_mreq structure similar to IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP.

       IP_DROP_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP (since Linux 2.4.22 / 2.5.68)
              Leave a source-specific group—that is, stop receiving data
              from a given multicast group that come from a given
              source.  If the application has subscribed to multiple
              sources within the same group, data from the remaining
              sources will still be delivered.  To stop receiving data
              from all sources at once, use IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP.

              Argument is an ip_mreq_source structure as described under
              IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP.

       IP_FREEBIND (since Linux 2.4)
              If enabled, this boolean option allows binding to an IP
              address that is nonlocal or does not (yet) exist.  This
              permits listening on a socket, without requiring the
              underlying network interface or the specified dynamic IP
              address to be up at the time that the application is
              trying to bind to it.  This option is the per-socket
              equivalent of the ip_nonlocal_bind /proc interface
              described below.

       IP_HDRINCL (since Linux 2.0)
              If enabled, the user supplies an IP header in front of the
              user data.  Valid only for SOCK_RAW sockets; see raw(7)
              for more information.  When this flag is enabled, the
              values set by IP_OPTIONS, IP_TTL, and IP_TOS are ignored.

       IP_LOCAL_PORT_RANGE (since Linux 6.3)
              Set or get the per-socket default local port range.  This
              option can be used to clamp down the global local port
              range, defined by the ip_local_port_range /proc interface
              described below, for a given socket.

              The option takes an uint32_t value with the high 16 bits
              set to the upper range bound, and the low 16 bits set to
              the lower range bound.  Range bounds are inclusive.  The
              16-bit values should be in host byte order.

              The lower bound has to be less than the upper bound when
              both bounds are not zero.  Otherwise, setting the option
              fails with EINVAL.

              If either bound is outside of the global local port range,
              or is zero, then that bound has no effect.

              To reset the setting, pass zero as both the upper and the
              lower bound.

       IP_MSFILTER (since Linux 2.4.22 / 2.5.68)
              This option provides access to the advanced full-state
              filtering API.  Argument is an ip_msfilter structure.

                  struct ip_msfilter {
                      struct in_addr imsf_multiaddr; /* IP multicast group
                                                        address */
                      struct in_addr imsf_interface; /* IP address of local
                                                        interface */
                      uint32_t       imsf_fmode;     /* Filter-mode */

                      uint32_t       imsf_numsrc;    /* Number of sources in
                                                        the following array */
                      struct in_addr imsf_slist[1];  /* Array of source
                                                        addresses */
                  };

              There are two macros, MCAST_INCLUDE and MCAST_EXCLUDE,
              which can be used to specify the filtering mode.
              Additionally, the IP_MSFILTER_SIZE(n) macro exists to
              determine how much memory is needed to store ip_msfilter
              structure with n sources in the source list.

              For the full description of multicast source filtering
              refer to RFC 3376.

       IP_MTU (since Linux 2.2)
              Retrieve the current known path MTU of the current socket.
              Returns an integer.

              IP_MTU is valid only for getsockopt(2) and can be employed
              only when the socket has been connected.

       IP_MTU_DISCOVER (since Linux 2.2)
              Set or receive the Path MTU Discovery setting for a
              socket.  When enabled, Linux will perform Path MTU
              Discovery as defined in RFC 1191 on SOCK_STREAM sockets.
              For non-SOCK_STREAM sockets, IP_PMTUDISC_DO forces the
              don't-fragment flag to be set on all outgoing packets.  It
              is the user's responsibility to packetize the data in MTU-
              sized chunks and to do the retransmits if necessary.  The
              kernel will reject (with EMSGSIZE) datagrams that are
              bigger than the known path MTU.  IP_PMTUDISC_WANT will
              fragment a datagram if needed according to the path MTU,
              or will set the don't-fragment flag otherwise.

              The system-wide default can be toggled between
              IP_PMTUDISC_WANT and IP_PMTUDISC_DONT by writing
              (respectively, zero and nonzero values) to the
              /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_no_pmtu_disc file.
              Path MTU discovery value   Meaning
              IP_PMTUDISC_WANT           Use per-route settings.
              IP_PMTUDISC_DONT           Never do Path MTU Discovery.
              IP_PMTUDISC_DO             Always do Path MTU Discovery.
              IP_PMTUDISC_PROBE          Set DF but ignore Path MTU.

              When PMTU discovery is enabled, the kernel automatically
              keeps track of the path MTU per destination host.  When it
              is connected to a specific peer with connect(2), the
              currently known path MTU can be retrieved conveniently
              using the IP_MTU socket option (e.g., after an EMSGSIZE
              error occurred).  The path MTU may change over time.  For
              connectionless sockets with many destinations, the new MTU
              for a given destination can also be accessed using the
              error queue (see IP_RECVERR).  A new error will be queued
              for every incoming MTU update.

              While MTU discovery is in progress, initial packets from
              datagram sockets may be dropped.  Applications using UDP
              should be aware of this and not take it into account for
              their packet retransmit strategy.

              To bootstrap the path MTU discovery process on unconnected
              sockets, it is possible to start with a big datagram size
              (headers up to 64 kilobytes long) and let it shrink by
              updates of the path MTU.

              To get an initial estimate of the path MTU, connect a
              datagram socket to the destination address using
              connect(2) and retrieve the MTU by calling getsockopt(2)
              with the IP_MTU option.

              It is possible to implement RFC 4821 MTU probing with
              SOCK_DGRAM or SOCK_RAW sockets by setting a value of
              IP_PMTUDISC_PROBE (available since Linux 2.6.22).  This is
              also particularly useful for diagnostic tools such as
              tracepath(8) that wish to deliberately send probe packets
              larger than the observed Path MTU.

       IP_MULTICAST_ALL (since Linux 2.6.31)
              This option can be used to modify the delivery policy of
              multicast messages.  The argument is a boolean integer
              (defaults to 1).  If set to 1, the socket will receive
              messages from all the groups that have been joined
              globally on the whole system.  Otherwise, it will deliver
              messages only from the groups that have been explicitly
              joined (for example via the IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP option) on
              this particular socket.

       IP_MULTICAST_IF (since Linux 1.2)
              Set the local device for a multicast socket.  The argument
              for setsockopt(2) is an ip_mreqn or (since Linux 3.5)
              ip_mreq structure similar to IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP, or an
              in_addr structure.  (The kernel determines which structure
              is being passed based on the size passed in optlen.)  For
              getsockopt(2), the argument is an in_addr structure.

       IP_MULTICAST_LOOP (since Linux 1.2)
              Set or read a boolean integer argument that determines
              whether sent multicast packets should be looped back to
              the local sockets.

       IP_MULTICAST_TTL (since Linux 1.2)
              Set or read the time-to-live value of outgoing multicast
              packets for this socket.  It is very important for
              multicast packets to set the smallest TTL possible.  The
              default is 1 which means that multicast packets don't
              leave the local network unless the user program explicitly
              requests it.  Argument is an integer.

       IP_NODEFRAG (since Linux 2.6.36)
              If enabled (argument is nonzero), the reassembly of
              outgoing packets is disabled in the netfilter layer.  The
              argument is an integer.

              This option is valid only for SOCK_RAW sockets.

       IP_OPTIONS (since Linux 2.0)
              Set or get the IP options to be sent with every packet
              from this socket.  The arguments are a pointer to a memory
              buffer containing the options and the option length.  The
              setsockopt(2) call sets the IP options associated with a
              socket.  The maximum option size for IPv4 is 40 bytes.
              See RFC 791 for the allowed options.  When the initial
              connection request packet for a SOCK_STREAM socket
              contains IP options, the IP options will be set
              automatically to the options from the initial packet with
              routing headers reversed.  Incoming packets are not
              allowed to change options after the connection is
              established.  The processing of all incoming source
              routing options is disabled by default and can be enabled
              by using the accept_source_route /proc interface.  Other
              options like timestamps are still handled.  For datagram
              sockets, IP options can be set only by the local user.
              Calling getsockopt(2) with IP_OPTIONS puts the current IP
              options used for sending into the supplied buffer.

       IP_PASSSEC (since Linux 2.6.17)
              If labeled IPSEC or NetLabel is configured on the sending
              and receiving hosts, this option enables receiving of the
              security context of the peer socket in an ancillary
              message of type SCM_SECURITY retrieved using recvmsg(2).
              This option is supported only for UDP sockets; for TCP or
              SCTP sockets, see the description of the SO_PEERSEC option
              below.

              The value given as an argument to setsockopt(2) and
              returned as the result of getsockopt(2) is an integer
              boolean flag.

              The security context returned in the SCM_SECURITY
              ancillary message is of the same format as the one
              described under the SO_PEERSEC option below.

              Note: the reuse of the SCM_SECURITY message type for the
              IP_PASSSEC socket option was likely a mistake, since other
              IP control messages use their own numbering scheme in the
              IP namespace and often use the socket option value as the
              message type.  There is no conflict currently since the IP
              option with the same value as SCM_SECURITY is IP_HDRINCL
              and this is never used for a control message type.

       IP_PKTINFO (since Linux 2.2)
              Pass an IP_PKTINFO ancillary message that contains a
              pktinfo structure that supplies some information about the
              incoming packet.  This works only for datagram oriented
              sockets.  The argument is a flag that tells the socket
              whether the IP_PKTINFO message should be passed or not.
              The message itself can be sent/retrieved only as a control
              message with a packet using recvmsg(2) or sendmsg(2).

                  struct in_pktinfo {
                      unsigned int   ipi_ifindex;  /* Interface index */
                      struct in_addr ipi_spec_dst; /* Local address */
                      struct in_addr ipi_addr;     /* Header Destination
                                                      address */
                  };

              ipi_ifindex is the unique index of the interface the
              packet was received on.  ipi_spec_dst is the local address
              of the packet and ipi_addr is the destination address in
              the packet header.  If IP_PKTINFO is passed to sendmsg(2)
              and ipi_spec_dst is not zero, then it is used as the local
              source address for the routing table lookup and for
              setting up IP source route options.  When ipi_ifindex is
              not zero, the primary local address of the interface
              specified by the index overwrites ipi_spec_dst for the
              routing table lookup.

       IP_RECVERR (since Linux 2.2)
              Enable extended reliable error message passing.  When
              enabled on a datagram socket, all generated errors will be
              queued in a per-socket error queue.  When the user
              receives an error from a socket operation, the errors can
              be received by calling recvmsg(2) with the MSG_ERRQUEUE
              flag set.  The sock_extended_err structure describing the
              error will be passed in an ancillary message with the type
              IP_RECVERR and the level IPPROTO_IP.  This is useful for
              reliable error handling on unconnected sockets.  The
              received data portion of the error queue contains the
              error packet.

              The IP_RECVERR control message contains a
              sock_extended_err structure:

                  #define SO_EE_ORIGIN_NONE    0
                  #define SO_EE_ORIGIN_LOCAL   1
                  #define SO_EE_ORIGIN_ICMP    2
                  #define SO_EE_ORIGIN_ICMP6   3

                  struct sock_extended_err {
                      uint32_t ee_errno;   /* error number */
                      uint8_t  ee_origin;  /* where the error originated */
                      uint8_t  ee_type;    /* type */
                      uint8_t  ee_code;    /* code */
                      uint8_t  ee_pad;
                      uint32_t ee_info;    /* additional information */
                      uint32_t ee_data;    /* other data */
                      /* More data may follow */
                  };

                  struct sockaddr *SO_EE_OFFENDER(struct sock_extended_err *);

              ee_errno contains the errno number of the queued error.
              ee_origin is the origin code of where the error
              originated.  The other fields are protocol-specific.  The
              macro SO_EE_OFFENDER returns a pointer to the address of
              the network object where the error originated from given a
              pointer to the ancillary message.  If this address is not
              known, the sa_family member of the sockaddr contains
              AF_UNSPEC and the other fields of the sockaddr are
              undefined.

              IP uses the sock_extended_err structure as follows:
              ee_origin is set to SO_EE_ORIGIN_ICMP for errors received
              as an ICMP packet, or SO_EE_ORIGIN_LOCAL for locally
              generated errors.  Unknown values should be ignored.
              ee_type and ee_code are set from the type and code fields
              of the ICMP header.  ee_info contains the discovered MTU
              for EMSGSIZE errors.  The message also contains the
              sockaddr_in of the node caused the error, which can be
              accessed with the SO_EE_OFFENDER macro.  The sin_family
              field of the SO_EE_OFFENDER address is AF_UNSPEC when the
              source was unknown.  When the error originated from the
              network, all IP options (IP_OPTIONS, IP_TTL, etc.) enabled
              on the socket and contained in the error packet are passed
              as control messages.  The payload of the packet causing
              the error is returned as normal payload.  Note that TCP
              has no error queue; MSG_ERRQUEUE is not permitted on
              SOCK_STREAM sockets.  IP_RECVERR is valid for TCP, but all
              errors are returned by socket function return or SO_ERROR
              only.

              For raw sockets, IP_RECVERR enables passing of all
              received ICMP errors to the application, otherwise errors
              are reported only on connected sockets

              It sets or retrieves an integer boolean flag.  IP_RECVERR
              defaults to off.

       IP_RECVOPTS (since Linux 2.2)
              Pass all incoming IP options to the user in a IP_OPTIONS
              control message.  The routing header and other options are
              already filled in for the local host.  Not supported for
              SOCK_STREAM sockets.

       IP_RECVORIGDSTADDR (since Linux 2.6.29)
              This boolean option enables the IP_ORIGDSTADDR ancillary
              message in recvmsg(2), in which the kernel returns the
              original destination address of the datagram being
              received.  The ancillary message contains a struct
              sockaddr_in.

       IP_RECVTOS (since Linux 2.2)
              If enabled, the IP_TOS ancillary message is passed with
              incoming packets.  It contains a byte which specifies the
              Type of Service/Precedence field of the packet header.
              Expects a boolean integer flag.

       IP_RECVTTL (since Linux 2.2)
              When this flag is set, pass a IP_TTL control message with
              the time-to-live field of the received packet as a 32 bit
              integer.  Not supported for SOCK_STREAM sockets.

       IP_RETOPTS (since Linux 2.2)
              Identical to IP_RECVOPTS, but returns raw unprocessed
              options with timestamp and route record options not filled
              in for this hop.

       IP_ROUTER_ALERT (since Linux 2.2)
              Pass all to-be forwarded packets with the IP Router Alert
              option set to this socket.  Valid only for raw sockets.
              This is useful, for instance, for user-space RSVP daemons.
              The tapped packets are not forwarded by the kernel; it is
              the user's responsibility to send them out again.  Socket
              binding is ignored, such packets are filtered only by
              protocol.  Expects an integer flag.

       IP_TOS (since Linux 1.0)
              Set or receive the Type-Of-Service (TOS) field that is
              sent with every IP packet originating from this socket.
              It is used to prioritize packets on the network.  TOS is a
              byte.  There are some standard TOS flags defined:
              IPTOS_LOWDELAY to minimize delays for interactive traffic,
              IPTOS_THROUGHPUT to optimize throughput, IPTOS_RELIABILITY
              to optimize for reliability, IPTOS_MINCOST should be used
              for "filler data" where slow transmission doesn't matter.
              At most one of these TOS values can be specified.  Other
              bits are invalid and shall be cleared.  Linux sends
              IPTOS_LOWDELAY datagrams first by default, but the exact
              behavior depends on the configured queueing discipline.
              Some high-priority levels may require superuser privileges
              (the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability).

       IP_TRANSPARENT (since Linux 2.6.24)
              Setting this boolean option enables transparent proxying
              on this socket.  This socket option allows the calling
              application to bind to a nonlocal IP address and operate
              both as a client and a server with the foreign address as
              the local endpoint.  NOTE: this requires that routing be
              set up in a way that packets going to the foreign address
              are routed through the TProxy box (i.e., the system
              hosting the application that employs the IP_TRANSPARENT
              socket option).  Enabling this socket option requires
              superuser privileges (the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability).

              TProxy redirection with the iptables TPROXY target also
              requires that this option be set on the redirected socket.

       IP_TTL (since Linux 1.0)
              Set or retrieve the current time-to-live field that is
              used in every packet sent from this socket.

       IP_UNBLOCK_SOURCE (since Linux 2.4.22 / 2.5.68)
              Unblock previously blocked multicast source.  Returns
              EADDRNOTAVAIL when given source is not being blocked.

              Argument is an ip_mreq_source structure as described under
              IP_ADD_SOURCE_MEMBERSHIP.

       SO_PEERSEC (since Linux 2.6.17)
              If labeled IPSEC or NetLabel is configured on both the
              sending and receiving hosts, this read-only socket option
              returns the security context of the peer socket connected
              to this socket.  By default, this will be the same as the
              security context of the process that created the peer
              socket unless overridden by the policy or by a process
              with the required permissions.

              The argument to getsockopt(2) is a pointer to a buffer of
              the specified length in bytes into which the security
              context string will be copied.  If the buffer length is
              less than the length of the security context string, then
              getsockopt(2) returns -1, sets errno to ERANGE, and
              returns the required length via optlen.  The caller should
              allocate at least NAME_MAX bytes for the buffer initially,
              although this is not guaranteed to be sufficient.
              Resizing the buffer to the returned length and retrying
              may be necessary.

              The security context string may include a terminating null
              character in the returned length, but is not guaranteed to
              do so: a security context "foo" might be represented as
              either {'f','o','o'} of length 3 or {'f','o','o','\0'} of
              length 4, which are considered to be interchangeable.  The
              string is printable, does not contain non-terminating null
              characters, and is in an unspecified encoding (in
              particular, it is not guaranteed to be ASCII or UTF-8).

              The use of this option for sockets in the AF_INET address
              family is supported since Linux 2.6.17 for TCP sockets,
              and since Linux 4.17 for SCTP sockets.

              For SELinux, NetLabel conveys only the MLS portion of the
              security context of the peer across the wire, defaulting
              the rest of the security context to the values defined in
              the policy for the netmsg initial security identifier
              (SID).  However, NetLabel can be configured to pass full
              security contexts over loopback.  Labeled IPSEC always
              passes full security contexts as part of establishing the
              security association (SA) and looks them up based on the
              association for each packet.

   /proc interfaces
       The IP protocol supports a set of /proc interfaces to configure
       some global parameters.  The parameters can be accessed by
       reading or writing files in the directory /proc/sys/net/ipv4/.
       Interfaces described as Boolean take an integer value, with a
       nonzero value ("true") meaning that the corresponding option is
       enabled, and a zero value ("false") meaning that the option is
       disabled.

       ip_always_defrag (Boolean; since Linux 2.2.13)
              [New with Linux 2.2.13; in earlier kernel versions this
              feature was controlled at compile time by the
              CONFIG_IP_ALWAYS_DEFRAG option; this option is not present
              in Linux 2.4.x and later]

              When this boolean flag is enabled (not equal 0), incoming
              fragments (parts of IP packets that arose when some host
              between origin and destination decided that the packets
              were too large and cut them into pieces) will be
              reassembled (defragmented) before being processed, even if
              they are about to be forwarded.

              Enable only if running either a firewall that is the sole
              link to your network or a transparent proxy; never ever
              use it for a normal router or host.  Otherwise, fragmented
              communication can be disturbed if the fragments travel
              over different links.  Defragmentation also has a large
              memory and CPU time cost.

              This is automagically turned on when masquerading or
              transparent proxying are configured.

       ip_autoconfig (since Linux 2.2 to Linux 2.6.17)
              Not documented.

       ip_default_ttl (integer; default: 64; since Linux 2.2)
              Set the default time-to-live value of outgoing packets.
              This can be changed per socket with the IP_TTL option.

       ip_dynaddr (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.0.31)
              Enable dynamic socket address and masquerading entry
              rewriting on interface address change.  This is useful for
              dialup interface with changing IP addresses.  0 means no
              rewriting, 1 turns it on and 2 enables verbose mode.

       ip_forward (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 1.2)
              Enable IP forwarding with a boolean flag.  IP forwarding
              can be also set on a per-interface basis.

       ip_local_port_range (since Linux 2.2)
              This file contains two integers that define the default
              local port range allocated to sockets that are not
              explicitly bound to a port number—that is, the range used
              for ephemeral ports.  An ephemeral port is allocated to a
              socket in the following circumstances:

              •  the port number in a socket address is specified as 0
                 when calling bind(2);

              •  listen(2) is called on a stream socket that was not
                 previously bound;

              •  connect(2) was called on a socket that was not
                 previously bound;

              •  sendto(2) is called on a datagram socket that was not
                 previously bound.

              Allocation of ephemeral ports starts with the first number
              in ip_local_port_range and ends with the second number.
              If the range of ephemeral ports is exhausted, then the
              relevant system call returns an error (but see BUGS).

              Note that the port range in ip_local_port_range should not
              conflict with the ports used by masquerading (although the
              case is handled).  Also, arbitrary choices may cause
              problems with some firewall packet filters that make
              assumptions about the local ports in use.  The first
              number should be at least greater than 1024, or better,
              greater than 4096, to avoid clashes with well known ports
              and to minimize firewall problems.

       ip_no_pmtu_disc (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.2)
              If enabled, don't do Path MTU Discovery for TCP sockets by
              default.  Path MTU discovery may fail if misconfigured
              firewalls (that drop all ICMP packets) or misconfigured
              interfaces (e.g., a point-to-point link where the both
              ends don't agree on the MTU) are on the path.  It is
              better to fix the broken routers on the path than to turn
              off Path MTU Discovery globally, because not doing it
              incurs a high cost to the network.

       ip_nonlocal_bind (Boolean; default: disabled; since Linux 2.4)
              If set, allows processes to bind(2) to nonlocal IP
              addresses, which can be quite useful, but may break some
              applications.

       ip6frag_time (integer; default: 30)
              Time in seconds to keep an IPv6 fragment in memory.

       ip6frag_secret_interval (integer; default: 600)
              Regeneration interval (in seconds) of the hash secret (or
              lifetime for the hash secret) for IPv6 fragments.

       ipfrag_high_thresh (integer), ipfrag_low_thresh (integer)
              If the amount of queued IP fragments reaches
              ipfrag_high_thresh, the queue is pruned down to
              ipfrag_low_thresh.  Contains an integer with the number of
              bytes.

       neigh/*
              See arp(7).

   Ioctls
       All ioctls described in socket(7) apply to ip.

       Ioctls to configure generic device parameters are described in
       netdevice(7).

ERRORS         top

       EACCES The user tried to execute an operation without the
              necessary permissions.  These include: sending a packet to
              a broadcast address without having the SO_BROADCAST flag
              set; sending a packet via a prohibit route; modifying
              firewall settings without superuser privileges (the
              CAP_NET_ADMIN capability); binding to a privileged port
              without superuser privileges (the CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
              capability).

       EADDRINUSE
              Tried to bind to an address already in use.

       EADDRNOTAVAIL
              A nonexistent interface was requested or the requested
              source address was not local.

       EAGAIN Operation on a nonblocking socket would block.

       EALREADY
              A connection operation on a nonblocking socket is already
              in progress.

       ECONNABORTED
              A connection was closed during an accept(2).

       EHOSTUNREACH
              No valid routing table entry matches the destination
              address.  This error can be caused by an ICMP message from
              a remote router or for the local routing table.

       EINVAL Invalid argument passed.  For send operations this can be
              caused by sending to a blackhole route.

       EISCONN
              connect(2) was called on an already connected socket.

       EMSGSIZE
              Datagram is bigger than an MTU on the path and it cannot
              be fragmented.

       ENOBUFS, ENOMEM
              Not enough free memory.  This often means that the memory
              allocation is limited by the socket buffer limits, not by
              the system memory, but this is not 100% consistent.

       ENOENT SIOCGSTAMP was called on a socket where no packet arrived.

       ENOPKG A kernel subsystem was not configured.

       ENOPROTOOPT and EOPNOTSUPP
              Invalid socket option passed.

       ENOTCONN
              The operation is defined only on a connected socket, but
              the socket wasn't connected.

       EPERM  User doesn't have permission to set high priority, change
              configuration, or send signals to the requested process or
              group.

       EPIPE  The connection was unexpectedly closed or shut down by the
              other end.

       ESOCKTNOSUPPORT
              The socket is not configured or an unknown socket type was
              requested.

       Other errors may be generated by the overlaying protocols; see
       tcp(7), raw(7), udp(7), and socket(7).

NOTES         top

       IP_FREEBIND, IP_MSFILTER, IP_MTU, IP_MTU_DISCOVER,
       IP_RECVORIGDSTADDR, IP_PASSSEC, IP_PKTINFO, IP_RECVERR,
       IP_ROUTER_ALERT, and IP_TRANSPARENT are Linux-specific.

       Be very careful with the SO_BROADCAST option - it is not
       privileged in Linux.  It is easy to overload the network with
       careless broadcasts.  For new application protocols it is better
       to use a multicast group instead of broadcasting.  Broadcasting
       is discouraged.  See RFC 6762 for an example of a protocol (mDNS)
       using the more modern multicast approach to communicating with an
       open-ended group of hosts on the local network.

       Some other BSD sockets implementations provide IP_RCVDSTADDR and
       IP_RECVIF socket options to get the destination address and the
       interface of received datagrams.  Linux has the more general
       IP_PKTINFO for the same task.

       Some BSD sockets implementations also provide an IP_RECVTTL
       option, but an ancillary message with type IP_RECVTTL is passed
       with the incoming packet.  This is different from the IP_TTL
       option used in Linux.

       Using the SOL_IP socket options level isn't portable; BSD-based
       stacks use the IPPROTO_IP level.

       INADDR_ANY (0.0.0.0) and INADDR_BROADCAST (255.255.255.255) are
       byte-order-neutral.  This means htonl(3) has no effect on them.

   Compatibility
       For compatibility with Linux 2.0, the obsolete socket(AF_INET,
       SOCK_PACKET, protocol) syntax is still supported to open a
       packet(7) socket.  This is deprecated and should be replaced by
       socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW, protocol) instead.  The main
       difference is the new sockaddr_ll address structure for generic
       link layer information instead of the old sockaddr_pkt.

BUGS         top

       There are too many inconsistent error values.

       The error used to diagnose exhaustion of the ephemeral port range
       differs across the various system calls (connect(2), bind(2),
       listen(2), sendto(2)) that can assign ephemeral ports.

       The ioctls to configure IP-specific interface options and ARP
       tables are not described.

       Receiving the original destination address with MSG_ERRQUEUE in
       msg_name by recvmsg(2) does not work in some Linux 2.2 kernels.

SEE ALSO         top

       recvmsg(2), sendmsg(2), byteorder(3), capabilities(7), icmp(7),
       ipv6(7), netdevice(7), netlink(7), raw(7), socket(7), tcp(7),
       udp(7), ip(8)

       The kernel source file Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt.

       RFC 791 for the original IP specification.  RFC 1122 for the IPv4
       host requirements.  RFC 1812 for the IPv4 router requirements.

Linux man-pages (unreleased)     (date)                            ip(7)

Pages that refer to this page: bind(2)connect(2)getpeername(2)getsockname(2)getsockopt(2)listen(2)recv(2)send(2)socket(2)getaddrinfo(3)getaddrinfo_a(3)sctp_connectx(3)sd_is_fifo(3)proc(5)systemd.socket(5)address_families(7)arp(7)icmp(7)ipv6(7)netdevice(7)packet(7)raw(7)rtnetlink(7)sctp(7)socket(7)tcp(7)udp(7)udplite(7)