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RTSOLD(8)                 BSD System Manager's Manual                RTSOLD(8)

NAME
     rtsold -- router solicitation daemon

SYNOPSIS
     rtsold [-dDfm1] interface ...
     rtsold [-dDfm1] -a
     rtsol [-dD] interface ...
     rtsol [-dD] -a

DESCRIPTION
     rtsold is the daemon program to send ICMPv6 Router Solicitation messages on the specified interfaces.
     If a node (re)attaches to a link, rtsold sends some Router Solicitations on the link destined to the
     link-local scope all-routers multicast address to discover new routers and to get non link-local
     addresses.

     rtsold should be used on IPv6 hosts (non-router nodes) only.

     If you invoke the program as rtsol, it will transmit probes from the specified interface, without
     becoming a daemon.  In other words, rtsol behaves as ``rtsold -f1 interfaces''.

     Specifically, rtsold sends at most 3 Router Solicitations on an interface after one of the following
     events:

     oo   Just after invocation of rtsold daemon.
     oo   The interface is up after a temporary interface failure.  rtsold detects such failures by periodi-cally periodically
         cally probing to see if the status of the interface is active or not.  Note that some network cards
         and drivers do not allow the extraction of link state.  In such cases, rtsold cannot detect the
         change of the interface status.
     oo   Every 60 seconds if the -m option is specified and the rtsold daemon cannot get the interface sta-tus. status.
         tus.  This feature does not conform to the IPv6 neighbor discovery specification, but is provided
         for mobile stations.  The default interval for router advertisements, which is on the order of 10
         minutes, is slightly long for mobile stations.  This feature is provided for such stations so that
         they can find new routers as soon as possible when they attach to another link.

     Once rtsold has sent a Router Solicitation, and has received a valid Router Advertisement, it refrains
     from sending additional solicitations on that interface, until the next time one of the above events
     occurs.

     When sending a Router Solicitation on an interface, rtsold includes a Source Link-layer address option
     if the interface has a link-layer address.

     Upon receipt of signal SIGUSR1, rtsold will dump the current internal state into /var/run/rtsold.dump.

OPTIONS
     -a      Autoprobe outgoing interface.  rtsold will try to find a non-loopback, non-point-to-point,
             IPv6-capable interface.  If rtsold finds multiple interfaces, rtsold will exit with error.

     -d      Enable debugging.

     -D      Enable more debugging including the printing of internal timer information.

     -f      -f prevents rtsold from becoming a daemon (foreground mode).  Warning messages are generated to
             standard error instead of syslog(3).

     -m      Enable mobility support.  If this option is specified, rtsold sends probing packets to default
             routers that have advertised Router Advertisements when the node (re)attaches to an interface.
             Moreover, if the option is specified, rtsold periodically sends Router Solicitation on an
             interface that does not support SIOCGIFMEDIA ioctl.

     -1      Perform only one probe.  Transmit Router Solicitation packets until at least one valid Router
             Advertisement packet has arrived on each interface, then exit.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The rtsold utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

FILES
     /var/run/rtsold.pid   the pid of the currently running rtsold.
     /var/run/rtsold.dump  dumps internal state on.

SEE ALSO
     rtadvd(8), sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The rtsold command is based on the rtsol command, which first appeared in WIDE/KAME IPv6 protocol stack
     kit.  rtsol is now integrated into rtsold(8).

BUGS
     In some operating systems, when a PCMCIA network card is removed and reinserted, the corresponding
     interface index is changed.  However, rtsold assumes such changes will not occur, and always uses the
     index that it got at invocation. As a result, rtsold may not work if you reinsert a network card.  In
     such a case, rtsold should be killed and restarted.

     The IPv6 autoconfiguration specification assumes a single-interface host.  You may see kernel error
     messages if you try to autoconfigure a host with multiple interfaces.  Also, it seems contradictory for
     rtsold to accept multiple interface arguments.

BSD                              May 17, 1998                              BSD