1 .\" Copyright 1996 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and
4 .\" its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby
5 .\" granted, provided that both the above copyright notice and this
6 .\" permission notice appear in all copies, that both the above
7 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all
8 .\" supporting documentation, and that the name of M.I.T. not be used
9 .\" in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the
10 .\" software without specific, written prior permission. M.I.T. makes
11 .\" no representations about the suitability of this software for any
12 .\" purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied
15 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY M.I.T. ``AS IS''. M.I.T. DISCLAIMS
16 .\" ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
17 .\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
18 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT
19 .\" SHALL M.I.T. BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
20 .\" SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
21 .\" LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF
22 .\" USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND
23 .\" ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY,
24 .\" OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT
25 .\" OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
28 .\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/ifmib.4,v 1.8.2.6 2002/10/10 18:21:41 johan Exp $
29 .\" $DragonFly: src/share/man/man4/ifmib.4,v 1.5 2006/05/26 19:39:39 swildner Exp $
36 .Nd Management Information Base for network interfaces
47 facility is an application of the
49 interface to provide management information about network interfaces
50 to client applications such as
56 This information is structured as a table, where
57 each row in the table represents a logical network interface (either a
58 hardware device or a software pseudo-device like
60 There are two columns in the table, each containing a single
61 structure: one column contains generic information relevant to all
62 interfaces, and the other contains information specific to the
63 particular class of interface.
64 (Generally the latter will implement
68 defined for that particular interface class, if one exists and can be
69 implemented in the kernel.)
73 facility is accessed via the
74 .Dq Li net.link.generic
78 The manifest constants for each level in the
83 A count of interfaces (and thus rows in the table) is given by
84 .Dq Li net.link.generic.system.ifcount
85 (or, using the manifest constants,
91 A management application searching for a particular interface should
92 start with row 1 and continue through the table row-by-row until the
93 desired interface is found, or the interface count is reached.
95 The generic interface information, common to all interfaces,
96 can be accessed via the following procedure:
97 .Bd -literal -offset indent
99 get_ifmib_general(int row, struct ifmibdata *ifmd)
106 name[2] = NETLINK_GENERIC;
107 name[3] = IFMIB_IFDATA;
109 name[5] = IFDATA_GENERAL;
113 return sysctl(name, 6, ifmd, &len, NULL, 0);
120 .Bl -tag -width "ifmd_snd_drops"
123 the name of the interface, including the unit number
126 the number of promiscuous listeners
129 the interface's flags (defined in
133 the current instantaneous length of the send queue
134 .It Li ifmd_snd_drops
136 the number of packets dropped at this interface because the send queue
139 .Pq Li struct if_data
140 more information from a structure defined in
146 Class-specific information can be retrieved by examining the
147 .Dv IFDATA_LINKSPECIFIC
149 Note that the form and length of the structure will
150 depend on the class of interface.
156 interfaces, the structure is called
157 .Dq Li struct ifmib_iso_8802_3
160 and implements a superset of the
162 MIB for Ethernet-like networks.
163 .\" This will eventually be defined in an ethermib(4) page.
167 .Dq Li struct sl_softc
168 .Pq In net/sl/if_slvar.h .
175 .%T "Definitions of Managed Objects for the Ethernet-like Interface Types Using SMIv2"
183 interface first appeared in
186 Many Ethernet-like interfaces do not yet support the Ethernet MIB;
187 the interfaces known to support it include
191 Regardless, all interfaces automatically support the generic MIB.