From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 98235C77B72 for ; Fri, 14 Apr 2023 18:44:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S229829AbjDNSon (ORCPT ); Fri, 14 Apr 2023 14:44:43 -0400 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:36224 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S229784AbjDNSon (ORCPT ); Fri, 14 Apr 2023 14:44:43 -0400 Received: from relay7-d.mail.gandi.net (relay7-d.mail.gandi.net [IPv6:2001:4b98:dc4:8::227]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 94A758A74; Fri, 14 Apr 2023 11:44:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: (Authenticated sender: schoen@loyalty.org) by mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5955E20002; Fri, 14 Apr 2023 18:44:36 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=loyalty.org; s=gm1; t=1681497878; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type; bh=M9WuceGIl0kFJ/Y3VNNDGUEMqL1G49eJadzVZotDG9U=; b=iOaOZeMR75XH4f8kVKLvD9WqEq9INBtOtjwhpFkGydF4o0odegI7JST0vZw2l6jCFs2J07 DNPQyb448uH1kMPFpU4ChEH4+wfZsBk5P5GeF/tBdl/0i/w5tJk+w+MnAJIiLbcrCnTr26 z2hz2no9V+1Ipq64zb6kfMLHtfsDwwXhahtbMGtXBZHYdqnzLCo8/acg/aus1EQK8Bu5xF PSy4eh7pUHFc9Wtj6LuF0Yk2ozBp5SfHCc3Ro+rPHqqePCxQBa4yEKz2Xn9VsYQ+Bbr/DP fKE2DZJmu2hCQAwp6DjHQ5AohWG4/GQW+WNSArYR8ykuAmqtzZBytyjZN+k0Mw== Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2023 11:44:33 -0700 From: Seth David Schoen To: Alejandro Colomar Cc: linux-man@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org Subject: [PATCH v5] ip.7: Add "special and reserved addresses" section Message-ID: <20230414184433.GA2557040@demorgan> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-man@vger.kernel.org Break out the discussion of special and reserved IPv4 addresses into a subsection, formatted as a pair of definition lists, and briefly describing three cases in which Linux no longer treats addresses specially, where other systems do or did. Also add a specific example to the NOTES paragraph that discourages the use of IP broadcasting, so people can more easily understand what they are supposed to do instead. --- man7/ip.7 | 83 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------ 1 file changed, 75 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/man7/ip.7 b/man7/ip.7 index 6c50d0281..6f1ee4dbe 100644 --- a/man7/ip.7 +++ b/man7/ip.7 @@ -237,19 +237,82 @@ In particular, this means that you need to call on the number that is assigned to a port. All address/port manipulation functions in the standard library work in network byte order. -.PP +.SS Special and reserved addresses There are several special addresses: -.B INADDR_LOOPBACK -(127.0.0.1) +.TP +.BR INADDR_LOOPBACK " (127.0.0.1)" always refers to the local host via the loopback device; +.TP +.BR INADDR_ANY " (0.0.0.0)" +means any address for socket binding; +.TP +.BR INADDR_BROADCAST " (255.255.255.255)" +has the same effect on +.BR bind (2) +as .B INADDR_ANY -(0.0.0.0) -means any address for binding; +for historical reasons. +A packet addressed to .B INADDR_BROADCAST -(255.255.255.255) -means any host and has the same effect on bind as +through a socket which has +.B SO_BROADCAST +set will be broadcast to all hosts on the local network segment, +as long as the link is broadcast-capable. + +.TP +Highest-numbered address +.TQ +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 +.B 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, +.\" commit 58fee5fc83658aaacf60246aeab738946a9ba516 +it is treated as an ordinary unicast address +and can be assigned to an interface. + +.PP +Internet standards have traditionally also reserved various addresses +for particular uses, though Linux no longer treats +some of these specially. + +.TP +[0.0.0.1, 0.255.255.255] +.TQ +[240.0.0.0, 255.255.255.254] +Addresses in these ranges (0/8 and 240/4) are reserved globally. +Since Linux 5.3 +.\" commit 96125bf9985a75db00496dd2bc9249b777d2b19b +and Linux 2.6.25, +.\" commit 1e637c74b0f84eaca02b914c0b8c6f67276e9697 +respectively, +the 0/8 and 240/4 addresses, other than .B INADDR_ANY -for historical reasons. +and +.BR INADDR_BROADCAST , +are treated as ordinary unicast addresses. +Systems that follow the traditional behaviors may not +interoperate with these historically reserved addresses. +.TP +[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 +.B INADDR_LOOPBACK +(127.0.0.1); +.TP +[224.0.0.0, 239.255.255.255] +Addresses in this range (224/4) are dedicated to multicast use. .SS Socket options IP supports some protocol-specific socket options that can be set with .BR setsockopt (2) @@ -1343,6 +1406,10 @@ 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. .PP Some other BSD sockets implementations provide .B IP_RCVDSTADDR -- 2.25.1