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Re: Content of /etc/ethers

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On 1/3/24 18:07, Steve Keller wrote:
> Which tools read /etc/ethers, what do they expect in there, what do
> they do with the contents?  Is it only used to show names to a user or
> take names from a user instead of MAC addresses, like in tcpdump?
> 
> The Linux man page says the entries in /etc/ethers should be numeric
> IP addresses or names which can be resolved by DNS, while the FreeBSD
> man page says there should be fully qualified names in /etc/ethers
> which should also be in /etc/hosts.
> 
> But does really some tool get a MAC address from somewhere, converts
> it to a name using /etc/ethers, and then expects to resolve that name
> into an IP address?
> 
> I would like to put names of hosts or interfaces in there, which don't
> necessarily have an IP address or no entry in /etc/hosts or DNS, like
> switches, access points or routers with multiple interfaces,
> interfaces of a Linux bridge, etc.
> 
> And may the entry in /etc/ethers contain a '.' to separate a name and
> an interface number or VLAN ID, like host.0 and host.1 for the LAN and
> WLAN interface?
> 
> Steve
> 
Hello,

My local network uses static manually assigned IP addresses rather than 
DHCP.  Some equipment I designed needs to get an IP address so I 
implemented RARP which is fairly simple.  The /etc/ethers file is read 
by one computer on the network when it receives an RARP request and 
reports back the requester's IP address.  There is an RARP server in the 
Debian packages.

Best regards,
Fred

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Content of /etc/ethers Steve Keller <keller.steve@gmx.de> - 2024-01-04 02:30 +0100
  Re: Content of /etc/ethers Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-01-04 03:10 +0100
    Re: Content of /etc/ethers John Hasler <john@sugarbit.com> - 2024-01-04 03:30 +0100
      Re: Content of /etc/ethers Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2024-01-04 03:40 +0100
        Re: Content of /etc/ethers Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> - 2024-01-04 04:00 +0100
          Re: Content of /etc/ethers Mike Castle <dalgoda+debian@gmail.com> - 2024-01-04 06:40 +0100
        Re: Content of /etc/ethers Kushal Kumaran <kushal@locationd.net> - 2024-01-04 04:30 +0100
  Re: Content of /etc/ethers Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2024-01-04 06:30 +0100
    Re: Content of /etc/ethers "Rick Thomas" <rick.thomas@pobox.com> - 2024-01-05 00:00 +0100
  Re: Content of /etc/ethers Fred <fred@blakemfg.com> - 2024-01-04 15:00 +0100

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