.\" $Id: aggregate.1,v 1.11 2001/11/02 15:49:18 jabley Exp $ .\" .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2001 by Metromedia Fiber Network Services, Inc. .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND METROMEDIA FIBER NETWORK SERVICES, .\" INC. ("MFN") DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE .\" INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO .\" EVENT SHALL MFN BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR .\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF .\" USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR .\" OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR .\" PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .\" Metromedia Fiber Network .\" 360 Hamilton Avenue .\" White Plains, NY 10601 .\" .\" http://www.mfn.com/ .\" .TH AGGREGATE 1 "2001 November 2" "Joe Abley" .SH NAME .B aggregate \- optimise a list of route prefixes to help make nice short filters .SH SYNOPSIS .B aggregate [\-m max-length] [\-o max-opt-length] [\-p default-length] [\-q] [\-t] [\-v] .SH DESCRIPTION Takes a list of prefixes in conventional format on stdin, and performs two optimisations to attempt to reduce the length of the prefix list. .PP The first optimisation is to remove any supplied prefixes which are superfluous because they are already included in another supplied prefix. For example, 203.97.2.0/24 would be removed if 203.97.0.0/17 was also supplied. .PP The second optimisation identifies adjacent prefixes that can be combined under a single, shorter-length prefix. For example, 203.97.2.0/24 and 203.97.3.0/24 can be combined into the single prefix 203.97.2.0/23. .SH OPTIONS .PD 0 .TP .B \-m max-length Sets the maximum prefix length for entries read from stdin .I max_length bits. The default is 32. Prefixes with longer lengths will be discarded prior to processing. .TP .B \-o max-opt-length Sets the maximum prefix length for optimisation to .I max-opt-length bits. The default is 32. Prefixes with longer lengths will not be subject to optimisation. .TP .B \-p default-length Sets the default prefix length. There is no default; without this option a prefix without a mask length is treated as invalid. Use .B \-p 32 \-m 32 \-o 32 to aggregate a list of host routes specified as bare addresses, for example. .TP .B \-q Sets quiet mode -- instructs .B aggregate never to generate warning messages or other output on stderr. .TP .B \-t Silently truncate prefixes that seem to have an inconsistent prefix: e.g. an input prefix 203.97.2.226/24 would be truncated to 203.97.2.0/24. Without this option an input prefix 203.97.2.226/24 would not be accepted, and a warning about the inconsistent mask would be generated. .TP .B \-v Sets verbose mode. This changes the output format to display the source line number that the prefix was obtained from, together with a preceding "\-" to indicate a route that can be suppressed, or a "+" to indicate a shorter-prefix aggregate that was added by .B aggregate as an adjacency optimisation. Note that verbose output continues even if \-q is selected. .LP .SH DIAGNOSTICS .B Aggregate exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. .SH EXAMPLES The following list of prefixes: .ft B 193.58.204.0/22 193.58.208.0/22 193.193.160.0/22 193.193.168.0/22 193.243.164.0/22 194.126.128.0/22 194.126.132.0/22 194.126.134.0/23 194.151.128.0/19 195.42.240.0/21 195.240.0.0/16 195.241.0.0/16 .ft R is optimised as followed by .B aggregate (output shown using the .I -v flag): .ft B aggregate: maximum prefix length permitted will be 24 [ 0] + 193.58.204.0/21 [ 1] - 193.58.204.0/22 [ 2] - 193.58.208.0/22 [ 3] 193.193.160.0/22 [ 4] 193.193.168.0/22 [ 5] 193.243.164.0/22 [ 0] + 194.126.128.0/21 [ 6] - 194.126.128.0/22 [ 7] - 194.126.132.0/22 [ 8] - 194.126.134.0/23 [ 9] 194.151.128.0/19 [ 10] 195.42.240.0/21 [ 0] + 195.240.0.0/15 [ 11] - 195.240.0.0/16 [ 12] - 195.241.0.0/16 .ft R Note that 193.58.204.0/22 and 193.58.208.0/22 were combined under the single prefix 193.58.204.0/21, and 194.126.134.0/23 was suppressed because it was included in 194.126.132.0/22. The number in square brackets at the beginning of each line indicates the original line number, or zero for new prefixes that were introduced by .B aggregate. The output without the .I -v flag is as follows: .ft B 193.58.204.0/21 193.193.160.0/22 193.193.168.0/22 193.243.164.0/22 194.126.128.0/21 194.151.128.0/19 195.42.240.0/21 195.240.0.0/15 .ft R .SH SEE ALSO aggregate-ios(1) .SH HISTORY .B Aggregate was written by Joe Abley , and has been reasonably well tested. It is suitable for reducing customer prefix filters for production use without extensive hand-proving of results. .PP Autoconf bits were donated by Michael Shields . The .B \-t option was suggested by Robin Johnson , and the treatment of leading zeros on octet parsing was changed following comments from Arnold Nipper . .PP An early version of .B aggregate would attempt to combine adjacent prefixes regardless of whether the first prefix lay on an appropriate bit boundary or not (pointed out with great restraint by Robert Noland ). .SH BUGS Common unix parsing of IPv4 addresses understands the representation of individual octets in octal or hexadecimal, following a "0" or "0x" prefix, respectively. That convention has been deliberately disabled here, since resources such as the IRR do not follow the convention, and confusion can result. .PP For extremely sensitive applications, judicious use of the .I -v option together with a pencil and paper is probably advisable.