.\" -*- nroff -*-
.TH FILTERGEN 8 "January 7, 2004"

.SH NAME
filtergen \- packet filter compiler

.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBfiltergen\fR [ \fB-h\fR | \fB--help\fR ] [ \fB-V\fR | \fB--version\fR ] [ \fB-c\fR | \fB--compile\fR ] [ \fB-t \fItarget\fB\fR | \fB--target=\fItarget\fB\fR ] [ \fB-o \fIoutfile\fB\fR | \fB--output=\fIoutfile\fB\fR ] \fIinfile\fR

\fBfiltergen\fR [ \fB-h\fR | \fB--help\fR ] [ \fB-V\fR | \fB--version\fR ] [ \fB-c\fR | \fB--compile\fR ] [ \fB-t \fItarget\fB\fR | \fB--target=\fItarget\fB\fR ] [ \fB-o \fIoutfile\fB\fR | \fB--output=\fIoutfile\fB\fR ] [ \fB-F \fIpolicy\fB\fR | \fB--flush=\fIpolicy\fB\fR ]

.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBfiltergen\fR compiles a high-level filtering description language into a
variety of target formats.

.SH USAGE
\fBfiltergen\fR reads the ruleset from the \fIinfile\fR specified on the
command line (or standard input if \fIinfile\fR is "\-") and outputs to
standard output (or \fIoutfile\fR) via an optionally specified backend.

.PP
Both short and GNU-style long option options are accepted:

.TP
\fB-c, --compile\fR
Only try to "compile" the input, and do not generate any output.  This may be
useful to check that an input file has no syntax errors in it before one
attempts to use the result on a live server.

.TP
\fB-t \fItarget-filter\fB, --target=\fItarget-filter\fB\fR
If specified, \fItarget-filter\fR will be used to select an output filter type,
otherwise the default of \fBiptables\fR will be used.  Supported backends
are \fBiptables\fR, \fBip6tables\fR, \fBiptables-restore\fR, \fBip6tables-restore\fR,
\fBipchains\fR, \fBipfilter\fR and \fBcisco\fR (for Cisco IOS access-lists).

.TP
\fB-F \fIpolicy\fB, --flush=\fIpolicy\fB\fR
Flush mode.  Generate a set of rules for clearing all rules from the packet
filter.  Useful for firewall scripts that need to `shutdown' the firewall.
You can supply a \fIpolicy\fR argument in place of the usual filename, to
specify whether the flushed filter should default to \fBaccept\fR,
\fBreject\fR, or \fBdrop\fR.  It defaults to \fBaccept\fR, equivalent to
having no filter loaded at all.  It is not necessary to specify an
\fIinfile\fR when using flush mode.

.TP
\fB-o \fIoutfile\fB, --output=\fIoutfile\fB\fR
Write output to \fIoutfile\fR instead of standard output.

.TP
\fB-h, --help\fR
Show command help.

.TP
\fB-V, --version\fR
Show program version.

.SH BUGS
Not all backends implement all features.

The packet filter is not optimised.

.SH SEE ALSO
\fBfgadm\fR(8), \fBfilter_syntax\fR(5), \fBfilter_backends\fR(7)

.SH AUTHOR
\fBfiltergen\fR was originally written by Matthew Kirkwood.
Jamie Wilkinson <jaq@spacepants.org> then rewrote a lot of the internals,
added some features, and took on maintenance of the project.