NAME¶
dhclient - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client
SYNOPSIS¶
dhclient [
-4 |
-6 ] [
-S ] [
-N [
-N... ] ] [
-T [
-T... ] ] [
-P [
-P... ] ]
[
-D LL|LLT ] [
-p port ] [
-d ] [
-e VAR=value ] [
-q ] [
-1 ] [
-r |
-x ] [
-lf lease-file ] [
-pf pid-file ] [
--no-pid ] [
-cf config-file ] [
-sf
script-file ] [
-s server-addr ] [
-g relay
] [
-n ] [
-nw ] [
-w ] [
-v ] [
--version
] [
if0 [
...ifN ] ]
DESCRIPTION¶
The Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client,
dhclient, provides a means
for configuring one or more network interfaces using the Dynamic Host
Configuration Protocol, BOOTP protocol, or if these protocols fail, by
statically assigning an address.
OPERATION¶
The DHCP protocol allows a host to contact a central server which maintains a
list of IP addresses which may be assigned on one or more subnets. A DHCP
client may request an address from this pool, and then use it on a temporary
basis for communication on network. The DHCP protocol also provides a
mechanism whereby a client can learn important details about the network to
which it is attached, such as the location of a default router, the location
of a name server, and so on.
There are two versions of the DHCP protocol DHCPv4 and DHCPv6. At startup the
client may be started for one or the other via the
-4 or
-6
options.
On startup,
dhclient reads the dhclient.conf for configuration
instructions. It then gets a list of all the network interfaces that are
configured in the current system. For each interface, it attempts to configure
the interface using the DHCP protocol.
In order to keep track of leases across system reboots and server restarts,
dhclient keeps a list of leases it has been assigned in the
dhclient.leases file. On startup, after reading the dhclient.conf file,
dhclient reads the dhclient.leases file to refresh its memory about
what leases it has been assigned.
When a new lease is acquired, it is appended to the end of the dhclient.leases
file. In order to prevent the file from becoming arbitrarily large, from time
to time
dhclient creates a new dhclient.leases file from its in-core
lease database. The old version of the dhclient.leases file is retained under
the name
dhclient.leases~ until the next time
dhclient rewrites
the database.
Old leases are kept around in case the DHCP server is unavailable when
dhclient is first invoked (generally during the initial system boot
process). In that event, old leases from the dhclient.leases file which have
not yet expired are tested, and if they are determined to be valid, they are
used until either they expire or the DHCP server becomes available.
A mobile host which may sometimes need to access a network on which no DHCP
server exists may be preloaded with a lease for a fixed address on that
network. When all attempts to contact a DHCP server have failed,
dhclient will try to validate the static lease, and if it succeeds,
will use that lease until it is restarted.
A mobile host may also travel to some networks on which DHCP is not available
but BOOTP is. In that case, it may be advantageous to arrange with the network
administrator for an entry on the BOOTP database, so that the host can boot
quickly on that network rather than cycling through the list of old leases.
COMMAND LINE¶
The names of the network interfaces that
dhclient should attempt to
configure may be specified on the command line. If no interface names are
specified on the command line
dhclient will normally identify all
network interfaces, eliminating non-broadcast interfaces if possible, and
attempt to configure each interface.
It is also possible to specify interfaces by name in the dhclient.conf file. If
interfaces are specified in this way, then the client will only configure
interfaces that are either specified in the configuration file or on the
command line, and will ignore all other interfaces.
The client normally prints no output during its startup sequence. It can be made
to emit verbose messages displaying the startup sequence events until it has
acquired an address by supplying the
-v command line argument. In
either case, the client logs messages using the
syslog(3) facility.
OPTIONS¶
- -4
- Use the DHCPv4 protocol to obtain an IPv4 address and
configuration parameters. This is the default and cannot be combined with
-6.
- -6
- Use the DHCPv6 protocol to obtain whatever IPv6 addresses
are available along with configuration parameters. It cannot be combined
with -4. The -S -T -P -N and -D arguments provide
more control over aspects of the DHCPv6 processing. Note: it is not
recommended to mix queries of different types together or even to share
the lease file between them.
- -1
- Try to get a lease once. On failure exit with code 2. In
DHCPv6 this sets the maximum duration of the initial exchange to
timeout (from dhclient.conf(5) with a default of sixty
seconds).
- -d
- Force dhclient to run as a foreground process.
Normally the DHCP client will run in the foreground until is has
configured an interface at which time it will revert to running in the
background. This option is useful when running the client under a
debugger, or when running it out of inittab on System V systems. This
implies -v.
- -nw
- Become a daemon immediately (nowait) rather than waiting
until an an IP address has been acquired.
- -q
- Be quiet at startup, this is the default.
- -v
- Enable verbose log messages.
- -w
- Continue running even if no broadcast interfaces were
found. Normally DHCP client will exit if it isn't able to identify any
network interfaces to configure. On laptop computers and other computers
with hot-swappable I/O buses, it is possible that a broadcast interface
may be added after system startup. This flag can be used to cause the
client not to exit when it doesn't find any such interfaces. The
omshell(1) program can then be used to notify the client when a
network interface has been added or removed, so that the client can
attempt to configure an IP address on that interface.
- -n
- Do not configure any interfaces. This is most likely to be
useful in combination with the -w flag.
- -e VAR=val
- Define additional environment variables for the environment
where dhclient-script(8) executes. You may specify multiple
-e options on the command line.
- -r
- Release the current lease and stop the running DHCP client
as previously recorded in the PID file. When shutdown via this method
dhclient-script(8) will be executed with the specific reason for
calling the script set. The client normally doesn't release the current
lease as this is not required by the DHCP protocol but some cable ISPs
require their clients to notify the server if they wish to release an
assigned IP address.
- -x
- Stop the running DHCP client without releasing the current
lease. Kills existing dhclient process as previously recorded in
the PID file. When shutdown via this method dhclient-script(8) will
be executed with the specific reason for calling the script set.
- -p port
- The UDP port number on which the DHCP client should listen
and transmit. If unspecified, dhclient uses the default port of 68.
This is mostly useful for debugging purposes. If a different port is
specified on which the client should listen and transmit, the client will
also use a different destination port - one less than the specified
port.
- -s server-addr
- Specify the server IP address or fully qualified domain
name to use as a destination for DHCP protocol messages before
dhclient has acquired an IP address. Normally, dhclient
transmits these messages to 255.255.255.255 (the IP limited broadcast
address). Overriding this is mostly useful for debugging purposes. This
feature is not supported in DHCPv6 ( -6) mode.
- -g relay
- Set the giaddr field of all packets to the relay IP
address simulating a relay agent. This is for testing pruposes only and
should not be expected to work in any consistent or useful way.
- --version
- Print version number and exit.
Options available for DHCPv6 mode:
- -S
- Use Information-request to get only stateless configuration
parameters (i.e., without address). This implies -6. It also
doesn't rewrite the lease database.
- -T
- Ask for IPv6 temporary addresses, one set per -T
flag. This implies -6 and also disables the normal address query.
See -N to restore it.
- -P
- Enable IPv6 prefix delegation. This implies -6 and
also disables the normal address query. See -N to restore it. Note
only one requested interface is allowed.
- -D LL or LLT
- Override the default when selecting the type of DUID to
use. By default, DHCPv6 dhclient creates an identifier based on the
link-layer address (DUID-LL) if it is running in stateless mode (with
-S, not requesting an address), or it creates an identifier based
on the link-layer address plus a timestamp (DUID-LLT) if it is running in
stateful mode (without -S, requesting an address). -D
overrides this default, with a value of either LL or
LLT.
- -N
- Restore normal address query for IPv6. This implies
-6. It is used to restore normal operation after using -T or
-P.
Modifying default file locations: The following options can be used to
modify the locations a client uses for it's files. They can be particularly
useful if, for example,
DBDIR or
RUNDIR have not been mounted
when the DHCP client is started.
- -cf config-file
- Path to the client configuration file. If unspecified, the
default ETCDIR/dhclient.conf is used. See dhclient.conf(5)
for a description of this file.
- -lf lease-file
- Path to the lease database file. If unspecified, the
default DBDIR/dhclient.leases is used. See
dhclient.leases(5) for a descriptionof this file.
- -pf pid-file
- Path to the process ID file. If unspecified, the default
RUNDIR/dhclient.pid is used.
- --no-pid
- Option to disable writing pid files. By default the program
will write a pid file. If the program is invoked with this option it will
not attempt to kill any existing client processes even if invoked with
-r or -x.
- -sf script-file
- Path to the network configuration script invoked by
dhclient when it gets a lease. If unspecified, the default
CLIENTBINDIR/dhclient-script is used. See dhclient-script(8)
for a description of this file.
CONFIGURATION¶
The syntax of the
dhclient.conf(5) file is discussed separately.
OMAPI¶
The DHCP client provides some ability to control it while it is running, without
stopping it. This capability is provided using OMAPI, an API for manipulating
remote objects. OMAPI clients connect to the client using TCP/IP,
authenticate, and can then examine the client's current status and make
changes to it.
Rather than implementing the underlying OMAPI protocol directly, user programs
should use the dhcpctl API or OMAPI itself. Dhcpctl is a wrapper that handles
some of the housekeeping chores that OMAPI does not do automatically. Dhcpctl
and OMAPI are documented in
dhcpctl(3) and
omapi(3). Most things
you'd want to do with the client can be done directly using the
omshell(1) command, rather than having to write a special program.
THE CONTROL OBJECT¶
The control object allows you to shut the client down, releasing all leases that
it holds and deleting any DNS records it may have added. It also allows you to
pause the client - this unconfigures any interfaces the client is using. You
can then restart it, which causes it to reconfigure those interfaces. You
would normally pause the client prior to going into hibernation or sleep on a
laptop computer. You would then resume it after the power comes back. This
allows PC cards to be shut down while the computer is hibernating or sleeping,
and then reinitialized to their previous state once the computer comes out of
hibernation or sleep.
The control object has one attribute - the state attribute. To shut the client
down, set its state attribute to 2. It will automatically do a DHCPRELEASE. To
pause it, set its state attribute to 3. To resume it, set its state attribute
to 4.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES¶
The following environment variables may be defined to override the builtin
defaults for file locations. Note that use of the related command-line options
will ignore the corresponding environment variable settings.
- PATH_DHCLIENT_CONF
- The dhclient.conf configuration file.
- PATH_DHCLIENT_DB
- The dhclient.leases database.
- PATH_DHCLIENT_PID
- The dhclient PID file.
- PATH_DHCLIENT_SCRIPT
- The dhclient-script file.
FILES¶
CLIENTBINDIR/dhclient-script, ETCDIR/dhclient.conf,
DBDIR/dhclient.leases, RUNDIR/dhclient.pid, DBDIR/dhclient.leases~.
SEE ALSO¶
dhcpd(8),
dhcrelay(8),
dhclient-script(8),
dhclient.conf(5),
dhclient.leases(5),
dhcp-eval(5).
AUTHOR¶
dhclient(8) has been written for Internet Systems Consortium by Ted Lemon
in cooperation with Vixie Enterprises. To learn more about Internet Systems
Consortium, see
https://www.isc.org To learn more about Vixie
Enterprises, see
http://www.vix.com.
This client was substantially modified and enhanced by Elliot Poger for use on
Linux while he was working on the MosquitoNet project at Stanford.
The current version owes much to Elliot's Linux enhancements, but was
substantially reorganized and partially rewritten by Ted Lemon so as to use
the same networking framework that the Internet Systems Consortium DHCP server
uses. Much system-specific configuration code was moved into a shell script so
that as support for more operating systems is added, it will not be necessary
to port and maintain system-specific configuration code to these operating
systems - instead, the shell script can invoke the native tools to accomplish
the same purpose.