edsc4freebsd

Usage

Overview

The edsc interface is a software discard mechanism which may be used for performance analysis and software testing. It imitates an Ethernet device, which allows for its use in conjunction with such drivers as if_bridge(4) and vlan(4).

As with other network interfaces, an edsc interface must have network addresses assigned for each address family with which it is to be used. These addresses may be set or changed with the SIOCSIFADDR ioctl(2) or ifconfig(8) utility.

Each edsc interface is created at runtime using interface cloning. This is most easily done with the ifconfig(8) create command or using the cloned_interfaces variable in rc.conf(5).

Caveats

Since outgoing packets are just discarded by edsc, ARP requests stay unreplied. Consequently, an IP packet cannot be sent via edsc until a static arp(4) entry is created for its next hop using arp(8).

Initially an edsc interface has a zero link level address. It can be changed with ifconfig(8) lladdr if needed.