freebsd-dev/share/man/man4/if_bridge.4

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.Dd January 4, 2004
.Dt IF_BRIDGE 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm if_bridge
.Nd network bridge device
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd device if_bridge
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver creates a logical link between two or more IEEE 802 networks
that use the same (or
.Dq similar enough )
framing format.
For example, it is possible to bridge Ethernet and 802.11 networks together,
but it is not possible to bridge Ethernet and Token Ring together.
.Pp
Each
.Nm
interface is created at runtime using interface cloning.
This is
most easily done with the
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Cm create
command or using the
.Va cloned_interfaces
variable in
.Xr rc.conf 5 .
.Pp
A bridge can be used to provide several services, such as a simple
802.11-to-Ethernet bridge for wireless hosts, and traffic isolation.
.Pp
A bridge works like a hub, forwarding traffic from one interface
to another.
Multicast and broadcast packets are always forwarded to all
interfaces that are part of the bridge.
For unicast traffic, the bridge learns which MAC addresses are associated
with which interfaces and will forward the traffic selectively.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver implements the IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree protocol (STP).
Spanning Tree is used to detect and remove loops in a network topology.
.Pp
When filtering is enabled, bridged packets will pass through the filter
inbound on the originating interface, on the bridge interface and outbound on
the appropriate interfaces. This behaviour can be controlled using 
.Xr sysctl 8 :
.Bl -tag -width ".Va net.link.bridge.pfil_member"
.It Va net.link.bridge.pfil_member
Set to
.Li 1
to enable enable filtering on the incoming and outgoing member interfaces, set
to 
.Li 0
to disable it.
.It Va net.link.bridge.pfil_bridge
Set to
.Li 1
to enable enable filtering on the bridge interface, set
to 
.Li 0
to disable it.
.El
.Pp
ARP and REVARP packets are forwarded without being filtered and others
that are not IP nor IPv6 packets are not forwarded when filtering is
enabled.
.Pp
Note that packets to and from the bridging host will be seen by the
filter on the interface with the appropriate address configured as well
as on the interface on which the packet arrives or departs.
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following then placed in the file
.Pa /etc/rc.conf
will cause the a bridge called
.Sq bridge0
to be created, and will add the interfaces
.Sq wi0
and
.Sq fxp0
to the bridge, and then enable packet forwarding.
Such a configuration could be used to implement a simple
802.11-to-Ethernet bridge (assuming the 802.11 interface is
in ad-hoc mode).
.Bd -literal -offset indent
cloned_interfaces="bridge0"
ifconfig_bridge0="addm wi0 addm fxp0 up"
.Ed
.Pp
Consider a system with two 4-port Ethernet boards.
The following will cause a bridge consisting of all 8 ports with Spanning Tree
enabled to be created:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
iconfig bridge0 create
ifconfig bridge0 \e
    addm fxp0 stp fxp0 \e
    addm fxp1 stp fxp1 \e
    addm fxp2 stp fxp2 \e
    addm fxp3 stp fxp3 \e
    addm fxp4 stp fxp4 \e
    addm fxp5 stp fxp5 \e
    addm fxp6 stp fxp6 \e
    addm fxp7 stp fxp7 \e
    up
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
driver first appeared in
.Fx 6.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm bridge
driver was originally written by
.An Jason L. Wright
.Aq jason@thought.net
as part of an undergraduate independent study at the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro.
.Pp
This version of the
.Nm
driver has been heavily modified from the original version by
.An Jason R. Thorpe
.Aq thorpej@wasabisystems.com .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Nm
driver currently supports only Ethernet and Ethernet-like (e.g. 802.11)
network devices, with exactly the same interface MTU size as the bridge device.