io-pkt-v4, io-pkt-v4-hc, io-pkt-v6-hc

Networking manager

Syntax:

io-pkt-variant [-d driver [driver_options]] [-i instance]
               [-P priority] [-p protocol [protocol_options]]
               [-S] [-t threads] [-v]

where variant is one of v4, v4-hc, or v6-hc.

Runs on:

QNX Neutrino

Options:

-d driver [driver_options]

Start the specified devn-* or devnp-* driver:

You can specify driver without the devn- or devnp- prefix or the .so extension. For example, to start the devnp-i82544.so driver, specify -d i82544. If you specify the driver this way, io-pkt* looks for a devnp- version first. If there isn't one, io-pkt* loads the legacy io-net (devn-) version, using a special "shim" layer, devnp-shim.so.
If you want to load a specific version of a driver, specify the full path of the module (e.g., /lib/dll/devn-i82544.so).

The driver_options argument is a list of driver-specific options that the stack passes to the driver.

Note: Use commas, not spaces, to separate the options.

The stack processes various driver options; for more information, see "Generic driver options," below.

-i instance

The stack instance number, which is useful if you're running multiple instances of io-pkt. The io-pkt manager will service mount requests of type io-pktX, where X is the instance number. For example:

io-pkt-v4 -i1 -ptcpip prefix=/alt
mount -Tio-pkt1 /lib/dll/devnp-i82544.so

-P priority

The priority to use for io-pkt's main thread. The default is 21.

-p protocol [protocol_options]

The protocol to start, followed by a list of protocol-specific options.

Note: Use commas, not spaces, to separate the options.

The available protocols include:

Protocol	Module
`autoip`	lsm-autoip.so
`avb`	lsm-avb.so
`pf-v4`	lsm-pf-v4.so (for use with io-pkt-v4 or io-pkt-v4-hc)
`pf-v6`	lsm-pf-v6.so (for use with io-pkt-v6-hc)
`qnet`	lsm-qnet.so
`slip`	lsm-slip.so (for use with io-pkt-v4 or io-pkt-v4-hc)
`tcpip`	The stack includes TCP/IP; you need to specify this protocol only if you want to pass additional parameters (e.g., prefix=) to it. For more information about the options, see below.

-S

Don't register a SIGSEGV handler to quiesce the hardware if a segmentation violation occurs. This can help with debugging if it isn't possible to get a backtrace to the original code that generated the SIGSEGV through the signal handler.

-t threads

The number of processing threads to create. By default, one thread is created per CPU. These threads are the packet-processing threads that operate at Layer2 and may become the stack thread. For more information, see the Overview chapter of the QNX Neutrino Core Networking User's Guide.

-v

If any errors occur while loading drivers and protocols, io-pkt sends messages to slogger. If you specify this option, io-pkt also displays them on the console.

TCP/IP options

If you specify the -p tcpip protocol, the protocol_options list can consist of one or more of the following, separated by commas without whitespace:

bigpage_strict

If the value of the pagesize option is bigger than sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE), it's used only for the mbuf and cluster pools unless you also specify this option, in which case the page size is used for all pools.

cache=0

Disable the caching of packet buffers. This should be needed only as a debugging facility.

confstr_monitor

Monitor changes to configuration strings, in particular CS_HOSTNAME. By default, io-pkt gets the hostname once at startup.

enmap

Prevent automatic stack mapping of enXX interface names to the actual interface names. By default, the stack automatically maps the first registered interface to en0 (if a real en0 isn't present), the second interface to en1, and so on, in order to preserve backwards compatibility with io-net-style command lines.

fastforward=X

Enable (1) or disable (0) fastforwarding path. This is useful for gateways. This option enables, and is enabled by, forward; to enable only forward, specify forward,fastforward=0.

forward

Enable forwarding of IPv4 packets between interfaces; this enables fastforward by default. The default is off.

forward6

(io-pkt-v6-hc only) Enable forwarding of IPv6 packets between interfaces; off by default.

ipsec

(io-pkt-v4-hc and io-pkt-v6-hc only) Enable IPsec support; off by default.

mbuf_cache=X

As mbufs are freed after use, rather than returning them to the internal pool for general consumption, up to X mbufs are cached per thread to allow quicker retrieval on the next allocation.

mclbytes=size

The mbuf cluster size. A cluster is the largest amount of contiguous memory used by an mbuf. If the MTU is larger than a cluster, multiple clusters are used to hold the packet. The default cluster size is 2 KB (to fit a standard 1500-byte Ethernet packet).

Specifying the cluster size can improve performance; for more information, see "Jumbo packets and hardware checksumming" in the Network Drivers chapter of the QNX Neutrino Core Networking User's Guide.

mfib_gid_map=string

Specify a semicolon-separated mapping of GIDs to Forwarding Information Bases (FIBs). For example, to map SGID 750 and 760 to FIBs 1 and 2, respectively, specify:

mfib_gid_map=750_1;760_2

pagesize=X

The smallest amount of data allocated each time for the internal memory pools. This quantum is then carved into chunks of varying size, depending on the pool.

pfil_ipsec

(io-pkt-v4-hc and io-pkt-v6-hc only) Run packet filters on packets before encryption. The default is to do it after encryption.

pkt_cache=X

As mbuf and cluster combinations are freed after use, rather than return them to the internal pool for general consumption, up to X mbufs and clusters are cached per thread to allow quicker retrieval on the next allocation.

pkt_typed_mem=object

Allocate packet buffers from the specified typed memory object. For example:

io-pkt -ptcpip pkt_typed_mem=ram/dma

prefix=/path

The path to prepend to the traditional /dev/socket. The is useful when running multiple stacks (see the -i option). Clients can target a particular stack by using the SOCK environment variable. For example:

io-pkt -i1 -ptcpip prefix=/alt
SOCK=/alt ifconfig -a

random

Use /dev/random as the source of random data. By default, io-pkt uses a builtin pseudo-random number generator.

recv_ctxt=X

Specify the size of the receive context buffer, in bytes. The default is 65536; the minimum is 2048.

reuseport_unicast

If using the SO_REUSEPORT socket option, received unicast UDP packets are delivered to all sockets bound to the port. The default is to deliver only multicast and broadcast to all sockets.

rx_prio=X or rx_pulse_prio=X

The priority for receive threads to use (the default is 21). A driver-specific priority option (if supported by the driver) can override this priority.

somaxconn=X

Specify the value of SOMAXCONN, the maximum length of the listen queue used to accept new TCP connections. The minimum is the value in <sys/socket.h>.

stackguard

Introduce a guard page between each thread's stack to aid in debugging "blown stack handling" panics. This will cause a SIGSEGV at the point of stack overrun rather than at the end of the operation.

Note: If the value of the stacksize option isn't a multiple of the system page size, then this option increases the stack size until it is. A message is logged to slogger in this case advising of the new size. This increase in stack size may change the issue being debugged.

stacksize=X

Specify the size of each thread's stack, in bytes. The default is 4096.

threads_incr=X

If the supply of functional connections is exhausted, increment their number by this amount, up to the value of threads_max. The default is 25.

Note: The term "threads" in the TCP/IP threads_* options is a misnomer; it really refers to functional TCP/IP connections or blocking operations (read(), write(), accept(), etc.). It has nothing to do with the number of threads running in io-pkt-*.

threads_max=X

Specify the maximum number of functional TCP/IP connections that the stack can service simultaneously. The default is 200.

threads_min=X

Specify the minimum number of functional TCP/IP connections. The default is 15, and the minimum is 4.

timer_pulse_prio=priority

The priority to use for the timer pulse. The default is 21.

Description:

The io-pkt manager provides support for Internet domain sockets, Unix domain sockets, and dynamically loaded networking modules. It comes in several stack variants:

io-pkt-v4

An IPv4 memory-reduced variant that doesn't support:

IPv6
Crypto / IPSec
802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi
Bridging
GRE / GRF
Multicast routing
Multipoint PPP

io-pkt-v4-hc

IPv4 version of the stack that has full encryption and Wi-Fi capability built in and includes hardware-accelerated cryptography capability (Fast IPsec).

io-pkt-v6-hc

IPv6 version of the stack (includes IPv4 as part of v6) that has full encryption and Wi-Fi capability, also with hardware-accelerated cryptography.

Note: In order to use SSL connections, you must have started random with the -t option.

After you've launched io-pkt*, you can use the mount command to start drivers or load additional modules such as lsm-pf-v4.so or lsm-pf-v6.so. If you want to pass options to the driver, use the -o option before the name of the shared object. For example:

mount -T io-pkt -o mac=12345678 devnp-bge.so

Note:

You can use umount to unmount legacy io-net drivers, but not io-pkt* drivers. Other drivers may allow you to detach the driver from the stack, by using ifconfig's destroy command (if the driver supports it).
If io-pkt runs out of threads, it sends a message to slogger, and anything that requires a thread blocks until one becomes available.
Native io-pkt and ported NetBSD drivers don't put entries into the /dev/io-net namespace, so a waitfor command for such an entry won't work properly in buildfiles or scripts. Use if_up -p instead; for example, instead of waitfor /dev/io-net/en0, use if_up -p en0.
If a TCP/IP packet is smaller than the minimum Ethernet packet size, the packet may be padded with random data, rather than zeroes.

The io-pkt manager supports TUN and TAP. To create the interfaces, use ifconfig:

ifconfig tun0 create
ifconfig tap0 create

For more information, see the NetBSD documentation:

Generic driver options

The stack processes the following generic driver options:

name=prefix

Override the default interface prefix used for network drivers. For example:

io-pkt-v4 -di82544 name=en

starts the devnp-i82544.so driver with the io-net-style interface naming convention (enXX). You can also use this option to assign interface names based on (for example) functionality:

io-pkt-v4 -di82544 pci=0,name=wan

unit=number

The interface number to use. If number is negative, it's ignored. By default, the interfaces are numbered starting at 0.

Note: These options don't work with legacy io-net legacy drivers. If you attempt to use them with a devn- driver, the driver won't be loaded, and the log will include an "unknown option" error.

The stack also processes the following driver options for all USB drivers using the NetBSD-to-QNX conversion library to let you identify a particular USB device using information obtained from running usb -v:

did=ID: Device product ID.
vid=ID: Device vendor ID.
devno=addr: Device address, as reported by the usb utility.
busno=num: Host controller, as reported by the usb utility

For example:

io-pkt-v4-hc -drum did=0x0020,vid=0x13b1,devno=1,busno=1