Re: [RFC] ARP notify option

Pekka Savola
2007-03-07T07:13:55Z

On Tue, 6 Mar 2007, Chris Friesen wrote:
> Stephen Hemminger wrote:
>> +arp_notify - BOOLEAN
>> + Define mode for notification of address and device changes.
>> + 0 - (default): do nothing
>> + 1 - Generate gratuitous arp replies when device is brought up
>> + or hardware address changes.
>
> Did you consider using gratuitous arp requests instead? I remember reading
> about some hardware that updated its arp cache on gratuitous requests but not
> gratuitous replies.

You might be interested in taking a look at:

http://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-cheshire-ipv4-acd

There has been some follow-up discussion on this in the thread
starting at:

http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/int-area/current/msg00611.html

In particular, you may be interested in this comment about ARP
request and ARP reply for gratuitous ARP:

http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/int-area/current/msg00669.html

--
Pekka Savola "You each name yourselves king, yet the
Netcore Oy kingdom bleeds."
Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings