DHCPCLIENT(1)

💖 DHCPCLIENT 💖

okay bestie, so you know how this whole thing lives in the FreeRADIUS Daemon manual? yeah. that's the family. this is the dhcpclient(1) page and honestly? she's a whole vibe. sit down, grab a boba, let's get into it 🧋✨

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✨ NAME ✨

dhcpclient — send a DHCP request with provided RADIUS attributes and get the output response. it's giving "ask and you shall receive" but make it packets 🫶

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

dhcpclient [-d raddb_directory] [-D dictionary_directory] [-f file] [-h]
[-i interface] [-t timeout] [-v] [-x] server[:port]
{discover|request|decline|release|inform|auto}

look at her. all those flags. main character energy fr fr 👑

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so dhcpclient is a DHCP test client program, no cap. she can send arbitrary DHCP packets to the FreeRADIUS server that's running as a DHCP server, and then she shows you the reply. like a lil messenger bestie who always texts back 💌

what's she for? two things, iconic of her:

• testing the changes you made in the configuration of the radius server
• monitoring whether a radius server is up

and here's the tea on how she works: dhcpclient reads radius attribute/value pairs from her standard input, or from a file you specified on the command line. then she encodes those attribute/value pairs using the dictionary, and sends them to the local or remote server. literally that simple. the way she just... does that 😭💅

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -d raddb_directory — the directory that contains the user dictionary file. defaults to /etc/raddb. that's her home base 🏠
• -D dictionary_directory — the directory that contains the main dictionary file. defaults to /usr/share/freeradius. the other home base 🏡
• -f file[:file] — file to read the attribute/value pairs from. if you don't specify this, they get read from stdin instead. and omg, you can specify this option multiple times?? yes bestie — in that case packets are sent in order by file, and within each file, by first packet to last packet. a blank line separates logical packets within a file. very organized. very demure 🌈
• -h — print usage help information. the "help me help you" button 🫶
• -i interface — select which interface to send/receive at packet level on a raw socket. raw socket. she's raw. 💀
• -t timeout — wait timeout seconds before deciding that the NAS has not responded to a request, and re-sending the packet. and get this — this may be a floating point number, e.g. 2.2. decimals?? slay 🔥
• -v — print out program version information. say hi to the version ✨
• -x — print out debugging information. the "what is going ON" mode, for when you're nosy (affectionate) 🙈
• server[:port] — the hostname or IP address of the remote server. optionally a UDP port can be specified. if no UDP port is specified, it is looked up in /etc/services. the service name looked for is radacct for accounting packets, and radius for all other requests. and if a service is not found in /etc/services, 1813 and 1812 are used respectively. she has backup plans for her backup plans 💜
• discover | request | decline | release | inform | auto — DHCP options. use the type relevant for testing. pick your fighter 🥊

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

radiusd(8)

go read that one next, iykyk 💖

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Alan DeKok <aland@freeradius.org>

thank you alan, you ate 🍓

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okay that's the whole page!! and for the cute lil sign-off: this gorgeous thing came from FreeRADIUS Daemon, dated 19 September 2016, and it's the DHCPCLIENT(1) manual. periodt. go test some packets bestie, you got this 💅✨🦋