int6klist(1)

💖 int6klist — the Qualcomm Atheros Open Powerline Toolkit 💖

okay bestie, welcome to int6klist (that's the manual page name, keep it in your notes 📝), part of the Qualcomm Atheros Open Powerline Toolkit. it lists Atheros device addresses. that's it. that's the whole personality. 👑

✨ NAME ✨

int6klist — List Atheros Device Addresses 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int6klist [options] [device] [device] [...]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so what does it actually do? it prints the local device address, or all the network device addresses for one specific device. this program is ideal for that special script jokey in your life. it prints device addresses and literally nothing else. no extra commentary, no garnish. periodt. 🎀

devices get detected one of two ways, and you can absolutely use both methods together to figure out your network topology. slay.

method one sends one VS_SW_VER message to the Qualcomm Atheros Local Management Address and prints the Ethernet source address found in each confirmation message it gets back. this method is what runs when no device addresses show up on the command line. the result is a list of all local devices, meaning the ones connected directly to the local host. and heads up — each local device may bridge to an independent powerline network that has remote devices as members. it's giving family tree energy. 🌳

method two sends one VS_NW_INFO message to each device you specify and prints the Ethernet source address found in each received message, plus the Ethernet addresses of each network station identified in that message body. this method is used whenever one or more device addresses appear on the command line. and lowkey important: it's possible to query remote powerline devices directly, so duplicate device addresses get printed when devices share powerline neighbors. not a bug, just the vibe. 🙈

this program is part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit. see the plc man page for an overview and installation instructions. 💖

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -b — print bridge device addresses. each specified device reports its own address. this option has no effect if no devices are specified. 💀
• -i — select the host Ethernet interface. all requests get sent via this host interface, and only responses received via this host interface are recognized. the default interface is eth1, because most people use eth0 as their principle network connection; however, if the environment string "PLC" is defined then it takes precedence over the default interface. and this option then takes precedence over either default. hierarchy, bestie. 👑
• -n — append a newline to output. ✨
• -q — enter quiet mode. this option has no effect at this time. it's just there. living its truth. 🫶
• -r — print remote device addresses. each specified device reports neighbor device addresses. this option has no effect when no devices are specified.
• -s — insert a newline, instead of a space, between each device address. 🎀
• -v — enter verbose mode. all Ethernet frames sent or received by the program are displayed on stdout. 🔥
• -?, --help — print program help summary on stdout. this option takes precedence over other options on the command line. ⭐
• -!, --version — print program version information on stdout. this option takes precedence over other options on the command line. use this option when sending screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so they know exactly which version of the Linux Toolkit you're using. 💜

🌈 ARGUMENTS 🌈

• device — the MAC address of some powerline device. more than one address may be specified. if omitted, the program output consists of local device addresses only. otherwise, output consists of the specified device followed by all devices associated with it. the default address is local. see DEVICES for info about symbolic device addresses. 🦋

💖 DEVICES 💖

powerline devices use Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. a MAC address is a 48-bit value entered as 12 hexadecimal digits, in upper, lower or mixed character case. octets may be separated with colons for clarity. for example, "00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and "00b052:000001" are all valid and equivalent. no cap. ✨

the following MAC addresses are special and may be entered by name instead of number. iconic behavior tbh.

• all — same as "broadcast".
• broadcast — a synonym for the Ethernet broadcast address, FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. all devices, whether local, remote or foreign, recognize messages sent to this address. a remote device is any device at the far end of a powerline connection. a foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros. 📡
• local — a synonym for the Qualcomm Atheros vendor specific Local Management Address (LMA), 00:B0:52:00:00:01. all local Atheros devices recognize this address, but remote and foreign devices do not. a remote device is any device at the far end of a powerline connection. a foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros. 🏠

🎀 REFERENCES 🎀

see the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual for more information. iykyk 📚

⚠️ DISCLAIMER ⚠️

Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros, Ocala FL USA. Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros reserves the right to modify message structure and content in future firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of this program.

translation: it's theirs, it might change, and they don't owe you a heads up. 😭

💫 EXAMPLES 💫

the following command lists all local devices because no device was specified. since no devices are on the command line, a VS_SW_VER message is sent to 00:B0:52:00:00:01 and device responses are collected. as we can see, there's only one local device available at this time. observe that the prompt appears immediately after the address because newlines are omitted by default. sneaky. 👀

# int6klist
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 #

the next examples do the same thing but this time there are several local devices available.

# int6klist
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01 # int6k

the next example queries the first local device from the previous example, 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04, for a list of neighbor devices. this time a VS_NW_INFO message is sent because we named a device on the command line. the named device happens to be a local device, but it need not be. we can see that the device has no neighbors. it's giving only child. 🥲

# int6klist 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 # int6k

next up we query the next local device, 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02, and find that it has two neighbor devices that did not show up earlier because they are remote devices. observe that the three devices comprise a complete logical powerline network. device 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 is connected to the local host, but 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 and 00:0f:00:F2:01:13 are connected to other hosts, somewhere. mystery. 🌫️

# int6klist 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13

the next example shows that we can query multiple devices at a time for neighbors. we've copied the output from the second example and pasted it onto the command line. now we have a list of all devices, local and remote. main character energy. 👑

# int6klist 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02
00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13

this next example does the same thing but uses option -n to append a newline after each query. this output is easier to understand because each device queried starts on a new line and is followed by any neighbors. chef's kiss. 💅

# int6klist 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01 -n
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
00:B0:52:BA:BE:01

this example invokes int6klist, which returns a list of local devices. that list gets inserted into another int6klist command line. this demonstrates how program output can be used in scripts. script girlies rise up. 🧚

# int6klist $(int6klist) -n
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
00:B0:52:BA:BE:01

this next example accomplishes the same thing, since all local devices respond with a list of powerline neighbors. 🦋

# int6klist local
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
00:B0:52:BA:BE:01

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

plc(1), int6krate(1), int6krule(1), int6ktone(1)

💜 CREDITS 💜

Charles Maier — thank you bestie, we love you. 🫶

and that's the whole page, no notes. this cutie came out of open-plc-utils-0.0.3, dated November 2013 — yes she's vintage and yes she still ate. 💖✨🎀