VDE_ROUTER(1)

📦 version 2.3.3, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0

👑 VDE_ROUTER(1) — the vde_router girlies' handbook 💅

okay so this is a page from the General Commands Manual, and bestie, we're talking about vde_router — say it with me, Virtual Distributed Ethernet Router ✨ she's giving infrastructure main character energy and honestly? obsessed.

🌸 NAME 🌸

vde_router — Virtual Distributed Ethernet Router. that's her. that's the whole name. periodt 💜

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

vde_router -c configfile [-d] [-M mgmt_socket] [-m mgmt_mode] [-p pidfile]

look at that little lineup 😭 every flag is optional except the config one, and ngl the synopsis is out here living its best life with -c. (keep an eye on that, we'll circle back in OPTIONS 👀)

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the entire official DESCRIPTION of this program is, and I quote: "A vde_router". that's it. that's the description. one line. no notes. she said "my work speaks for itself" and honestly? iconic minimalism, we love a low-effort queen who's actually a router 🎀

💖 OPTIONS 💖

here's where the lore lives, bestie. every single flag, no skips:

  • -d — daemonize the process and put it in the background. she leaves the group chat, she goes off to do her thing in the background, you don't see her anymore but she's thriving 🦋
  • -r configfile — parse configuration parameters from configfile at startup. yes, this is the one — the SYNOPSIS said -c and OPTIONS says -r, and no I will not be explaining that, we simply hold both facts in our hearts 💀 (fr fr, read the docs carefully, that's the whole tip)
  • -M mgmt_socket — the unix socket where the parameters (interfaces addresses, routes, etc.) can be checked and changed at runtime. and get this — unixterm(1) can be used as a remote terminal for this, so you can literally pull up a seat and poke at her at runtime. remote terminal slay 🔥
  • -m mgmt_mode — specify the permission for the access to mgmt_socket. who gets in the club? you decide 💅
  • -p pidfile — save the process id to pidfile. little name tag, little identity card, so you can always find her again 🫶

🌈 NOTICE 🌈

important and also kind of funny: Virtual Distributed Ethernet is not related in any way with www.vde.com ("Verband der Elektrotechnik, Elektronik und Informationstechnik" i.e. the German "Association for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies"). so if you showed up here looking for German electrical engineering, wrong door bestie, but honestly welcome anyway 😭💜

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the whole friend group, go say hi:

🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

giving credit where credit is due, and there's a lot of it:

  • VDE_ROUTER is a tool by Daniele Lacamera <root@danielinux.net> 👑
  • VDE is a project by Renzo Davoli <renzo@cs.unibo.it> 💜
  • the Red-Black Tree used to implement ARP tables is a free port to userspace from the Linux kernel, by Andrea Arcangeli and David Woodhouse 🌸
ok that's the whole page, no cap. go forth, route things, check your runtime params, and remember: minimal DESCRIPTION, maximal power 💅✨

and that's the tea, bestie 🍓 this little number came to you from Virtual Distributed Ethernet, dated December 16, 2011 — vintage but still serving ⭐🎀

📦 where this page comes from