ARP(3pm)

💖 ARP — the Perl page from ARP(3pm) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to ARP, a Perl extension for creating ARP packets ✨ it lives in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of the manual, page ARP(3pm), and it's genuinely one of the most fun little network toys you can hold in a Perl script 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

ARP — a Perl extension for creating ARP packets 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

  use Net::ARP;
  Net::ARP::send_packet('lo',                 # Device
                        '127.0.0.1',          # Source IP
                              '127.0.0.1',          # Destination IP
                                    'aa:bb:cc:aa:bb:cc',  # Source MAC
                              'aa:bb:cc:aa:bb:cc',  # Destinaton MAC
                              'reply');             # ARP operation

  $mac = Net::ARP::get_mac("enp3s0f1");

  print "$mac\n";

  $mac = Net::ARP::arp_lookup($dev,"192.168.1.1");

  print "192.168.1.1 has got mac $mac\n";

no cap, that's the whole vibe right there 💅

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

Version 1.0 will break with the API of PRE-1.0 versions, because the return value of arp_lookup() and get_mac() will no longer be passed as parameter, but returned! 😭 The author hopes this decision is ok as long as we get a cleaner and more perlish API 🫶 — and honestly? we did 🙈

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

This module can be used to create and send ARP packets, and to get the mac address of an ethernet interface or ip address 👑 it's giving "small module, big power."

send_packet() 💌

Net::ARP::send_packet('lo',                 # Device
                      '127.0.0.1',          # Source IP
                            '127.0.0.1',          # Destination IP
                                  'aa:bb:cc:aa:bb:cc',  # Source MAC
                            'aa:bb:cc:aa:bb:cc',  # Destinaton MAC
                            'reply');             # ARP operation

I think this is self documentating. 😌✨ (that's a direct vibe-transfer from the original, bestie)

The ARP operation can be one of the following values 🎀:

• request
• reply
• revrequest
• revreply
• invrequest
• invreply

get_mac() 🦋

$mac = Net::ARP::get_mac("enp3s0f1");

This gets the MAC address of the enp3s0f1 interface and stores it in the variable $mac 💾 The return value is "unknown" if the mac cannot be looked up 🌸 (yes, the literal string, not a fancy error object — iconic behaviour, honestly)

arp_lookup() 🔍

$mac = Net::ARP::arp_lookup($dev,"192.168.1.1");

This looks up the MAC address for the ip address 192.168.1.1 and stores it in the variable $mac 💖 The return value is "unknown" if the mac cannot be looked up 🎀 same energy, different function, we love consistency.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• man -a arp 👑 — go read the real thing too, iykyk

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🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

• Bastian Ballmann [ balle@codekid.net ]
• http://www.codekid.net

the icon, the legend, the main character 💜

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📜 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 📜

Copyright (C) 2004-2022 by Bastian Ballmann

License: GPLv2 🌸

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate it 💅✨

Sending you off with the receipts: this page came from perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-19 — so if you ever need to cite the exact vintage of this vibe, that's the number 🎀 mwah, go send some ARP packets responsibly 🦋💖