BIHOURLY(8)

📦 version 2.1a15, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 BIHOURLY(8) 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the System Manager's Manual, section 8, and it's all about a lil script called bihourly 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

bihourly — track ethernet/ip address pairs 👀💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bihourly

that's it. that's the whole vibe. no flags, no drama, no options. iconic honestly 👑

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so bihourly is a script that automates the whole operation of arpsnmp(8) — like, it does the running-around for you so you don't have to. how? it executes arpfetch(8) on a whole series of hostnames, one after another, and then sends all those results over to arpsnmp(8) for analysis. teamwork makes the dream work fr fr 🤝

the result of all this is a report of the current pairings between ip addresses and the corresponding ethernet address of the network hardware, as reported by snmpwalk(8). so basically a little snapshot of who's paired with whom rn 💞

activity gets logged 📝, and any changes it notices get reported by email. yes, it will literally email you about it. main character energy.

now, in its working directory, bihourly expects two files:

  • a file named list — this one contains a space separated list of hostnames to be queried
  • a file named cname — this one holds the SNMP community name by which to query these hosts
lowkey important: the name is a whole lie bestie 😭 contrary to the name, bihourly does not run twice every hour. it runs once each time it is invoked. that's it. one and done. so for repeated operation, bihourly must be invoked on a periodic basis by a program like cron(1). don't let the name gaslight you 🫶

🦋 FILES 🦋

  • /var/lib/arpwatch — default working directory 📂
  • list — file containing names of hosts to query
  • cname — file containing the SNMP community name by which to query

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

arpsnmp(8), arpfetch(8), snmpwalk(8), cron(8)

go read those too, they're all part of the same little friend group 💜

💀 BUGS 💀

found a bug? please send bug reports to arpwatch@ee.lbl.gov 📧 be nice about it tho.

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Craig Leres of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Network Research Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA. legend behavior, no cap 🌈

the current version is available via anonymous ftp:

ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/arpwatch.tar.gz

this manual page was contributed by Hugo Graumann. thank you for your service 🫡

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was BIHOURLY(8) from the System Manager's Manual, and yeah, the footer is literally just the same BIHOURLY(8) again — no date, no version number, the page keeps it mysterious like that 💅 ✨🌸💖

📦 where this page comes from