br2684ctl(8)

✨ br2684ctl — the RFC1483/2684 Bridge Daemon, bestie edition ✨

okay so picture this: it's br2684ctl(8), it lives in the System Manager's Manual, and it is genuinely the girlboss of ATM bridging. let's get into it 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

br2684ctl — RFC1483/2684 Bridge Daemon. that's her. that's the whole name. iconic.

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

br2684ctl [ -b ] [[ -c n ] [ -e 0|1 ] [ -p 0|1 ] [ -s sndbuf ] [
-a [itf].vpi.vci ]] ...

yes she's bracket-heavy. she's layered. she's got range. 🦋

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💖 PARAMETERS 💖

• -a [itf].vpi.vci — the ATM PVC number, plus VPI and VCI. Required, bestie — you literally cannot skip this one. fr fr.
• -b — puts the process in the background. she's shy, she needs space, let her run in the back. 🫶
• -c n — the br2684 interface number, like 0, 1, and so on forever. Required. no cap.
• -e 0|1 — encapsulation method: 0=LLC, 1=VC mux. the default is 0, aka LLC. so if you say nothing, she's giving LLC energy.
• -p 0|1 — payload method: 0=Routed, 1=Bridged. the default is 1, aka Bridged. that's her default main character setting. 👑
• -s sndbuf — send buffer size. default is 8192. yes, exactly 8192, don't @ me.

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so what does she do, you ask? br2684ctl handles RFC1483/2684 bridged PDUs. and this is most often used in ADSL scenarios where, usually, the subscribers' ethernet traffic gets encapsulated in ATM AAL5 — that's by bridging ADSL modems, btw — according to RFC2684. the subscriber-side ADSL modem can be external with an ethernet connector, or internal, like an ADSL card sitting inside a PC. and listen: RFC1483 has been obsoleted by RFC2684. she's moved on. she's evolved. periodt. 💅

for example — and this is the fun part — it's possible to set up your Linux box to handle several ATM PVC's with bridged-1483 (sometimes referred to as SNAP) encapsulation. the Linux network stack might provide DHCP, IP masquerading, IP firewall services, or bridge the Ethernet frames just like it had several ethernet interfaces. in fact, it can have several (logical) ethernet interfaces, where ATM is just used as a carrier. it's giving "i have many faces and they're all ethernet" ✨

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🦋 USAGE 🦋

br2684ctl creates a new network interface named nas[n] which is bound to a specific ATM PVC. she requires two mandatory arguments: -c, the interface number, and -a, the ATM PVC.

⚠️ okay this part matters, don't skip it: the order of the command arguments matters. -c should be followed by -a. literally the way that -c has to come first… it's a whole thing. 🙈

you can create as many interfaces as necessary in one go — just make a long command line ;) yes the original really did put a winky face, and honestly? she ate. 😌

for example, the following command will create a nas0 interface which uses the ATM PVC with VPI=0 and VCI=401. you need to configure the PVC connection 0.401 on the ATM switch manually. (yes, manually. do it yourself, bestie. 💪)

% br2684ctl -c 0 -a 0.401

the command will only create a new interface nas0. that's it. that's all she does here. next step is to assign an IP address and netmask to the interface nas0 using the ifconfig command. and using ifconfig, you can also assign an Ethernet MAC address to the interface nas0, if necessary. slay. 🌸

% ifconfig nas0 192.168.2.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

messages are logged to the LOCAL2 syslog facility. keep that in your notes, iykyk. 📝

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🍓 FILES 🍓

• /var/run/br2684ctl-<iface>.pid — her little pid home. 🏠

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💜 NOTES 💜

this man page is based on a tutorial by by Joonbum Byun <jbyun@megaxess.com>. (yes, "by by" — we keep the details exactly as they are, typos and all, because facts are sacred and the vibe is separate. 🫶)

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• qos(7) — go read her too, she's in the family.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was br2684ctl(8) from the System Manager's Manual, dated 7 Jul 2003. yes, 2003 — she's vintage, she's timeless, she's still slaying. mwah. 💋