IPXD(8)

💖 IPXD(8) — the IPX RIP/SAP daemon, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is ipxd from the System Manager's Manual, section 8, and she is literally the IPX RIP/SAP daemon program. group chat, gather round 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

ipxd — the IPX RIP/SAP daemon program. that's it, that's the name, slay 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ipxd [ -d ] [ -p ] [ -l log_file ] [ -t ticks_file ]

look at her. four lil options. no notes 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the IPX RIP/SAP daemon ipxd gets invoked at boot time to manage the kernel IPX routing tables. like, she wakes up when the computer wakes up. main character energy fr.

when ipxd is started, it scans the file /proc/net/ipx_interfaces to find the ipx networks the computer is directly connected to. then it sends the RIP and SAP response and request packets required by the IPX router specification v1.20 to the interfaces it found, so that an initial RIP and SAP table can be built. building the table. iconic behavior.

during normal operation, ipxd listens on the RIP and SAP ports of each directly connected interface for broadcasts that other routers on the network send out, as well as requests issued by workstations. this way the full router functionality required by the IPX router specification v1.20 is hopefully implemented. (the "hopefully" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there and honestly? respect. 😭)

every 30 seconds, as well as on request by a HUP signal, the file /proc/net/ipx_interfaces is re-scanned. changes in the network topology are detected this way and broadcasted appropriately. this could eventually make Linux a quite flexible IPX router. she's growing. she's evolving. 🌈

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -d — with option -d, ipxd does not daemonize itself and logs the IPX traffic it receives and sends out to the log file. she stays in the foreground and tells you everything she's doing. nosy queen 🍓
• -p — with option -p, ipxd works in passive mode. this means it does not output any response on the net. it does not broadcast its internal tables, and does not answer requests. this makes it suitable for use in a normal IPX workstation, which should not act as a router. by starting ipxd in passive mode, the kernel routing tables are kept up to date. this means that utilities like slist or nprint do not have to run suid root, to be able to add IPX routing table entries. lowkey a security glow-up ✨

bestie, listen: it is not possible to use ipxd in passive mode when you have an internal net, because other IPX nodes must know how to reach the internal net. they can only know it if ipxd tells them where the internal net is. and passive mode ipxd does not speak. so. yeah. don't do that 💀

• -l logfile — with this option you can tell ipxd where to put its log output. the default is /dev/null. (so by default she's journaling into the void. honestly relatable 🙈)
• -t ticks_file — with this option you can override the default file name for the ticks file. the default is /etc/ipx_ticks. see ipx_ticks(5) for more information. okay so go read that one too, it's giving required reading 📚

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /etc/ipx_ticks

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• ipx_ticks(5)
• ipx_interface(8)

go read those, iykyk 🧚

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Volker Lendecke <lendecke@namu01.gwdg.de>

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶✨ this lil cutie came to you from the IPX Utilities source, version of the IPXD(8) page in the System Manager's Manual — so when you're done configuring your IPX router, go say thank you to the IPX Utilities crew 💖🌸 no cap, they ate.