KISSATTACH(8)

🌸 KISSATTACH(8) — from the Linux System Managers Manual, bestie 🌸

okay so real talk, this is the page for kissattach and spattach, and I promise it's actually so much less scary than the name suggests 💅

---

✨ NAME ✨

kissattach, spattach — attach a KISS or 6PACK interface 💖

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

kissattach [-b] [-6] [-l] [-m mtu] [-v] [-i inetaddr] tty port
[inetaddr]

spattach [-b] [-6] [-l] [-m mtu] [-v] [-i inetaddr] tty port [inetaddr]

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So what this does: it attaches a KISS or a 6PACK interface to what is normally a tty line hooked up to a TNC running in KISS or 6PACK mode 🎀. The program then turns itself into a background process, like it literally just dips and becomes a daemon, main character energy only 🦋.

Want to down an interface? Send its attach process a SIGTERM. That's the whole vibe check 💀.

kissattach takes many of the parameters for the port from the axports(5) file 📄. If the speed parameter in that file is not equal to zero then it's used for the serial port speed — and a zero value means no speed is set, periodt. The paclen parameter is used for the device mtu unless it gets overridden by a value on the command line 👑

The tty argument will typically be a serial port with a KISS or 6PACK TNC attached, though it could also be a pseudo tty or a KISS port emulator like an SCC card 🌈. kissattach supports BSD-style pseudo-terminals and the Unix98 ptys, iconic. If the tty argument is "/dev/ptmx", then Unix98 behaviour automatically takes effect ✨. And here's the little plot twist with Unix98 ptys: the slave tty name could not be foreseen 🙈. That's why kissattach will print the corresponding slave pty name as a separate line on stdout — so look for it, bestie, it's literally right there 🫶.

The port argument is the name of a port as given in the axports(5) file 📛.

The optional inetaddr argument is the IP address of the new interface. Some time it was a mandatory argument (although, due to historical reasons, this restriction is lifted if the old -i option is used) 🕰️. But honestly there's really not a need for the interface to have an IP address assigned to it — lowkey optional for a reason 💜.

---

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -6 — Use the 6PACK line discipline instead of KISS 🔥. This is the default if the program is called as spattach, so for spattach the option is a no-op (it's giving "already that, babe") 💅.
• -i inetaddr — Set the internet address of the interface. The address may either be a dotted decimal address or a host name 🌐. This option is now deprecated and the program will complain about it, though it'll still work — it's giving grumpy but functional 😭.
• -l — Log messages to the system log. The default is not to 🪵.
• -b — Allow broadcasts on the interface. Default is no, because for e.g. samba broadcasts are a pain.. 😩 not me dealing with that.
• -m mtu — Sets the mtu of the interface. If this value is not given then the value is taken from the paclen parameter in axports 📏.
• -v — Display the version ⭐.

---

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

kill(1), stty(1), ax25(4), axports(5), axparms(8), ifconfig(8) 🧚

---

✨ AUTHOR ✨

• Alan Cox GW4PTS <alan@cymru.net> 👑
• Jonathan Naylor G4KLX <g4klx@g4klx.demon.co.uk> 💖

---

aaaand that's the whole page, bestie 🎀 this one's from Linux, dated 28 March 2019, and it's filed under KISSATTACH(8) in the manual — go forth and attach some interfaces, you've got this 💜✨🦋