nslinkadmin(8)

✨ nslinkadmin(8) — the IP glow-up utility for your DeviceMaster 💅

okay so bestie, gather 'round, because we're talking about nslinkadmin — that's the nslinkadmin(8) manual page, and she is iconic. This is a command-line utility for querying, erasing, or setting the IP address info that lives in the non-volatile memory of a Comtrol DeviceMaster. Periodt.

Here's the vibe: it talks to your DeviceMaster using raw Ethernet packets. So the DeviceMaster you're administering has to be on the same Ethernet segment as the host running nslinkadmin, and your Linux kernel needs to have support for the raw packet interface. No cap, that's non-negotiable.

nslinkadmin can literally query the network and let you pick from a list of DeviceMasters it found. Or, if you're feeling main character energy, you can just specify the Ethernet address of the DeviceMaster right on the command line. You can run it through an interactive menu, or specify operations on the command line using the options we're about to get into. iykyk.

nslinkadmin [options]

---

🎀 Booting the DeviceMaster

okay so before anything happens, the DeviceMaster must have an application binary downloaded to it (peep the FILES section, bestie).

If the selected DeviceMaster is idle and not owned by another host, then nslinkadmin will automatically download the application binary for you — unless you specified the -n option. If the DeviceMaster gets auto-loaded by nslinkadmin, it will be reset when nslinkadmin exits. But if it's loaded manually — either with the -l option or via a menu selection — then it will not be reset on exit. The way that distinction matters… 🫶

💖 Batch Options

heads up: some options will drop nslinkadmin into a non-interactive batch mode. That mode requires the DeviceMaster Ethernet address to be specified on the command line with the -e option. So if you're batching, don't forget your -e, fr fr.

---

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

• -d ether-device — Specifies the Ethernet device to be used. Defaults to the interface name that's alphabetically "first" (ignoring lo, sitN, tunN, tapN). She picks for you, but you can override. 💅
• -x debug-lvl — Specifies a debugging level from 0 (least verbose) to 9 (most verbose). Turn it up when you need to see everything. 🔥
• -e Eth-addr — Specifies the Ethernet address of the DeviceMaster to be accessed. The address should be in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx where xx is a 2-digit hex number. This option is required if any of the batch mode options are specified. If you don't specify it, nslinkadmin will query the network and ask you to choose from a list of DeviceMasters found. It's giving "let the program be your wingman." ✨
• -r — Tell the DeviceMaster to perform a reset operation. [batch option: see note above]
• -q — Query the DeviceMaster for its current IP configuration data and write the data to stdout. [batch option: see note above]
• -E — Tell the DeviceMaster to erase its IP configuration data. If no new IP configuration data is written to the DeviceMaster, it attempts to use DHCP after it is next reset. [batch option: see note above]
• -L — List the DeviceMasters found on the network and then exit. Short and sweet, she ate. 💀
• -a ip-addr — Configure the DeviceMaster to use ip-addr as its IP address. ip-addr must be in decimal dotted quad notation: ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd where ddd is a decimal number from 0 to 255. If -a is specified, the -m and -g options must also be specified. [batch option: see note above]
• -m ip-mask — Configure the DeviceMaster to use ip-mask as its IP network mask. ip-mask must be in decimal dotted quad notation: ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd where ddd is a decimal number from 0 to 255. If -m is specified, the -a and -g options must also be specified. [batch option: see note above]
• -g ip-gateway — Configure the DeviceMaster to use ip-gateway as the address of the default gateway. ip-gateway must be in decimal dotted quad notation: ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd where ddd is a decimal number from 0 to 255. If -g is specified, the -a and -m options must also be specified. [batch option: see note above]
• -h, -? — Print a short usage summary. The "help me help you" option, we love her. 🎀

---

🌸 ENVIRONMENT

nslinkadmin does not use any environment variables. That's it. No environment drama. Clean. Minimalist. She said "I don't need your variables." 💜

---

🦋 SEE ALSO

nslinkd(8), nslink(8) — go read those next, bestie, they're part of the lore.

---

💀 BUGS

Check the release notes file for an up-to-date list. That's the whole mood. Not me having bugs but not listing them here… 🔥

---

🧚 FTP LOCATION

ftp://ftp.comtrol.com/ — the sacred link. Go get your files. ✨

---

okay that's the whole page, bestie! now go configure some DeviceMasters and slay. 💖

---

with love, from the Comtrol Corp. girlies — © Comtrol Corp., dated 18 May 2017, and yes this is the nslinkadmin(8) source/version info, mwah 🎀