RTQUERY(8)

💅 RTQUERY — rtquery(8)

okay so bestie, picture this: a whole manual page from the System Manager's Manual section 8, and it's about rtquery. that's the vibe. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

rtquery — query routing daemons for their routing tables 🛰️

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💀 DEPRECATION NOTICE 💀

okay so this is the part where i hold your hand. rtquery is deprecated and it will be removed in FreeBSD 16.0. so like… enjoy it while it's here, bestie, because it's giving end-of-an-era 😭

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

rtquery [-np1] [-w timeout] [-r addr] [-a secret] host ...
rtquery [-t op] host ...

like, two whole forms. pick your fighter 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so rtquery is the little utility that hits up a RIP network routing daemon (think routed(8)) and asks it for its routing table — by sending a request or poll command. and the routing info that comes back in any routing response packets? it gets displayed numerically and symbolically, both. iconic ✨

by default, rtquery uses the request command. but when you throw the -p option in there, it uses the poll command instead — which is an undocumented extension to the RIP protocol, supported by the commercial gated routing product. 👑

and when you're querying gated, the poll command is highkey preferred over request because:

• the response is not subject to Split Horizon and/or Poisoned Reverse 🌀
• some versions of gated literally do not answer the request command 🙈

meanwhile routed(8) does not answer the poll command — but it does recognize requests coming from rtquery, so it answers completely. teamwork, fr fr 🫶

also, fun fact: rtquery is also used to turn tracing on or off in routed(8). multi-talented. main character energy.

the following options are available:

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💖 OPTIONS 💖

• -n — displays only the numeric network and host numbers, instead of both numeric and symbolic. no names, just digits, we love a minimalist 💅
• -p — uses the poll command to request full routing information from gated. this is an undocumented extension RIP protocol supported only by gated. exclusive behavior 👑
• -1 — queries using RIP version 1 instead of RIP version 2. throwback era 🕰️
• -w timeout — changes the delay for an answer from each host. by default, each host is given 15 seconds to respond. clock's ticking bestie ⏰
• -r addr — asks about the route to destination addr. like "hey what's the way to this place" 🗺️
• -a passwd=XXX — the cleartext password flavor of -a 🍓
• -a md5_passwd=XXX|KeyID — causes the query to be sent with the indicated cleartext or MD5 password. MD5 flavor, spicy 🌶️
• -t op — changes tracing, where op is one of the following:
  • on=tracefile — turns tracing on into the specified file. that file must usually have been specified when the daemon was started, or be the same as a fixed name, often /etc/routed.trace. 📝
  • more — increases the debugging level. more chaos, more info 🔥
  • off — turns off tracing. lights out 🌙
  • dump — dumps the daemon's routing table to the current tracefile. spill the tea, daemon ☕

⚠️ important caveat bestie: requests from processes not running with UID 0, or on distant networks, are generally ignored by the daemon — except for a message in the system log. and gated is likely to ignore these debugging requests. so don't come crying if nothing happens 😭

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• routed(8)
• Routing Information Protocol, RIPv1, RFC1058.
• Routing Information Protocol, RIPv2, RFC1723.

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this one's from the Debian crew, dated May 20, 2025 — so go forth, query those routing daemons, and slay ✨👑🦋