WAKE(8)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1

✨ WAKE(8) — the girlies are waking up computers now 💅

okay so picture this: it's wake from section 8 of the manual (system manager's stuff, iykyk), and she is literally the friend who knocks on your PC's door and yells "GET UP bestie, we have things to do" 🔥 no cap.

🌸 NAME 🌸

wake — sends Wake on LAN frames to hosts on a local Ethernet network. that's it, that's the whole vibe. sending lil magic packets so your machines wake uppp 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

wake [interface] lladdr [lladdr ...]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the wake program is the one that sends Wake on LAN (WoL) frames over a local Ethernet network to one or more hosts, using their link layer (hardware) addresses. basically you're sliding into your computer's DMs and being like "rise and shine ✨".

WoL functionality is generally enabled in a machine's BIOS — yeah, the BIOS, that ancient place — and it can be used to power on machines from a remote system without having physical access to them. literally main character energy: you don't even have to be in the room 😭🔥

interface is an Ethernet interface of the local machine, and it's what you use to send the Wake on LAN frames over it. Here's the slay part: if there is only one Ethernet device available that is up and running, then the interface argument can be omitted. one interface? don't even bother specifying it, she already knows 💅

lladdr is the link layer address of the remote machine. It can be specified two ways:

  • as the actual hardware address — six hexadecimal numbers separated by colons 🍓
  • as a hostname entry in /etc/ethers 🎀

wake accepts multiple lladdr addresses. so yeah, wake up the whole group chat at once, no cap 👑

Link layer addresses can be determined and set using ifconfig(8). go look 'em up, bestie.

🧚 FILES 🧚

  • /etc/ethers — Ethernet host name data base. that's where the hostname glow-ups live 🌈

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

👑 AUTHORS 👑

wake was written by Marc Balmer <marc@msys.ch>. thank you icon, we stan 🫶

ngl this page is from the Debian manual, dated December 27, 2009 — an absolute vintage moment, and it still ate 💀✨ mwah, bye bestie, go wake some computers 🦋💜
📦 where this page comes from