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dhclient(8) dhclient(8)
NAME
dhclient - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client
SYNOPSIS
dhclient [ -p port ] [ -d ] [ -q ] [ -1 ] [ -r ] [ -lf lease-file ] [ -pf pid-file
] [ -cf config-file ] [ -sf script-file ] [ -s server ] [ -g relay ] [ -n ] [ -nw ]
[ -w ] [ -x ] [ if0 [ ...ifN ] ]
DESCRIPTION
The Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client, dhclient, provides a means for config-
uring one or more network interfaces using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol,
BOOTP protocol, or if these protocols fail, by statically assigning an address.
OPERATION
The DHCP protocol allows a host to contact a central server which maintains a list
of IP addresses which may be assigned on one or more subnets. A DHCP client may
request an address from this pool, and then use it on a temporary basis for commu-
nication on network. The DHCP protocol also provides a mechanism whereby a client
can learn important details about the network to which it is attached, such as the
location of a default router, the location of a name server, and so on.
On startup, dhclient reads the dhclient.conf for configuration instructions. It
then gets a list of all the network interfaces that are configured in the current
system. For each interface, it attempts to configure the interface using the DHCP
protocol.
In order to keep track of leases across system reboots and server restarts,
dhclient keeps a list of leases it has been assigned in the dhclient.leases(5)
file. On startup, after reading the dhclient.conf file, dhclient reads the
dhclient.leases file to refresh its memory about what leases it has been assigned.
When a new lease is acquired, it is appended to the end of the dhclient.leases
file. In order to prevent the file from becoming arbitrarily large, from time to
time dhclient creates a new dhclient.leases file from its in-core lease database.
The old version of the dhclient.leases file is retained under the name
dhclient.leases~ until the next time dhclient rewrites the database.
Old leases are kept around in case the DHCP server is unavailable when dhclient is
first invoked (generally during the initial system boot process). In that event,
old leases from the dhclient.leases file which have not yet expired are tested, and
if they are determined to be valid, they are used until either they expire or the
DHCP server becomes available.
A mobile host which may sometimes need to access a network on which no DHCP server
exists may be preloaded with a lease for a fixed address on that network. When
all attempts to contact a DHCP server have failed, dhclient will try to validate
the static lease, and if it succeeds, will use that lease until it is restarted.
A mobile host may also travel to some networks on which DHCP is not available but
BOOTP is. In that case, it may be advantageous to arrange with the network admin-
istrator for an entry on the BOOTP database, so that the host can boot quickly on
that network rather than cycling through the list of old leases.
COMMAND LINE
The names of the network interfaces that dhclient should attempt to configure may
be specified on the command line. If no interface names are specified on the com-
mand line dhclient will normally identify all network interfaces, eliminating non-
broadcast interfaces if possible, and attempt to configure each interface.
It is also possible to specify interfaces by name in the dhclient.conf(5) file.
If interfaces are specified in this way, then the client will only configure inter-
faces that are either specified in the configuration file or on the command line,
and will ignore all other interfaces.
If the DHCP client should listen and transmit on a port other than the standard
(port 68), the -p flag may used. It should be followed by the udp port number that
dhclient should use. This is mostly useful for debugging purposes. If a different
port is specified for the client to listen on and transmit on, the client will also
use a different destination port - one greater than the specified destination port.
The DHCP client normally transmits any protocol messages it sends before acquiring
an IP address to, 255.255.255.255, the IP limited broadcast address. For debug-
ging purposes, it may be useful to have the server transmit these messages to some
other address. This can be specified with the -s flag, followed by the IP address
or domain name of the destination.
For testing purposes, the giaddr field of all packets that the client sends can be
set using the -g flag, followed by the IP address to send. This is only useful
for testing, and should not be expected to work in any consistent or useful way.
The DHCP client will normally run in the foreground until it has configured an
interface, and then will revert to running in the background. To run force
dhclient to always run as a foreground process, the -d flag should be specified.
This is useful when running the client under a debugger, or when running it out of
inittab on System V systems.
The client normally prints a startup message and displays the protocol sequence to
the standard error descriptor until it has acquired an address, and then only logs
messages using the syslog (3) facility. The -q flag prevents any messages other
than errors from being printed to the standard error descriptor.
The client normally doesn’t release the current lease as it is not required by the
DHCP protocol. Some cable ISPs require their clients to notify the server if they
wish to release an assigned IP address. The -r flag explicitly releases the cur-
rent lease, and once the lease has been released, the client exits.
The -1 flag cause dhclient to try once to get a lease. If it fails, dhclient exits
with exit code two.
The DHCP client normally gets its configuration information from
/etc/dhclient.conf, its lease database from /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.leases, stores
its process ID in a file called /var/run/dhclient.pid, and configures the network
interface using /sbin/dhclient-script To specify different names and/or locations
for these files, use the -cf, -lf, -pf and -sf flags, respectively, followed by the
name of the file. This can be particularly useful if, for example, /var/lib/dhcp
or /var/run has not yet been mounted when the DHCP client is started.
The DHCP client normally exits if it isn’t able to identify any network interfaces
to configure. On laptop computers and other computers with hot-swappable I/O
buses, it is possible that a broadcast interface may be added after system startup.
The -w flag can be used to cause the client not to exit when it doesn’t find any
such interfaces. The omshell (8) program can then be used to notify the client
when a network interface has been added or removed, so that the client can attempt
to configure an IP address on that interface.
The DHCP client can be directed not to attempt to configure any interfaces using
the -n flag. This is most likely to be useful in combination with the -w flag.
The client can also be instructed to become a daemon immediately, rather than wait-
ing until it has acquired an IP address. This can be done by supplying the -nw
flag.
The -x argument enables eXtended option information to be created in the -s
dhclient-script environment, which would allow applications running in that envi-
ronment to handle options they do not know about in advance.
CONFIGURATION
The syntax of the dhclient.conf(5) file is discussed separately.
OMAPI
The DHCP client provides some ability to control it while it is running, without
stopping it. This capability is provided using OMAPI, an API for manipulating
remote objects. OMAPI clients connect to the client using TCP/IP, authenticate,
and can then examine the client’s current status and make changes to it.
Rather than implementing the underlying OMAPI protocol directly, user programs
should use the dhcpctl API or OMAPI itself. Dhcpctl is a wrapper that handles
some of the housekeeping chores that OMAPI does not do automatically. Dhcpctl and
OMAPI are documented in dhcpctl(3) and omapi(3). Most things you’d want to do
with the client can be done directly using the omshell(1) command, rather than hav-
ing to write a special program.
THE CONTROL OBJECT
The control object allows you to shut the client down, releasing all leases that it
holds and deleting any DNS records it may have added. It also allows you to pause
the client - this unconfigures any interfaces the client is using. You can then
restart it, which causes it to reconfigure those interfaces. You would normally
pause the client prior to going into hibernation or sleep on a laptop computer.
You would then resume it after the power comes back. This allows PC cards to be
shut down while the computer is hibernating or sleeping, and then reinitialized to
their previous state once the computer comes out of hibernation or sleep.
The control object has one attribute - the state attribute. To shut the client
down, set its state attribute to 2. It will automatically do a DHCPRELEASE. To
pause it, set its state attribute to 3. To resume it, set its state attribute to
4.
FILES
/sbin/dhclient-script, /etc/dhclient.conf, /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.leases,
/var/run/dhclient.pid, /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.leases~.
SEE ALSO
dhcpd(8), dhcrelay(8), dhclient-script(8), dhclient.conf(5), dhclient.leases(5).
AUTHOR
dhclient(8) has been written for Internet Systems Consortium by Ted Lemon in coop-
eration with Vixie Enterprises. To learn more about Internet Systems Consortium,
see http://www.isc.org To learn more about Vixie Enterprises, see
http://www.vix.com.
This client was substantially modified and enhanced by Elliot Poger for use on
Linux while he was working on the MosquitoNet project at Stanford.
The current version owes much to Elliot’s Linux enhancements, but was substantially
reorganized and partially rewritten by Ted Lemon so as to use the same networking
framework that the Internet Systems Consortium DHCP server uses. Much system-spe-
cific configuration code was moved into a shell script so that as support for more
operating systems is added, it will not be necessary to port and maintain system-
specific configuration code to these operating systems - instead, the shell script
can invoke the native tools to accomplish the same purpose.
dhclient(8)
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On Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) PHP/5.2.5 mod_perl/1.30 mod_gzip/1.3.26.1a
Under GNU General Public License
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