# phpman > man > nftables(8)

[NFT(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/NFT/8/markdown)                                                                                        [NFT(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/NFT/8/markdown)



## NAME
       nft - Administration tool of the nftables framework for packet filtering and classification

## SYNOPSIS
       **nft** [ **-nNscaeSupyjt** ] [ **-I** _directory_ ] [ **-f** _filename_ | **-i** | _cmd_ ...]
### nft -h
### nft -v

## DESCRIPTION
       nft is the command line tool used to set up, maintain and inspect packet filtering and
       classification rules in the Linux kernel, in the nftables framework. The Linux kernel
       subsystem is known as nf_tables, and ‘nf’ stands for Netfilter.

## OPTIONS
       The command accepts several different options which are documented here in groups for better
       understanding of their meaning. You can get information about options by running **nft** **--help**.

### General options:

### -h --help
           Show help message and all options.

### -v --version
           Show version.

### -V
           Show long version information, including compile-time configuration.

### Ruleset input handling options that specify to how to load rulesets:

### -f --file
           Read input from _filename_. If _filename_ is -, read from stdin.

### -D --define
           Define a variable. You can only combine this option with _-f_.

### -i --interactive
           Read input from an interactive readline CLI. You can use quit to exit, or use the EOF
           marker, normally this is CTRL-D.

### -I --includepath
           Add the directory _directory_ to the list of directories to be searched for included files.
           This option may be specified multiple times.

### -c --check
           Check commands validity without actually applying the changes.

### -o --optimize
           Optimize your ruleset. You can combine this option with _-c_ to inspect the proposed
           optimizations.

### Ruleset list output formatting that modify the output of the list ruleset command:

### -a --handle
           Show object handles in output.

### -s --stateless
           Omit stateful information of rules and stateful objects.

### -t --terse
           Omit contents of sets from output.

### -S --service
           Translate ports to service names as defined by /etc/services.

### -N --reversedns
           Translate IP address to names via reverse DNS lookup. This may slow down your listing
           since it generates network traffic.

### -u --guid
           Translate numeric UID/GID to names as defined by /etc/passwd and /etc/group.

### -n --numeric
           Print fully numerical output.

### -y --numeric-priority
           Display base chain priority numerically.

### -p --numeric-protocol
           Display layer 4 protocol numerically.

### -T --numeric-time
           Show time, day and hour values in numeric format.

### Command output formatting:

### -e --echo
           When inserting items into the ruleset using **add**, **insert** or **replace** commands, print
           notifications just like **nft** **monitor**.

### -j --json
           Format output in JSON. See [libnftables-json(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/libnftables-json/5/markdown) for a schema description.

### -d --debug
           Enable debugging output. The debug level can be any of **scanner**, **parser**, **eval**, **netlink**,
           **mnl**, **proto-ctx**, **segtree**, **all**. You can combine more than one by separating by the _,_
           symbol, for example _-d_ _eval,mnl_.

## INPUT FILE FORMATS
   **LEXICAL** **CONVENTIONS**
       Input is parsed line-wise. When the last character of a line, just before the newline
       character, is a non-quoted backslash (\), the next line is treated as a continuation.
       Multiple commands on the same line can be separated using a semicolon (;).

       A hash sign (#) begins a comment. All following characters on the same line are ignored.

       Identifiers begin with an alphabetic character (a-z,A-Z), followed by zero or more
       alphanumeric characters (a-z,A-Z,0-9) and the characters slash (/), backslash (\), underscore
       (_) and dot (.). Identifiers using different characters or clashing with a keyword need to be
       enclosed in double quotes (").

   **INCLUDE** **FILES**
           **include** _filename_

       Other files can be included by using the **include** statement. The directories to be searched
       for include files can be specified using the **-I**/**--includepath** option. You can override this
       behaviour either by prepending ‘./’ to your path to force inclusion of files located in the
       current working directory (i.e. relative path) or / for file location expressed as an
       absolute path.

       If **-I**/**--includepath** is not specified, then nft relies on the default directory that is
       specified at compile time. You can retrieve this default directory via the **-h**/**--help** option.

       Include statements support the usual shell wildcard symbols (**,?,[]).** **Having** **no** **matches** **for** **an**
### include statement is not an error, if wildcard symbols are used in the include statement.
### This allows having potentially empty include directories for statements like include
       **"/etc/firewall/rules/"**. The wildcard matches are loaded in alphabetical order. Files
       beginning with dot (.) are not matched by include statements.

   **SYMBOLIC** **VARIABLES**
           **define** _variable_ **=** _expr_
           **undefine** _variable_
           **redefine** _variable_ **=** _expr_
           **$variable**

       Symbolic variables can be defined using the **define** statement. Variable references are
       expressions and can be used to initialize other variables. The scope of a definition is the
       current block and all blocks contained within. Symbolic variables can be undefined using the
       **undefine** statement, and modified using the **redefine** statement.

       **Using** **symbolic** **variables**.

           define int_if1 = eth0
           define int_if2 = eth1
           define int_ifs = { $int_if1, $int_if2 }
           redefine int_if2 = wlan0
           undefine int_if2

           filter input iif $int_ifs accept


## ADDRESS FAMILIES
       Address families determine the type of packets which are processed. For each address family,
       the kernel contains so called hooks at specific stages of the packet processing paths, which
       invoke nftables if rules for these hooks exist.


       **ip**       IPv4 address family.

       **ip6**      IPv6 address family.

       **inet**     Internet (IPv4/IPv6) address
                family.

       **arp**      ARP address family, handling IPv4
                ARP packets.

       **bridge**   Bridge address family, handling
                packets which traverse a bridge
                device.

       **netdev**   Netdev address family, handling
                packets on ingress and egress.


       All nftables objects exist in address family specific namespaces, therefore all identifiers
       include an address family. If an identifier is specified without an address family, the **ip**
       family is used by default.

   **IPV4/IPV6/INET** **ADDRESS** **FAMILIES**
       The IPv4/IPv6/Inet address families handle IPv4, IPv6 or both types of packets. They contain
       five hooks at different packet processing stages in the network stack.

### Table 1. IPv4/IPv6/Inet address family hooks
       ┌────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Hook**        │ **Description**                       │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │            │                                   │
       │prerouting  │ All packets entering the system   │
       │            │ are processed by the prerouting   │
       │            │ hook. It is invoked before the    │
       │            │ routing process and is used for   │
       │            │ early filtering or changing       │
       │            │ packet attributes that affect     │
       │            │ routing.                          │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │            │                                   │
       │input       │ Packets delivered to the local    │
       │            │ system are processed by the input │
       │            │ hook.                             │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │            │                                   │
       │forward     │ Packets forwarded to a different  │
       │            │ host are processed by the forward │
       │            │ hook.                             │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │            │                                   │
       │output      │ Packets sent by local processes   │
       │            │ are processed by the output hook. │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │            │                                   │
       │postrouting │ All packets leaving the system    │
       │            │ are processed by the postrouting  │
       │            │ hook.                             │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │            │                                   │
       │ingress     │ All packets entering the system   │
       │            │ are processed by this hook. It is │
       │            │ invoked before layer 3 protocol   │
       │            │ handlers, hence before the        │
       │            │ prerouting hook, and it can be    │
       │            │ used for filtering and policing.  │
       │            │ Ingress is only available for     │
       │            │ Inet family (since Linux kernel   │
       │            │ 5.10).                            │
       └────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

   **ARP** **ADDRESS** **FAMILY**
       The ARP address family handles ARP packets received and sent by the system. It is commonly
       used to mangle ARP packets for clustering.

### Table 2. ARP address family hooks
       ┌───────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Hook**   │ **Description**                       │
       ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │       │                                   │
       │input  │ Packets delivered to the local    │
       │       │ system are processed by the input │
       │       │ hook.                             │
       ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │       │                                   │
       │output │ Packets send by the local system  │
       │       │ are processed by the output hook. │
       └───────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

   **BRIDGE** **ADDRESS** **FAMILY**
       The bridge address family handles Ethernet packets traversing bridge devices.

       The list of supported hooks is identical to IPv4/IPv6/Inet address families above.

   **NETDEV** **ADDRESS** **FAMILY**
       The Netdev address family handles packets from the device ingress and egress path. This
       family allows you to filter packets of any ethertype such as ARP, VLAN 802.1q, VLAN 802.1ad
       (Q-in-Q) as well as IPv4 and IPv6 packets.

### Table 3. Netdev address family hooks
       ┌────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Hook**    │ **Description**                       │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                   │
       │ingress │ All packets entering the system   │
       │        │ are processed by this hook. It is │
       │        │ invoked after the network taps    │
       │        │ (ie. **tcpdump**), right after **tc**     │
       │        │ ingress and before layer 3        │
       │        │ protocol handlers, it can be used │
       │        │ for early filtering and policing. │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                   │
       │egress  │ All packets leaving the system    │
       │        │ are processed by this hook. It is │
       │        │ invoked after layer 3 protocol    │
       │        │ handlers and before **tc** egress. It │
       │        │ can be used for late filtering    │
       │        │ and policing.                     │
       └────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

       Tunneled packets (such as **vxlan**) are processed by netdev family hooks both in decapsulated
       and encapsulated (tunneled) form. So a packet can be filtered on the overlay network as well
       as on the underlying network.

       Note that the order of netfilter and **tc** is mirrored on ingress versus egress. This ensures
       symmetry for NAT and other packet mangling.

       Ingress packets which are redirected out some other interface are only processed by netfilter
       on egress if they have passed through netfilter ingress processing before. Thus, ingress
       packets which are redirected by **tc** are not subjected to netfilter. But they are if they are
       redirected by **netfilter** on ingress. Conceptually, tc and netfilter can be thought of as
       layers, with netfilter layered above tc: If the packet hasn’t been passed up from the tc
       layer to the netfilter layer, it’s not subjected to netfilter on egress.

## RULESET
           {**list** | **flush**} **ruleset** [_family_]

       The **ruleset** keyword is used to identify the whole set of tables, chains, etc. currently in
       place in kernel. The following **ruleset** commands exist:


       **list**    Print the ruleset in
               human-readable format.

       **flush**   Clear the whole ruleset. Note
               that, unlike iptables, this will
               remove all tables and whatever
               they contain, effectively leading
               to an empty ruleset - no packet
               filtering will happen anymore, so
               the kernel accepts any valid
               packet it receives.


       It is possible to limit **list** and **flush** to a specific address family only. For a list of valid
       family names, see the section called “ADDRESS FAMILIES” above.

       By design, **list** **ruleset** command output may be used as input to **nft** **-f**. Effectively, this is
       the nft-equivalent of **iptables-save** and **iptables-restore**.

## TABLES
           {**add** | **create**} **table** [_family_] _table_ [ {**comment** _comment_ **;**_}_ **{** **flags** _'flags_ **;** **}**]
           {**delete** | **list** | **flush**} **table** [_family_] _table_
           **list** **tables** [_family_]
           **delete** **table** [_family_] **handle** _handle_

       Tables are containers for chains, sets and stateful objects. They are identified by their
       address family and their name. The address family must be one of **ip**, **ip6**, **inet**, **arp**, **bridge**,
       **netdev**. The **inet** address family is a dummy family which is used to create hybrid IPv4/IPv6
       tables. The **meta** **expression** **nfproto** keyword can be used to test which family (ipv4 or ipv6)
       context the packet is being processed in. When no address family is specified, **ip** is used by
       default. The only difference between add and create is that the former will not return an
       error if the specified table already exists while **create** will return an error.

### Table 4. Table flags
       ┌────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Flag**    │ **Description**                     │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                 │
       │dormant │ table is not evaluated any more │
       │        │ (base chains are unregistered). │
       └────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

       **Add,** **change,** **delete** **a** **table**.

           # start nft in interactive mode
           nft --interactive

           # create a new table.
           create table inet mytable

           # add a new base chain: get input packets
           add chain inet mytable myin { type filter hook input priority filter; }

           # add a single counter to the chain
           add rule inet mytable myin counter

           # disable the table temporarily -- rules are not evaluated anymore
           add table inet mytable { flags dormant; }

           # make table active again:
           add table inet mytable



       **add**      Add a new table for the given
                family with the given name.

       **delete**   Delete the specified table.

       **list**     List all chains and rules of the
                specified table.

       **flush**    Flush all chains and rules of the
                specified table.


## CHAINS
           {**add** | **create**} **chain** [_family_] _table_ _chain_ [**{** **type** _type_ **hook** _hook_ [**device** _device_] **priority** _priority_ **;** [**policy** _policy_ **;**] [**comment** _comment_ **;**_]_ **}**_]_
           _{_**delete** _|_ **list** _|_ **flush**_}_ **chain** _['family_] _table_ _chain_
           **list** **chains** [_family_]
           **delete** **chain** [_family_] _table_ **handle** _handle_
           **rename** **chain** [_family_] _table_ _chain_ _newname_

       Chains are containers for rules. They exist in two kinds, base chains and regular chains. A
       base chain is an entry point for packets from the networking stack, a regular chain may be
       used as jump target and is used for better rule organization.


       **add**      Add a new chain in the specified
                table. When a hook and priority
                value are specified, the chain is
                created as a base chain and
                hooked up to the networking
                stack.

       **create**   Similar to the **add** command, but
                returns an error if the chain
                already exists.

       **delete**   Delete the specified chain. The
                chain must not contain any rules
                or be used as jump target.

       **rename**   Rename the specified chain.

       **list**     List all rules of the specified
                chain.

       **flush**    Flush all rules of the specified
                chain.


       For base chains, **type**, **hook** and **priority** parameters are mandatory.

### Table 5. Supported chain types
       ┌───────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
       │**Type**   │ **Families**      │ **Hooks**               │ **Description**          │
       ├───────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │       │               │                     │                      │
       │filter │ all           │ all                 │ Standard chain type  │
       │       │               │                     │ to use in doubt.     │
       ├───────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │       │               │                     │                      │
       │nat    │ ip, ip6, inet │ prerouting, input,  │ Chains of this type  │
       │       │               │ output, postrouting │ perform Native       │
       │       │               │                     │ Address Translation  │
       │       │               │                     │ based on conntrack   │
       │       │               │                     │ entries. Only the    │
       │       │               │                     │ first packet of a    │
       │       │               │                     │ connection actually  │
       │       │               │                     │ traverses this chain │
       │       │               │                     │ - its rules usually  │
       │       │               │                     │ define details of    │
       │       │               │                     │ the created          │
       │       │               │                     │ conntrack entry (NAT │
       │       │               │                     │ statements for       │
       │       │               │                     │ instance).           │
       ├───────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │       │               │                     │                      │
       │route  │ ip, ip6       │ output              │ If a packet has      │
       │       │               │                     │ traversed a chain of │
       │       │               │                     │ this type and is     │
       │       │               │                     │ about to be          │
       │       │               │                     │ accepted, a new      │
       │       │               │                     │ route lookup is      │
       │       │               │                     │ performed if         │
       │       │               │                     │ relevant parts of    │
       │       │               │                     │ the IP header have   │
       │       │               │                     │ changed. This allows │
       │       │               │                     │ to e.g. implement    │
       │       │               │                     │ policy routing       │
       │       │               │                     │ selectors in         │
       │       │               │                     │ nftables.            │
       └───────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

       Apart from the special cases illustrated above (e.g. **nat** type not supporting **forward** hook or
       **route** type only supporting **output** hook), there are three further quirks worth noticing:

       •   The netdev family supports merely two combinations, namely **filter** type with **ingress** hook
           and **filter** type with **egress** hook. Base chains in this family also require the **device**
           parameter to be present since they exist per interface only.

       •   The arp family supports only the **input** and **output** hooks, both in chains of type **filter**.

       •   The inet family also supports the **ingress** hook (since Linux kernel 5.10), to filter IPv4
           and IPv6 packet at the same location as the netdev **ingress** hook. This inet hook allows
           you to share sets and maps between the usual **prerouting**, **input**, **forward**, **output**,
           **postrouting** and this **ingress** hook.

       The **priority** parameter accepts a signed integer value or a standard priority name which
       specifies the order in which chains with the same **hook** value are traversed. The ordering is
       ascending, i.e. lower priority values have precedence over higher ones.

       Standard priority values can be replaced with easily memorizable names. Not all names make
       sense in every family with every hook (see the compatibility matrices below) but their
       numerical value can still be used for prioritizing chains.

       These names and values are defined and made available based on what priorities are used by
       xtables when registering their default chains.

       Most of the families use the same values, but bridge uses different ones from the others. See
       the following tables that describe the values and compatibility.

### Table 6. Standard priority names, family and hook compatibility matrix
       ┌─────────┬───────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────┐
       │**Name**     │ **Value** │ **Families**            │ **Hooks**       │
       ├─────────┼───────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────┤
       │         │       │                     │             │
       │raw      │ -300  │ ip, ip6, inet       │ all         │
       ├─────────┼───────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────┤
       │         │       │                     │             │
       │mangle   │ -150  │ ip, ip6, inet       │ all         │
       ├─────────┼───────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────┤
       │         │       │                     │             │
       │dstnat   │ -100  │ ip, ip6, inet       │ prerouting  │
       ├─────────┼───────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────┤
       │         │       │                     │             │
       │filter   │ 0     │ ip, ip6, inet, arp, │ all         │
       │         │       │ netdev              │             │
       ├─────────┼───────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────┤
       │         │       │                     │             │
       │security │ 50    │ ip, ip6, inet       │ all         │
       ├─────────┼───────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────┤
       │         │       │                     │             │
       │srcnat   │ 100   │ ip, ip6, inet       │ postrouting │
       └─────────┴───────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────┘

### Table 7. Standard priority names and hook compatibility for the bridge family
       ┌───────┬───────┬─────────────┐
       │       │       │             │
       │Name   │ Value │ Hooks       │
       ├───────┼───────┼─────────────┤
       │       │       │             │
       │dstnat │ -300  │ prerouting  │
       ├───────┼───────┼─────────────┤
       │       │       │             │
       │filter │ -200  │ all         │
       ├───────┼───────┼─────────────┤
       │       │       │             │
       │out    │ 100   │ output      │
       ├───────┼───────┼─────────────┤
       │       │       │             │
       │srcnat │ 300   │ postrouting │
       └───────┴───────┴─────────────┘

       Basic arithmetic expressions (addition and subtraction) can also be achieved with these
       standard names to ease relative prioritizing, e.g. **mangle** **-** **5** stands for **-155**. Values will
       also be printed like this until the value is not further than 10 from the standard value.

       Base chains also allow to set the chain’s **policy**, i.e. what happens to packets not explicitly
       accepted or refused in contained rules. Supported policy values are **accept** (which is the
       default) or **drop**.

## RULES
           {**add** | **insert**} **rule** [_family_] _table_ _chain_ [**handle** _handle_ | **index** _index_] _statement_ ... [**comment** _comment_]
           **replace** **rule** [_family_] _table_ _chain_ **handle** _handle_ _statement_ ... [**comment** _comment_]
           **delete** **rule** [_family_] _table_ _chain_ **handle** _handle_

       Rules are added to chains in the given table. If the family is not specified, the ip family
       is used. Rules are constructed from two kinds of components according to a set of grammatical
       rules: expressions and statements.

       The add and insert commands support an optional location specifier, which is either a _handle_
       or the _index_ (starting at zero) of an existing rule. Internally, rule locations are always
       identified by _handle_ and the translation from _index_ happens in userspace. This has two
       potential implications in case a concurrent ruleset change happens after the translation was
       done: The effective rule index might change if a rule was inserted or deleted before the
       referred one. If the referred rule was deleted, the command is rejected by the kernel just as
       if an invalid _handle_ was given.

       A _comment_ is a single word or a double-quoted (") multi-word string which can be used to make
       notes regarding the actual rule. **Note:** If you use bash for adding rules, you have to escape
       the quotation marks, e.g. \"enable ssh for servers\".


       **add**       Add a new rule described by the
                 list of statements. The rule is
                 appended to the given chain
                 unless a location is specified,
                 in which case the rule is
                 inserted after the specified
                 rule.

       **insert**    Same as **add** except the rule is
                 inserted at the beginning of the
                 chain or before the specified
                 rule.

       **replace**   Similar to **add**, but the rule
                 replaces the specified rule.

       **delete**    Delete the specified rule.


       **add** **a** **rule** **to** **ip** **table** **output** **chain**.

           nft add rule filter output ip daddr 192.168.0.0/24 accept # 'ip filter' is assumed
           # same command, slightly more verbose
           nft add rule ip filter output ip daddr 192.168.0.0/24 accept

       **delete** **rule** **from** **inet** **table**.

           # nft -a list ruleset
           table inet filter {
                   chain input {
                           type filter hook input priority filter; policy accept;
                           ct state established,related accept # handle 4
                           ip saddr 10.1.1.1 tcp dport ssh accept # handle 5
                     ...
           # delete the rule with handle 5
           nft delete rule inet filter input handle 5


## SETS
       nftables offers two kinds of set concepts. Anonymous sets are sets that have no specific
       name. The set members are enclosed in curly braces, with commas to separate elements when
       creating the rule the set is used in. Once that rule is removed, the set is removed as well.
       They cannot be updated, i.e. once an anonymous set is declared it cannot be changed anymore
       except by removing/altering the rule that uses the anonymous set.

       **Using** **anonymous** **sets** **to** **accept** **particular** **subnets** **and** **ports**.

           nft add rule filter input ip saddr { 10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16 } tcp dport { 22, 443 } accept

       Named sets are sets that need to be defined first before they can be referenced in rules.
       Unlike anonymous sets, elements can be added to or removed from a named set at any time. Sets
       are referenced from rules using an @ prefixed to the sets name.

       **Using** **named** **sets** **to** **accept** **addresses** **and** **ports**.

           nft add rule filter input ip saddr @allowed_hosts tcp dport @allowed_ports accept

       The sets allowed_hosts and allowed_ports need to be created first. The next section describes
       nft set syntax in more detail.

           **add** **set** [_family_] _table_ _set_ **{** **type** _type_ | **typeof** _expression_ **;** [**flags** _flags_ **;**] [**timeout** _timeout_ **;**] [**gc-interval** _gc-interval_ **;**] [**elements** **=** **{** _element_[**,** ...] **}** **;**] [**size** _size_ **;**] [**comment** _comment_ **;**_]_ _[_**policy** _'policy_ **;**] [**auto-merge** **;**] **}**
           {**delete** | **list** | **flush**} **set** [_family_] _table_ _set_
           **list** **sets** [_family_]
           **delete** **set** [_family_] _table_ **handle** _handle_
           {**add** | **delete**} **element** [_family_] _table_ _set_ **{** _element_[**,** ...] **}**

       Sets are element containers of a user-defined data type, they are uniquely identified by a
       user-defined name and attached to tables. Their behaviour can be tuned with the flags that
       can be specified at set creation time.


       **add**      Add a new set in the specified
                table. See the Set specification
                table below for more information
                about how to specify properties
                of a set.

       **delete**   Delete the specified set.

       **list**     Display the elements in the
                specified set.

       **flush**    Remove all elements from the
                specified set.


### Table 8. Set specifications
       ┌────────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**     │ **Description**               │ **Type**                      │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │type        │ data type of set elements │ string: ipv4_addr,        │
       │            │                           │ ipv6_addr, ether_addr,    │
       │            │                           │ inet_proto, inet_service, │
       │            │                           │ mark                      │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │typeof      │ data type of set element  │ expression to derive the  │
       │            │                           │ data type from            │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │flags       │ set flags                 │ string: constant,         │
       │            │                           │ dynamic, interval,        │
       │            │                           │ timeout                   │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │timeout     │ time an element stays in  │ string, decimal followed  │
       │            │ the set, mandatory if set │ by unit. Units are: d, h, │
       │            │ is added to from the      │ m, s                      │
       │            │ packet path (ruleset)     │                           │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │gc-interval │ garbage collection        │ string, decimal followed  │
       │            │ interval, only available  │ by unit. Units are: d, h, │
       │            │ when timeout or flag      │ m, s                      │
       │            │ timeout are active        │                           │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │elements    │ elements contained by the │ set data type             │
       │            │ set                       │                           │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │size        │ maximum number of         │ unsigned integer (64 bit) │
       │            │ elements in the set,      │                           │
       │            │ mandatory if set is added │                           │
       │            │ to from the packet path   │                           │
       │            │ (ruleset)                 │                           │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │policy      │ set policy                │ string: performance       │
       │            │                           │ [default], memory         │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                           │
       │auto-merge  │ automatic merge of        │                           │
       │            │ adjacent/overlapping set  │                           │
       │            │ elements (only for        │                           │
       │            │ interval sets)            │                           │
       └────────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

## MAPS
           **add** **map** [_family_] _table_ _map_ **{** **type** _type_ | **typeof** _expression_ [**flags** _flags_ **;**] [**elements** **=** **{** _element_[**,** ...] **}** **;**] [**size** _size_ **;**] [**comment** _comment_ **;**_]_ _[_**policy** _'policy_ **;**] **}**
           {**delete** | **list** | **flush**} **map** [_family_] _table_ _map_
           **list** **maps** [_family_]

       Maps store data based on some specific key used as input. They are uniquely identified by a
       user-defined name and attached to tables.


       **add**              Add a new map in the specified
                        table.

       **delete**           Delete the specified map.



       **list**             Display the elements in the
                        specified map.

       **flush**            Remove all elements from the
                        specified map.

       **add** **element**      Comma-separated list of elements
                        to add into the specified map.

       **delete** **element**   Comma-separated list of element
                        keys to delete from the specified
                        map.


### Table 9. Map specifications
       ┌─────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**               │ **Type**                      │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                           │
       │type     │ data type of map elements │ string: ipv4_addr,        │
       │         │                           │ ipv6_addr, ether_addr,    │
       │         │                           │ inet_proto, inet_service, │
       │         │                           │ mark, counter, quota.     │
       │         │                           │ Counter and quota can’t   │
       │         │                           │ be used as keys           │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                           │
       │typeof   │ data type of set element  │ expression to derive the  │
       │         │                           │ data type from            │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                           │
       │flags    │ map flags                 │ string: constant,         │
       │         │                           │ interval                  │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                           │
       │elements │ elements contained by the │ map data type             │
       │         │ map                       │                           │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                           │
       │size     │ maximum number of         │ unsigned integer (64 bit) │
       │         │ elements in the map       │                           │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                           │
       │policy   │ map policy                │ string: performance       │
       │         │                           │ [default], memory         │
       └─────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

## ELEMENTS
           {**add** | **create** | **delete** | **get** } **element** [_family_] _table_ _set_ **{** _ELEMENT_[**,** ...] **}**

           _ELEMENT_ := _key_expression_ _OPTIONS_ [**:** _value_expression_]
           _OPTIONS_ := [**timeout** _TIMESPEC_] [**expires** _TIMESPEC_] [**comment** _string_]
           _TIMESPEC_ := [_num_**d**][_num_**h**][_num_**m**][_num_[**s**]]

       Element-related commands allow to change contents of named sets and maps. _key_expression_ is
       typically a value matching the set type. _value_expression_ is not allowed in sets but
       mandatory when adding to maps, where it matches the data part in its type definition. When
       deleting from maps, it may be specified but is optional as _key_expression_ uniquely identifies
       the element.

       **create** command is similar to **add** with the exception that none of the listed elements may
       already exist.

       **get** command is useful to check if an element is contained in a set which may be non-trivial
       in very large and/or interval sets. In the latter case, the containing interval is returned
       instead of just the element itself.

### Table 10. Element options
       ┌────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Option**  │ **Description**                      │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                  │
       │timeout │ timeout value for sets/maps with │
       │        │ flag **timeout**                     │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                  │
       │expires │ the time until given element     │
       │        │ expires, useful for ruleset      │
       │        │ replication only                 │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                  │
       │comment │ per element comment field        │
       └────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘

## FLOWTABLES
           {**add** | **create**} **flowtable** [_family_] _table_ _flowtable_ **{** **hook** _hook_ **priority** _priority_ **;** **devices** **=** **{** _device_[**,** ...] **}** **;** **}**
           **list** **flowtables** [_family_]
           {**delete** | **list**} **flowtable** [_family_] _table_ _flowtable_
           **delete** **flowtable** [_family_] _table_ **handle** _handle_

       Flowtables allow you to accelerate packet forwarding in software. Flowtables entries are
       represented through a tuple that is composed of the input interface, source and destination
       address, source and destination port; and layer 3/4 protocols. Each entry also caches the
       destination interface and the gateway address - to update the destination link-layer address
       - to forward packets. The ttl and hoplimit fields are also decremented. Hence, flowtables
       provides an alternative path that allow packets to bypass the classic forwarding path.
       Flowtables reside in the ingress hook that is located before the prerouting hook. You can
       select which flows you want to offload through the flow expression from the forward chain.
       Flowtables are identified by their address family and their name. The address family must be
       one of ip, ip6, or inet. The inet address family is a dummy family which is used to create
       hybrid IPv4/IPv6 tables. When no address family is specified, ip is used by default.

       The **priority** can be a signed integer or **filter** which stands for 0. Addition and subtraction
       can be used to set relative priority, e.g. filter + 5 equals to 5.


       **add**      Add a new flowtable for the given
                family with the given name.

       **delete**   Delete the specified flowtable.

       **list**     List all flowtables.


## LISTING
           **list** **{** **secmarks** **|** **synproxys** **|** **flow** **tables** **|** **meters** **|** **hooks** **}** [_family_]
           **list** **{** **secmarks** **|** **synproxys** **|** **flow** **tables** **|** **meters** **|** **hooks** **}** **table** [_family_] _table_
           **list** **ct** **{** **timeout** **|** **expectation** **|** **helper** **|** **helpers** **}** **table** [_family_] _table_

       Inspect configured objects. **list** **hooks** shows the full hook pipeline, including those
       registered by kernel modules, such as nf_conntrack.

## STATEFUL OBJECTS
           {**add** | **delete** | **list** | **reset**} _type_ [_family_] _table_ _object_
           **delete** _type_ [_family_] _table_ **handle** _handle_
           **list** **counters** [_family_]
           **list** **quotas** [_family_]
           **list** **limits** [_family_]

       Stateful objects are attached to tables and are identified by a unique name. They group
       stateful information from rules, to reference them in rules the keywords "type name" are used
       e.g. "counter name".


       **add**      Add a new stateful object in the
                specified table.

       **delete**   Delete the specified object.

       **list**     Display stateful information the
                object holds.

       **reset**    List-and-reset stateful object.


   **CT** **HELPER**
           **add** **ct** **helper** [_family_] _table_ _name_ **{** **type** _type_ **protocol** _protocol_ **;** [**l3proto** _family_ **;**] **}**
           **delete** **ct** **helper** [_family_] _table_ _name_
           **list** **ct** **helpers**

       Ct helper is used to define connection tracking helpers that can then be used in combination
       with the **ct** **helper** **set** statement. _type_ and _protocol_ are mandatory, l3proto is derived from
       the table family by default, i.e. in the inet table the kernel will try to load both the ipv4
       and ipv6 helper backends, if they are supported by the kernel.

### Table 11. conntrack helper specifications
       ┌─────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**             │ **Type**                     │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │type     │ name of helper type     │ quoted string (e.g.      │
       │         │                         │ "ftp")                   │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │protocol │ layer 4 protocol of the │ string (e.g. ip)         │
       │         │ helper                  │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │l3proto  │ layer 3 protocol of the │ address family (e.g. ip) │
       │         │ helper                  │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │comment  │ per ct helper comment   │ string                   │
       │         │ field                   │                          │
       └─────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

       **defining** **and** **assigning** **ftp** **helper**.

           Unlike iptables, helper assignment needs to be performed after the conntrack
           lookup has completed, for example with the default 0 hook priority.

           table inet myhelpers {
             ct helper ftp-standard {
                type "ftp" protocol tcp
             }
             chain prerouting {
                 type filter hook prerouting priority filter;
                 tcp dport 21 ct helper set "ftp-standard"
             }
           }


   **CT** **TIMEOUT**
           **add** **ct** **timeout**  [_family_] _table_ _name_ **{** **protocol** _protocol_ **;** **policy** **=** **{** _state_**:** _value_ [**,** ...] **}** **;** [**l3proto** _family_ **;**] **}**
           **delete** **ct** **timeout** [_family_] _table_ _name_
           **list** **ct** **timeouts**

       Ct timeout is used to update connection tracking timeout values.Timeout policies are assigned
       with the **ct** **timeout** **set** statement. _protocol_ and _policy_ are mandatory, l3proto is derived from
       the table family by default.

### Table 12. conntrack timeout specifications
       ┌─────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**             │ **Type**                     │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │protocol │ layer 4 protocol of the │ string (e.g. ip)         │
       │         │ timeout object          │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │state    │ connection state name   │ string (e.g.             │
       │         │                         │ "established")           │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │value    │ timeout value for       │ unsigned integer         │
       │         │ connection state        │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │l3proto  │ layer 3 protocol of the │ address family (e.g. ip) │
       │         │ timeout object          │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │comment  │ per ct timeout comment  │ string                   │
       │         │ field                   │                          │
       └─────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

       tcp connection state names that can have a specific timeout value are:

       _close_, _close_wait_, _established_, _fin_wait_, _last_ack_, _retrans_, _syn_recv_, _syn_sent_, _time_wait_
       and _unack_.

       You can use _sysctl_ _-a_ _|grep_ _net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout__ to view and change the
       system-wide defaults. _ct_ _timeout_ allows for flow-specific settings, without changing the
       global timeouts.

       For example, tcp port 53 could have much lower settings than other traffic.

       udp state names that can have a specific timeout value are _replied_ and _unreplied_.

       **defining** **and** **assigning** **ct** **timeout** **policy**.

           table ip filter {
                   ct timeout customtimeout {
                           protocol tcp;
                           l3proto ip
                           policy = { established: 120, close: 20 }
                   }

                   chain output {
                           type filter hook output priority filter; policy accept;
                           ct timeout set "customtimeout"
                   }
           }

       **testing** **the** **updated** **timeout** **policy**.

           % conntrack -E

           It should display:

           [UPDATE] tcp      6 120 ESTABLISHED src=172.16.19.128 dst=172.16.19.1
           sport=22 dport=41360 [UNREPLIED] src=172.16.19.1 dst=172.16.19.128
           sport=41360 dport=22


   **CT** **EXPECTATION**
           **add** **ct** **expectation**  [_family_] _table_ _name_ **{** **protocol** _protocol_ **;** **dport** _dport_ **;** **timeout** _timeout_ **;** **size** _size_ **;** **[*l3proto** _family_ **;**] **}**
           **delete** **ct** **expectation**  [_family_] _table_ _name_
           **list** **ct** **expectations**

       Ct expectation is used to create connection expectations. Expectations are assigned with the
       **ct** **expectation** **set** statement. _protocol_, _dport_, _timeout_ and _size_ are mandatory, l3proto is
       derived from the table family by default.

### Table 13. conntrack expectation specifications
       ┌─────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**             │ **Type**                     │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │protocol │ layer 4 protocol of the │ string (e.g. ip)         │
       │         │ expectation object      │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │dport    │ destination port of     │ unsigned integer         │
       │         │ expected connection     │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │timeout  │ timeout value for       │ unsigned integer         │
       │         │ expectation             │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │size     │ size value for          │ unsigned integer         │
       │         │ expectation             │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │l3proto  │ layer 3 protocol of the │ address family (e.g. ip) │
       │         │ expectation object      │                          │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │         │                         │                          │
       │comment  │ per ct expectation      │ string                   │
       │         │ comment field           │                          │
       └─────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

       **defining** **and** **assigning** **ct** **expectation** **policy**.

           table ip filter {
                   ct expectation expect {
                           protocol udp
                           dport 9876
                           timeout 2m
                           size 8
                           l3proto ip
                   }

                   chain input {
                           type filter hook input priority filter; policy accept;
                           ct expectation set "expect"
                   }
           }


   **COUNTER**
           **add** **counter** [_family_] _table_ _name_ [**{** [ **packets** _packets_ **bytes** _bytes_ _;_ ] [ **comment** _comment_ _;_ **}**]
           **delete** **counter** [_family_] _table_ _name_
           **list** **counters**

### Table 14. Counter specifications
       ┌────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**               │ **Type**                      │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │packets │ initial count of packets  │ unsigned integer (64 bit) │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │bytes   │ initial count of bytes    │ unsigned integer (64 bit) │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │comment │ per counter comment field │ string                    │
       └────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **named** **counters**.

           nft add counter filter http
           nft add rule filter input tcp dport 80 counter name \"http\"

       **Using** **named** **counters** **with** **maps**.

           nft add counter filter http
           nft add counter filter https
           nft add rule filter input counter name tcp dport map { 80 : \"http\", 443 : \"https\" }


   **QUOTA**
           **add** **quota** [_family_] _table_ _name_ **{** [**over**|**until**] _bytes_ _BYTE_UNIT_ [ **used** _bytes_ _BYTE_UNIT_ ] _;_ [ **comment** _comment_ _;_ ] **}**
           BYTE_UNIT := bytes | kbytes | mbytes
           **delete** **quota** [_family_] _table_ _name_
           **list** **quotas**

### Table 15. Quota specifications
       ┌────────┬──────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**              │ **Type**                    │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                         │
       │quota   │ quota limit, used as the │ Two arguments, unsigned │
       │        │ quota name               │ integer (64 bit) and    │
       │        │                          │ string: bytes, kbytes,  │
       │        │                          │ mbytes. "over" and      │
       │        │                          │ "until" go before these │
       │        │                          │ arguments               │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                         │
       │used    │ initial value of used    │ Two arguments, unsigned │
       │        │ quota                    │ integer (64 bit) and    │
       │        │                          │ string: bytes, kbytes,  │
       │        │                          │ mbytes                  │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                         │
       │comment │ per quota comment field  │ string                  │
       └────────┴──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **named** **quotas**.

           nft add quota filter user123 { over 20 mbytes }
           nft add rule filter input ip saddr 192.168.10.123 quota name \"user123\"

       **Using** **named** **quotas** **with** **maps**.

           nft add quota filter user123 { over 20 mbytes }
           nft add quota filter user124 { over 20 mbytes }
           nft add rule filter input quota name ip saddr map { 192.168.10.123 : \"user123\", 192.168.10.124 : \"user124\" }


## EXPRESSIONS
       Expressions represent values, either constants like network addresses, port numbers, etc., or
       data gathered from the packet during ruleset evaluation. Expressions can be combined using
       binary, logical, relational and other types of expressions to form complex or relational
       (match) expressions. They are also used as arguments to certain types of operations, like
       NAT, packet marking etc.

       Each expression has a data type, which determines the size, parsing and representation of
       symbolic values and type compatibility with other expressions.

   **DESCRIBE** **COMMAND**
           **describe** _expression_ | _data_ _type_

       The **describe** command shows information about the type of an expression and its data type. A
       data type may also be given, in which nft will display more information about the type.

       **The** **describe** **command**.

           $ nft describe tcp flags
           payload expression, datatype tcp_flag (TCP flag) (basetype bitmask, integer), 8 bits

           predefined symbolic constants:
           fin                           0x01
           syn                           0x02
           rst                           0x04
           psh                           0x08
           ack                           0x10
           urg                           0x20
           ecn                           0x40
           cwr                           0x80


## DATA TYPES
       Data types determine the size, parsing and representation of symbolic values and type
       compatibility of expressions. A number of global data types exist, in addition some
       expression types define further data types specific to the expression type. Most data types
       have a fixed size, some however may have a dynamic size, f.i. the string type. Some types
       also have predefined symbolic constants. Those can be listed using the nft **describe** command:

           $ nft describe ct_state
           datatype ct_state (conntrack state) (basetype bitmask, integer), 32 bits

           pre-defined symbolic constants (in hexadecimal):
           invalid                         0x00000001
           new ...

       Types may be derived from lower order types, f.i. the IPv4 address type is derived from the
       integer type, meaning an IPv4 address can also be specified as an integer value.

       In certain contexts (set and map definitions), it is necessary to explicitly specify a data
       type. Each type has a name which is used for this.

   **INTEGER** **TYPE**
       ┌────────┬─────────┬──────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**    │ **Keyword** │ **Size**     │ **Base** **type** │
       ├────────┼─────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
       │        │         │          │           │
       │Integer │ integer │ variable │ -         │
       └────────┴─────────┴──────────┴───────────┘

       The integer type is used for numeric values. It may be specified as a decimal, hexadecimal or
       octal number. The integer type does not have a fixed size, its size is determined by the
       expression for which it is used.

   **BITMASK** **TYPE**
       ┌────────┬─────────┬──────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**    │ **Keyword** │ **Size**     │ **Base** **type** │
       ├────────┼─────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
       │        │         │          │           │
       │Bitmask │ bitmask │ variable │ integer   │
       └────────┴─────────┴──────────┴───────────┘

       The bitmask type (**bitmask**) is used for bitmasks.

   **STRING** **TYPE**
       ┌───────┬─────────┬──────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**   │ **Keyword** │ **Size**     │ **Base** **type** │
       ├───────┼─────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
       │       │         │          │           │
       │String │ string  │ variable │ -         │
       └───────┴─────────┴──────────┴───────────┘

       The string type is used for character strings. A string begins with an alphabetic character
       (a-zA-Z) followed by zero or more alphanumeric characters or the characters /, -, _ and .. In
       addition, anything enclosed in double quotes (") is recognized as a string.

       **String** **specification**.

           # Interface name
           filter input iifname eth0

           # Weird interface name
           filter input iifname "(eth0)"


   **LINK** **LAYER** **ADDRESS** **TYPE**
       ┌───────────────────┬─────────┬──────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**               │ **Keyword** │ **Size**     │ **Base** **type** │
       ├───────────────────┼─────────┼──────────┼───────────┤
       │                   │         │          │           │
       │Link layer address │ lladdr  │ variable │ integer   │
       └───────────────────┴─────────┴──────────┴───────────┘

       The link layer address type is used for link layer addresses. Link layer addresses are
       specified as a variable amount of groups of two hexadecimal digits separated using colons
       (:).

       **Link** **layer** **address** **specification**.

           # Ethernet destination MAC address
           filter input ether daddr 20:c9:d0:43:12:d9


   **IPV4** **ADDRESS** **TYPE**
       ┌─────────────┬───────────┬────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**         │ **Keyword**   │ **Size**   │ **Base** **type** │
       ├─────────────┼───────────┼────────┼───────────┤
       │             │           │        │           │
       │IPV4 address │ ipv4_addr │ 32 bit │ integer   │
       └─────────────┴───────────┴────────┴───────────┘

       The IPv4 address type is used for IPv4 addresses. Addresses are specified in either dotted
       decimal, dotted hexadecimal, dotted octal, decimal, hexadecimal, octal notation or as a host
       name. A host name will be resolved using the standard system resolver.

       **IPv4** **address** **specification**.

           # dotted decimal notation
           filter output ip daddr 127.0.0.1

           # host name
           filter output ip daddr localhost


   **IPV6** **ADDRESS** **TYPE**
       ┌─────────────┬───────────┬─────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**         │ **Keyword**   │ **Size**    │ **Base** **type** │
       ├─────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
       │             │           │         │           │
       │IPv6 address │ ipv6_addr │ 128 bit │ integer   │
       └─────────────┴───────────┴─────────┴───────────┘

       The IPv6 address type is used for IPv6 addresses. Addresses are specified as a host name or
       as hexadecimal halfwords separated by colons. Addresses might be enclosed in square brackets
       ("[]") to differentiate them from port numbers.

       **IPv6** **address** **specification**.

           # abbreviated loopback address
           filter output ip6 daddr ::1

       **IPv6** **address** **specification** **with** **bracket** **notation**.

           # without [] the port number (22) would be parsed as part of the
           # ipv6 address
           ip6 nat prerouting tcp dport 2222 dnat to [[1ce::d0](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/1ce%3A%3Ad0/markdown)]:22


   **BOOLEAN** **TYPE**
       ┌────────┬─────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**    │ **Keyword** │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├────────┼─────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │        │         │       │           │
       │Boolean │ boolean │ 1 bit │ integer   │
       └────────┴─────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The boolean type is a syntactical helper type in userspace. Its use is in the right-hand side
       of a (typically implicit) relational expression to change the expression on the left-hand
       side into a boolean check (usually for existence).

### Table 16. The following keywords will automatically resolve into a boolean type with given
### value
       ┌────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Value** │
       ├────────┼───────┤
       │        │       │
       │exists  │ 1     │
       ├────────┼───────┤
       │        │       │
       │missing │ 0     │
       └────────┴───────┘

### Table 17. expressions support a boolean comparison
       ┌───────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
       │**Expression** │ **Behaviour**                   │
       ├───────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │           │                             │
       │fib        │ Check route existence.      │
       ├───────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │           │                             │
       │exthdr     │ Check IPv6 extension header │
       │           │ existence.                  │
       ├───────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │           │                             │
       │tcp option │ Check TCP option header     │
       │           │ existence.                  │
       └───────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

       **Boolean** **specification**.

           # match if route exists
           filter input fib daddr . iif oif exists

           # match only non-fragmented packets in IPv6 traffic
           filter input exthdr frag missing

           # match if TCP timestamp option is present
           filter input tcp option timestamp exists


   **ICMP** **TYPE** **TYPE**
       ┌──────────┬───────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**      │ **Keyword**   │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├──────────┼───────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │          │           │       │           │
       │ICMP Type │ icmp_type │ 8 bit │ integer   │
       └──────────┴───────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The ICMP Type type is used to conveniently specify the ICMP header’s type field.

### Table 18. Keywords may be used when specifying the ICMP type
       ┌────────────────────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**                 │ **Value** │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │echo-reply              │ 0     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │destination-unreachable │ 3     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │source-quench           │ 4     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │redirect                │ 5     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │echo-request            │ 8     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │router-advertisement    │ 9     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │router-solicitation     │ 10    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │time-exceeded           │ 11    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │parameter-problem       │ 12    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │timestamp-request       │ 13    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │timestamp-reply         │ 14    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │info-request            │ 15    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │info-reply              │ 16    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │address-mask-request    │ 17    │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │address-mask-reply      │ 18    │
       └────────────────────────┴───────┘

       **ICMP** **Type** **specification**.

           # match ping packets
           filter output icmp type { echo-request, echo-reply }


   **ICMP** **CODE** **TYPE**
       ┌──────────┬───────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**      │ **Keyword**   │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├──────────┼───────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │          │           │       │           │
       │ICMP Code │ icmp_code │ 8 bit │ integer   │
       └──────────┴───────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The ICMP Code type is used to conveniently specify the ICMP header’s code field.

### Table 19. Keywords may be used when specifying the ICMP code
       ┌─────────────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**          │ **Value** │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │net-unreachable  │ 0     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │host-unreachable │ 1     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │prot-unreachable │ 2     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │port-unreachable │ 3     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │frag-needed      │ 4     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │net-prohibited   │ 9     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │host-prohibited  │ 10    │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │admin-prohibited │ 13    │
       └─────────────────┴───────┘

   **ICMPV6** **TYPE** **TYPE**
       ┌────────────┬────────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**        │ **Keyword**    │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├────────────┼────────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │            │            │       │           │
       │ICMPv6 Type │ icmpx_code │ 8 bit │ integer   │
       └────────────┴────────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The ICMPv6 Type type is used to conveniently specify the ICMPv6 header’s type field.

### Table 20. keywords may be used when specifying the ICMPv6 type:
       ┌────────────────────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**                 │ **Value** │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │destination-unreachable │ 1     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │packet-too-big          │ 2     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │time-exceeded           │ 3     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │parameter-problem       │ 4     │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │echo-request            │ 128   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │echo-reply              │ 129   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │mld-listener-query      │ 130   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │mld-listener-report     │ 131   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │mld-listener-done       │ 132   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │mld-listener-reduction  │ 132   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │nd-router-solicit       │ 133   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │nd-router-advert        │ 134   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │nd-neighbor-solicit     │ 135   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │nd-neighbor-advert      │ 136   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │nd-redirect             │ 137   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │router-renumbering      │ 138   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │ind-neighbor-solicit    │ 141   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │ind-neighbor-advert     │ 142   │
       ├────────────────────────┼───────┤
       │                        │       │
       │mld2-listener-report    │ 143   │
       └────────────────────────┴───────┘

       **ICMPv6** **Type** **specification**.

           # match ICMPv6 ping packets
           filter output icmpv6 type { echo-request, echo-reply }


   **ICMPV6** **CODE** **TYPE**
       ┌────────────┬─────────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**        │ **Keyword**     │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├────────────┼─────────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │            │             │       │           │
       │ICMPv6 Code │ icmpv6_code │ 8 bit │ integer   │
       └────────────┴─────────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The ICMPv6 Code type is used to conveniently specify the ICMPv6 header’s code field.

### Table 21. keywords may be used when specifying the ICMPv6 code
       ┌─────────────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**          │ **Value** │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │no-route         │ 0     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │admin-prohibited │ 1     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │addr-unreachable │ 3     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │port-unreachable │ 4     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │policy-fail      │ 5     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │reject-route     │ 6     │
       └─────────────────┴───────┘

   **ICMPVX** **CODE** **TYPE**
       ┌────────────┬─────────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**        │ **Keyword**     │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├────────────┼─────────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │            │             │       │           │
       │ICMPvX Code │ icmpv6_type │ 8 bit │ integer   │
       └────────────┴─────────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The ICMPvX Code type abstraction is a set of values which overlap between ICMP and ICMPv6
       Code types to be used from the inet family.

### Table 22. keywords may be used when specifying the ICMPvX code
       ┌─────────────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**          │ **Value** │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │no-route         │ 0     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │port-unreachable │ 1     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │host-unreachable │ 2     │
       ├─────────────────┼───────┤
       │                 │       │
       │admin-prohibited │ 3     │
       └─────────────────┴───────┘

   **CONNTRACK** **TYPES**
### Table 23. overview of types used in ct expression and statement
       ┌─────────────────────┬───────────┬─────────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**                 │ **Keyword**   │ **Size**    │ **Base** **type** │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
       │                     │           │         │           │
       │conntrack state      │ ct_state  │ 4 byte  │ bitmask   │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
       │                     │           │         │           │
       │conntrack direction  │ ct_dir    │ 8 bit   │ integer   │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
       │                     │           │         │           │
       │conntrack status     │ ct_status │ 4 byte  │ bitmask   │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
       │                     │           │         │           │
       │conntrack event bits │ ct_event  │ 4 byte  │ bitmask   │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────┼─────────┼───────────┤
       │                     │           │         │           │
       │conntrack label      │ ct_label  │ 128 bit │ bitmask   │
       └─────────────────────┴───────────┴─────────┴───────────┘

       For each of the types above, keywords are available for convenience:

       **Table** **24.** **conntrack** **state** **(ct**___**state)**
       ┌────────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**     │ **Value** │
       ├────────────┼───────┤
       │            │       │
       │invalid     │ 1     │
       ├────────────┼───────┤
       │            │       │
       │established │ 2     │
       ├────────────┼───────┤
       │            │       │
       │related     │ 4     │
       ├────────────┼───────┤
       │            │       │
       │new         │ 8     │
       ├────────────┼───────┤
       │            │       │
       │untracked   │ 64    │
       └────────────┴───────┘

       **Table** **25.** **conntrack** **direction** **(ct**___**dir)**
       ┌─────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Value** │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │original │ 0     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │reply    │ 1     │
       └─────────┴───────┘

       **Table** **26.** **conntrack** **status** **(ct**___**status)**
       ┌───────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**    │ **Value** │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │expected   │ 1     │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │seen-reply │ 2     │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │assured    │ 4     │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │confirmed  │ 8     │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │snat       │ 16    │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │dnat       │ 32    │
       ├───────────┼───────┤
       │           │       │
       │dying      │ 512   │
       └───────────┴───────┘

       **Table** **27.** **conntrack** **event** **bits** **(ct**___**event)**
       ┌──────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**   │ **Value** │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │new       │ 1     │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │related   │ 2     │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │destroy   │ 4     │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │reply     │ 8     │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │assured   │ 16    │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │protoinfo │ 32    │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │helper    │ 64    │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │mark      │ 128   │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │seqadj    │ 256   │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │secmark   │ 512   │
       ├──────────┼───────┤
       │          │       │
       │label     │ 1024  │
       └──────────┴───────┘

       Possible keywords for conntrack label type (ct_label) are read at runtime from
       /etc/connlabel.conf.

   **DCCP** **PKTTYPE** **TYPE**
       ┌─────────────────┬──────────────┬───────┬───────────┐
       │**Name**             │ **Keyword**      │ **Size**  │ **Base** **type** │
       ├─────────────────┼──────────────┼───────┼───────────┤
       │                 │              │       │           │
       │DCCP packet type │ dccp_pkttype │ 4 bit │ integer   │
       └─────────────────┴──────────────┴───────┴───────────┘

       The DCCP packet type abstracts the different legal values of the respective four bit field in
       the DCCP header, as stated by RFC4340. Note that possible values 10-15 are considered
       reserved and therefore not allowed to be used. In iptables' **dccp** match, these values are
       aliased _INVALID_. With nftables, one may simply match on the numeric value range, i.e. **10-15**.

### Table 28. keywords may be used when specifying the DCCP packet type
       ┌─────────┬───────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Value** │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │request  │ 0     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │response │ 1     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │data     │ 2     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │ack      │ 3     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │dataack  │ 4     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │closereq │ 5     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │close    │ 6     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │reset    │ 7     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │sync     │ 8     │
       ├─────────┼───────┤
       │         │       │
       │syncack  │ 9     │
       └─────────┴───────┘

## PRIMARY EXPRESSIONS
       The lowest order expression is a primary expression, representing either a constant or a
       single datum from a packet’s payload, meta data or a stateful module.

   **META** **EXPRESSIONS**
           **meta** {**length** | **nfproto** | **l4proto** | **protocol** | **priority**}
           [**meta**] {**mark** | **iif** | **iifname** | **iiftype** | **oif** | **oifname** | **oiftype** | **skuid** | **skgid** | **nftrace** | **rtclassid** | **ibrname** | **obrname** | **pkttype** | **cpu** | **iifgroup** | **oifgroup** | **cgroup** | **random** | **ipsec** | **iifkind** | **oifkind** | **time** | **hour** | **day** }

       A meta expression refers to meta data associated with a packet.

       There are two types of meta expressions: unqualified and qualified meta expressions.
       Qualified meta expressions require the meta keyword before the meta key, unqualified meta
       expressions can be specified by using the meta key directly or as qualified meta expressions.
       Meta l4proto is useful to match a particular transport protocol that is part of either an
       IPv4 or IPv6 packet. It will also skip any IPv6 extension headers present in an IPv6 packet.

       meta iif, oif, iifname and oifname are used to match the interface a packet arrived on or is
       about to be sent out on.

       iif and oif are used to match on the interface index, whereas iifname and oifname are used to
       match on the interface name. This is not the same — assuming the rule

           filter input meta iif "foo"

       Then this rule can only be added if the interface "foo" exists. Also, the rule will continue
       to match even if the interface "foo" is renamed to "bar".

       This is because internally the interface index is used. In case of dynamically created
       interfaces, such as tun/tap or dialup interfaces (ppp for example), it might be better to use
       iifname or oifname instead.

       In these cases, the name is used so the interface doesn’t have to exist to add such a rule,
       it will stop matching if the interface gets renamed and it will match again in case interface
       gets deleted and later a new interface with the same name is created.

       Like with iptables, wildcard matching on interface name prefixes is available for **iifname** and
       **oifname** matches by appending an asterisk (*) character. Note however that unlike iptables,
       nftables does not accept interface names consisting of the wildcard character only - users
       are supposed to just skip those always matching expressions. In order to match on literal
       asterisk character, one may escape it using backslash (\).

### Table 29. Meta expression types
       ┌──────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**   │ **Description**               │ **Type**                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │length    │ Length of the packet in   │ integer (32-bit)          │
       │          │ bytes                     │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │nfproto   │ real hook protocol        │ integer (32 bit)          │
       │          │ family, useful only in    │                           │
       │          │ inet table                │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │l4proto   │ layer 4 protocol, skips   │ integer (8 bit)           │
       │          │ ipv6 extension headers    │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │protocol  │ EtherType protocol value  │ ether_type                │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │priority  │ TC packet priority        │ tc_handle                 │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │mark      │ Packet mark               │ mark                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │iif       │ Input interface index     │ iface_index               │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │iifname   │ Input interface name      │ ifname                    │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │iiftype   │ Input interface type      │ iface_type                │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │oif       │ Output interface index    │ iface_index               │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │oifname   │ Output interface name     │ ifname                    │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │oiftype   │ Output interface hardware │ iface_type                │
       │          │ type                      │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │sdif      │ Slave device input        │ iface_index               │
       │          │ interface index           │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │sdifname  │ Slave device interface    │ ifname                    │
       │          │ name                      │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │skuid     │ UID associated with       │ uid                       │
       │          │ originating socket        │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │skgid     │ GID associated with       │ gid                       │
       │          │ originating socket        │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │rtclassid │ Routing realm             │ realm                     │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │ibrname   │ Input bridge interface    │ ifname                    │
       │          │ name                      │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │obrname   │ Output bridge interface   │ ifname                    │
       │          │ name                      │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │pkttype   │ packet type               │ pkt_type                  │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │cpu       │ cpu number processing the │ integer (32 bit)          │
       │          │ packet                    │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │iifgroup  │ incoming device group     │ devgroup                  │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │oifgroup  │ outgoing device group     │ devgroup                  │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │cgroup    │ control group id          │ integer (32 bit)          │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │random    │ pseudo-random number      │ integer (32 bit)          │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │ipsec     │ true if packet was ipsec  │ boolean (1 bit)           │
       │          │ encrypted                 │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │iifkind   │ Input interface kind      │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │oifkind   │ Output interface kind     │                           │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │time      │ Absolute time of packet   │ Integer (32 bit) or       │
       │          │ reception                 │ string                    │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │day       │ Day of week               │ Integer (8 bit) or string │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                           │
       │hour      │ Hour of day               │ String                    │
       └──────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

### Table 30. Meta expression specific types
       ┌──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Type**          │ **Description**                       │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │iface_index   │ Interface index (32 bit number).  │
       │              │ Can be specified numerically or   │
       │              │ as name of an existing interface. │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │ifname        │ Interface name (16 byte string).  │
       │              │ Does not have to exist.           │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │iface_type    │ Interface type (16 bit number).   │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │uid           │ User ID (32 bit number). Can be   │
       │              │ specified numerically or as user  │
       │              │ name.                             │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │gid           │ Group ID (32 bit number). Can be  │
       │              │ specified numerically or as group │
       │              │ name.                             │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │realm         │ Routing Realm (32 bit number).    │
       │              │ Can be specified numerically or   │
       │              │ as symbolic name defined in       │
       │              │ /etc/iproute2/rt_realms.          │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │devgroup_type │ Device group (32 bit number). Can │
       │              │ be specified numerically or as    │
       │              │ symbolic name defined in          │
       │              │ /etc/iproute2/group.              │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │pkt_type      │ Packet type: **host** (addressed to   │
       │              │ local host), **broadcast** (to all),  │
       │              │ **multicast** (to group), **other**       │
       │              │ (addressed to another host).      │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │ifkind        │ Interface kind (16 byte string).  │
       │              │ See TYPES in [ip-link(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ip-link/8/markdown) for a     │
       │              │ list.                             │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │time          │ Either an integer or a date in    │
       │              │ ISO format. For example:          │
       │              │ "2019-06-06 17:00". Hour and      │
       │              │ seconds are optional and can be   │
       │              │ omitted if desired. If omitted,   │
       │              │ midnight will be assumed. The     │
       │              │ following three would be          │
       │              │ equivalent: "2019-06-06",         │
       │              │ "2019-06-06 00:00" and            │
       │              │ "2019-06-06 00:00:00". When an    │
       │              │ integer is given, it is assumed   │
       │              │ to be a UNIX timestamp.           │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │day           │ Either a day of week ("Monday",   │
       │              │ "Tuesday", etc.), or an integer   │
       │              │ between 0 and 6. Strings are      │
       │              │ matched case-insensitively, and a │
       │              │ full match is not expected (e.g.  │
       │              │ "Mon" would match "Monday"). When │
       │              │ an integer is given, 0 is Sunday  │
       │              │ and 6 is Saturday.                │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │              │                                   │
       │hour          │ A string representing an hour in  │
       │              │ 24-hour format. Seconds can       │
       │              │ optionally be specified. For      │
       │              │ example, 17:00 and 17:00:00 would │
       │              │ be equivalent.                    │
       └──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **meta** **expressions**.

           # qualified meta expression
           filter output meta oif eth0
           filter forward meta iifkind { "tun", "veth" }

           # unqualified meta expression
           filter output oif eth0

           # incoming packet was subject to ipsec processing
           raw prerouting meta ipsec exists accept


   **SOCKET** **EXPRESSION**
           **socket** {**transparent** | **mark** | **wildcard**}
           **socket** **cgroupv2** **level** _NUM_

       Socket expression can be used to search for an existing open TCP/UDP socket and its
       attributes that can be associated with a packet. It looks for an established or non-zero
       bound listening socket (possibly with a non-local address). You can also use it to match on
       the socket cgroupv2 at a given ancestor level, e.g. if the socket belongs to cgroupv2 _a/b_,
       ancestor level 1 checks for a matching on cgroup _a_ and ancestor level 2 checks for a matching
       on cgroup _b_.

### Table 31. Available socket attributes
       ┌────────────┬───────────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
       │**Name**        │ **Description**               │ **Type**            │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                 │
       │transparent │ Value of the              │ boolean (1 bit) │
       │            │ IP_TRANSPARENT socket     │                 │
       │            │ option in the found       │                 │
       │            │ socket. It can be 0 or 1. │                 │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                 │
       │mark        │ Value of the socket mark  │ mark            │
       │            │ (SOL_SOCKET, SO_MARK).    │                 │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                 │
       │wildcard    │ Indicates whether the     │ boolean (1 bit) │
       │            │ socket is wildcard-bound  │                 │
       │            │ (e.g. 0.0.0.0 or ::0).    │                 │
       ├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │            │                           │                 │
       │cgroupv2    │ cgroup version 2 for this │ cgroupv2        │
       │            │ socket (path from         │                 │
       │            │ /sys/fs/cgroup)           │                 │
       └────────────┴───────────────────────────┴─────────────────┘

       **Using** **socket** **expression**.

           # Mark packets that correspond to a transparent socket. "socket wildcard 0"
           # means that zero-bound listener sockets are NOT matched (which is usually
           # exactly what you want).
           table inet x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook prerouting priority mangle; policy accept;
                   socket transparent 1 socket wildcard 0 mark set 0x00000001 accept
               }
           }

           # Trace packets that corresponds to a socket with a mark value of 15
           table inet x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook prerouting priority mangle; policy accept;
                   socket mark 0x0000000f nftrace set 1
               }
           }

           # Set packet mark to socket mark
           table inet x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook prerouting priority mangle; policy accept;
                   tcp dport 8080 mark set socket mark
               }
           }

           # Count packets for cgroupv2 "user.slice" at level 1
           table inet x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook input priority filter; policy accept;
                   socket cgroupv2 level 1 "user.slice" counter
               }
           }


   **OSF** **EXPRESSION**
           **osf** [**ttl** {**loose** | **skip**}] {**name** | **version**}

       The osf expression does passive operating system fingerprinting. This expression compares
       some data (Window Size, MSS, options and their order, DF, and others) from packets with the
       SYN bit set.

### Table 32. Available osf attributes
       ┌────────┬──────────────────────────┬────────┐
       │**Name**    │ **Description**              │ **Type**   │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼────────┤
       │        │                          │        │
       │ttl     │ Do TTL checks on the     │ string │
       │        │ packet to determine the  │        │
       │        │ operating system.        │        │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼────────┤
       │        │                          │        │
       │version │ Do OS version checks on  │        │
       │        │ the packet.              │        │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼────────┤
       │        │                          │        │
       │name    │ Name of the OS signature │ string │
       │        │ to match. All signatures │        │
       │        │ can be found at pf.os    │        │
       │        │ file. Use "unknown" for  │        │
       │        │ OS signatures that the   │        │
       │        │ expression could not     │        │
       │        │ detect.                  │        │
       └────────┴──────────────────────────┴────────┘

       **Available** **ttl** **values**.

           If no TTL attribute is passed, make a true IP header and fingerprint TTL true comparison. This generally works for LANs.

           * loose: Check if the IP header's TTL is less than the fingerprint one. Works for globally-routable addresses.
           * skip: Do not compare the TTL at all.

       **Using** **osf** **expression**.

           # Accept packets that match the "Linux" OS genre signature without comparing TTL.
           table inet x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook input priority filter; policy accept;
                   osf ttl skip name "Linux"
               }
           }


   **FIB** **EXPRESSIONS**
           **fib** {**saddr** | **daddr** | **mark** | **iif** | **oif**} [**.** ...] {**oif** | **oifname** | **type**}

       A fib expression queries the fib (forwarding information base) to obtain information such as
       the output interface index a particular address would use. The input is a tuple of elements
       that is used as input to the fib lookup functions.

### Table 33. fib expression specific types
       ┌────────┬────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**            │ **Type**             │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                        │                  │
       │oif     │ Output interface index │ integer (32 bit) │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                        │                  │
       │oifname │ Output interface name  │ string           │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                        │                  │
       │type    │ Address type           │ fib_addrtype     │
       └────────┴────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

       Use **nft** **describe** **fib**___**addrtype** to get a list of all address types.

       **Using** **fib** **expressions**.

           # drop packets without a reverse path
           filter prerouting fib saddr . iif oif missing drop

           In this example, 'saddr . iif' looks up routing information based on the source address and the input interface.
           oif picks the output interface index from the routing information.
           If no route was found for the source address/input interface combination, the output interface index is zero.
           In case the input interface is specified as part of the input key, the output interface index is always the same as the input interface index or zero.
           If only 'saddr oif' is given, then oif can be any interface index or zero.

           # drop packets to address not configured on incoming interface
           filter prerouting fib daddr . iif type != { local, broadcast, multicast } drop

           # perform lookup in a specific 'blackhole' table (0xdead, needs ip appropriate ip rule)
           filter prerouting meta mark set 0xdead fib daddr . mark type vmap { blackhole : drop, prohibit : jump prohibited, unreachable : drop }


   **ROUTING** **EXPRESSIONS**
           **rt** [**ip** | **ip6**] {**classid** | **nexthop** | **mtu** | **ipsec**}

       A routing expression refers to routing data associated with a packet.

### Table 34. Routing expression types
       ┌────────┬───────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**               │ **Type**                │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                     │
       │classid │ Routing realm             │ realm               │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                     │
       │nexthop │ Routing nexthop           │ ipv4_addr/ipv6_addr │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                     │
       │mtu     │ TCP maximum segment size  │ integer (16 bit)    │
       │        │ of route                  │                     │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                     │
       │ipsec   │ route via ipsec tunnel or │ boolean             │
       │        │ transport                 │                     │
       └────────┴───────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

### Table 35. Routing expression specific types
       ┌──────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Type**  │ **Description**                     │
       ├──────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │      │                                 │
       │realm │ Routing Realm (32 bit number).  │
       │      │ Can be specified numerically or │
       │      │ as symbolic name defined in     │
       │      │ /etc/iproute2/rt_realms.        │
       └──────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **routing** **expressions**.

           # IP family independent rt expression
           filter output rt classid 10

           # IP family dependent rt expressions
           ip filter output rt nexthop 192.168.0.1
           ip6 filter output rt nexthop [fd00::1](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/fd00%3A%3A1/markdown)
           inet filter output rt ip nexthop 192.168.0.1
           inet filter output rt ip6 nexthop [fd00::1](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/fd00%3A%3A1/markdown)

           # outgoing packet will be encapsulated/encrypted by ipsec
           filter output rt ipsec exists


   **IPSEC** **EXPRESSIONS**
           **ipsec** {**in** | **out**} [ **spnum** _NUM_ ]  {**reqid** | **spi**}
           **ipsec** {**in** | **out**} [ **spnum** _NUM_ ]  {**ip** | **ip6**} {**saddr** | **daddr**}

       An ipsec expression refers to ipsec data associated with a packet.

       The _in_ or _out_ keyword needs to be used to specify if the expression should examine inbound or
       outbound policies. The _in_ keyword can be used in the prerouting, input and forward hooks. The
       _out_ keyword applies to forward, output and postrouting hooks. The optional keyword spnum can
       be used to match a specific state in a chain, it defaults to 0.

### Table 36. Ipsec expression types
       ┌────────┬──────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**              │ **Type**                │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                     │
       │reqid   │ Request ID               │ integer (32 bit)    │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                     │
       │spi     │ Security Parameter Index │ integer (32 bit)    │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                     │
       │saddr   │ Source address of the    │ ipv4_addr/ipv6_addr │
       │        │ tunnel                   │                     │
       ├────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │        │                          │                     │
       │daddr   │ Destination address of   │ ipv4_addr/ipv6_addr │
       │        │ the tunnel               │                     │
       └────────┴──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

   **NUMGEN** **EXPRESSION**
           **numgen** {**inc** | **random**} **mod** _NUM_ [ **offset** _NUM_ ]

       Create a number generator. The **inc** or **random** keywords control its operation mode: In **inc**
       mode, the last returned value is simply incremented. In **random** mode, a new random number is
       returned. The value after **mod** keyword specifies an upper boundary (read: modulus) which is
       not reached by returned numbers. The optional **offset** allows to increment the returned value
       by a fixed offset.

       A typical use-case for **numgen** is load-balancing:

       **Using** **numgen** **expression**.

           # round-robin between 192.168.10.100 and 192.168.20.200:
           add rule nat prerouting dnat to numgen inc mod 2 map \
                   { 0 : 192.168.10.100, 1 : 192.168.20.200 }

           # probability-based with odd bias using intervals:
           add rule nat prerouting dnat to numgen random mod 10 map \
                   { 0-2 : 192.168.10.100, 3-9 : 192.168.20.200 }


   **HASH** **EXPRESSIONS**
           **jhash** {**ip** **saddr** | **ip6** **daddr** | **tcp** **dport** | **udp** **sport** | **ether** **saddr**} [**.** ...] **mod** _NUM_ [ **seed** _NUM_ ] [ **offset** _NUM_ ]
           **symhash** **mod** _NUM_ [ **offset** _NUM_ ]

       Use a hashing function to generate a number. The functions available are **jhash**, known as
       Jenkins Hash, and **symhash**, for Symmetric Hash. The **jhash** requires an expression to determine
       the parameters of the packet header to apply the hashing, concatenations are possible as
       well. The value after **mod** keyword specifies an upper boundary (read: modulus) which is not
       reached by returned numbers. The optional **seed** is used to specify an init value used as seed
       in the hashing function. The optional **offset** allows to increment the returned value by a
       fixed offset.

       A typical use-case for **jhash** and **symhash** is load-balancing:

       **Using** **hash** **expressions**.

           # load balance based on source ip between 2 ip addresses:
           add rule nat prerouting dnat to jhash ip saddr mod 2 map \
                   { 0 : 192.168.10.100, 1 : 192.168.20.200 }

           # symmetric load balancing between 2 ip addresses:
           add rule nat prerouting dnat to symhash mod 2 map \
                   { 0 : 192.168.10.100, 1 : 192.168.20.200 }


## PAYLOAD EXPRESSIONS
       Payload expressions refer to data from the packet’s payload.

   **ETHERNET** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **ether** {**daddr** | **saddr** | **type**}

### Table 37. Ethernet header expression types
       ┌────────┬─────────────────────────┬────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**             │ **Type**       │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼────────────┤
       │        │                         │            │
       │daddr   │ Destination MAC address │ ether_addr │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼────────────┤
       │        │                         │            │
       │saddr   │ Source MAC address      │ ether_addr │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼────────────┤
       │        │                         │            │
       │type    │ EtherType               │ ether_type │
       └────────┴─────────────────────────┴────────────┘

   **VLAN** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **vlan** {**id** | **dei** | **pcp** | **type**}

### Table 38. VLAN header expression
       ┌────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**             │ **Type**             │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                         │                  │
       │id      │ VLAN ID (VID)           │ integer (12 bit) │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                         │                  │
       │dei     │ Drop Eligible Indicator │ integer (1 bit)  │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                         │                  │
       │pcp     │ Priority code point     │ integer (3 bit)  │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                         │                  │
       │type    │ EtherType               │ ether_type       │
       └────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **ARP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **arp** {**htype** | **ptype** | **hlen** | **plen** | **operation** | **saddr** { **ip** | **ether** } | **daddr** { **ip** | **ether** }

### Table 39. ARP header expression
       ┌────────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**     │ **Description**             │ **Type**             │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │htype       │ ARP hardware type       │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │ptype       │ EtherType               │ ether_type       │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │hlen        │ Hardware address len    │ integer (8 bit)  │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │plen        │ Protocol address len    │ integer (8 bit)  │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │operation   │ Operation               │ arp_op           │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │saddr ether │ Ethernet sender address │ ether_addr       │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │daddr ether │ Ethernet target address │ ether_addr       │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │saddr ip    │ IPv4 sender address     │ ipv4_addr        │
       ├────────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │            │                         │                  │
       │daddr ip    │ IPv4 target address     │ ipv4_addr        │
       └────────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **IPV4** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **ip** {**version** | **hdrlength** | **dscp** | **ecn** | **length** | **id** | **frag-off** | **ttl** | **protocol** | **checksum** | **saddr** | **daddr** }

### Table 40. IPv4 header expression
       ┌──────────┬─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**   │ **Description**             │ **Type**                  │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │version   │ IP header version (4)   │ integer (4 bit)       │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │hdrlength │ IP header length        │ integer (4 bit) FIXME │
       │          │ including options       │ scaling               │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │dscp      │ Differentiated Services │ dscp                  │
       │          │ Code Point              │                       │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │ecn       │ Explicit Congestion     │ ecn                   │
       │          │ Notification            │                       │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │length    │ Total packet length     │ integer (16 bit)      │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │id        │ IP ID                   │ integer (16 bit)      │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │frag-off  │ Fragment offset         │ integer (16 bit)      │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │ttl       │ Time to live            │ integer (8 bit)       │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │protocol  │ Upper layer protocol    │ inet_proto            │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │checksum  │ IP header checksum      │ integer (16 bit)      │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │saddr     │ Source address          │ ipv4_addr             │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                       │
       │daddr     │ Destination address     │ ipv4_addr             │
       └──────────┴─────────────────────────┴───────────────────────┘

   **ICMP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **icmp** {**type** | **code** | **checksum** | **id** | **sequence** | **gateway** | **mtu**}

       This expression refers to ICMP header fields. When using it in **inet**, **bridge** or **netdev**
       families, it will cause an implicit dependency on IPv4 to be created. To match on unusual
       cases like ICMP over IPv6, one has to add an explicit **meta** **protocol** **ip6** match to the rule.

### Table 41. ICMP header expression
       ┌─────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**               │ **Type**             │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │type     │ ICMP type field           │ icmp_type        │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │code     │ ICMP code field           │ integer (8 bit)  │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │checksum │ ICMP checksum field       │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │id       │ ID of echo                │ integer (16 bit) │
       │         │ request/response          │                  │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │sequence │ sequence number of echo   │ integer (16 bit) │
       │         │ request/response          │                  │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │gateway  │ gateway of redirects      │ integer (32 bit) │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                           │                  │
       │mtu      │ MTU of path MTU discovery │ integer (16 bit) │
       └─────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **IGMP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **igmp** {**type** | **mrt** | **checksum** | **group**}

       This expression refers to IGMP header fields. When using it in **inet**, **bridge** or **netdev**
       families, it will cause an implicit dependency on IPv4 to be created. To match on unusual
       cases like IGMP over IPv6, one has to add an explicit **meta** **protocol** **ip6** match to the rule.

### Table 42. IGMP header expression
       ┌─────────┬───────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**           │ **Type**             │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                       │                  │
       │type     │ IGMP type field       │ igmp_type        │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                       │                  │
       │mrt      │ IGMP maximum response │ integer (8 bit)  │
       │         │ time field            │                  │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                       │                  │
       │checksum │ IGMP checksum field   │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                       │                  │
       │group    │ Group address         │ integer (32 bit) │
       └─────────┴───────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **IPV6** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **ip6** {**version** | **dscp** | **ecn** | **flowlabel** | **length** | **nexthdr** | **hoplimit** | **saddr** | **daddr**}

       This expression refers to the ipv6 header fields. Caution when using **ip6** **nexthdr**, the value
       only refers to the next header, i.e. **ip6** **nexthdr** **tcp** will only match if the ipv6 packet does
       not contain any extension headers. Packets that are fragmented or e.g. contain a routing
       extension headers will not be matched. Please use **meta** **l4proto** if you wish to match the real
       transport header and ignore any additional extension headers instead.

### Table 43. IPv6 header expression
       ┌──────────┬─────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**   │ **Description**             │ **Type**             │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │version   │ IP header version (6)   │ integer (4 bit)  │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │dscp      │ Differentiated Services │ dscp             │
       │          │ Code Point              │                  │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │ecn       │ Explicit Congestion     │ ecn              │
       │          │ Notification            │                  │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │flowlabel │ Flow label              │ integer (20 bit) │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │length    │ Payload length          │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │nexthdr   │ Nexthdr protocol        │ inet_proto       │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │hoplimit  │ Hop limit               │ integer (8 bit)  │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │saddr     │ Source address          │ ipv6_addr        │
       ├──────────┼─────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                         │                  │
       │daddr     │ Destination address     │ ipv6_addr        │
       └──────────┴─────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

       **Using** **ip6** **header** **expressions**.

           # matching if first extension header indicates a fragment
           ip6 nexthdr ipv6-frag


   **ICMPV6** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **icmpv6** {**type** | **code** | **checksum** | **parameter-problem** | **packet-too-big** | **id** | **sequence** | **max-delay**}

       This expression refers to ICMPv6 header fields. When using it in **inet**, **bridge** or **netdev**
       families, it will cause an implicit dependency on IPv6 to be created. To match on unusual
       cases like ICMPv6 over IPv4, one has to add an explicit **meta** **protocol** **ip** match to the rule.

### Table 44. ICMPv6 header expression
       ┌──────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**           │ **Description**               │ **Type**             │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │type              │ ICMPv6 type field         │ icmpv6_type      │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │code              │ ICMPv6 code field         │ integer (8 bit)  │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │checksum          │ ICMPv6 checksum field     │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │parameter-problem │ pointer to problem        │ integer (32 bit) │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │packet-too-big    │ oversized MTU             │ integer (32 bit) │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │id                │ ID of echo                │ integer (16 bit) │
       │                  │ request/response          │                  │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │sequence          │ sequence number of echo   │ integer (16 bit) │
       │                  │ request/response          │                  │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                  │
       │max-delay         │ maximum response delay of │ integer (16 bit) │
       │                  │ MLD queries               │                  │
       └──────────────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **TCP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **tcp** {**sport** | **dport** | **sequence** | **ackseq** | **doff** | **reserved** | **flags** | **window** | **checksum** | **urgptr**}

### Table 45. TCP header expression
       ┌─────────┬────────────────────────┬───────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**            │ **Type**                  │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │sport    │ Source port            │ inet_service          │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │dport    │ Destination port       │ inet_service          │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │sequence │ Sequence number        │ integer (32 bit)      │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │ackseq   │ Acknowledgement number │ integer (32 bit)      │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │doff     │ Data offset            │ integer (4 bit) FIXME │
       │         │                        │ scaling               │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │reserved │ Reserved area          │ integer (4 bit)       │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │flags    │ TCP flags              │ tcp_flag              │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │window   │ Window                 │ integer (16 bit)      │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │checksum │ Checksum               │ integer (16 bit)      │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                       │
       │urgptr   │ Urgent pointer         │ integer (16 bit)      │
       └─────────┴────────────────────────┴───────────────────────┘

   **UDP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **udp** {**sport** | **dport** | **length** | **checksum**}

### Table 46. UDP header expression
       ┌─────────┬─────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**         │ **Type**             │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                     │                  │
       │sport    │ Source port         │ inet_service     │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                     │                  │
       │dport    │ Destination port    │ inet_service     │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                     │                  │
       │length   │ Total packet length │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├─────────┼─────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                     │                  │
       │checksum │ Checksum            │ integer (16 bit) │
       └─────────┴─────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **UDP-LITE** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **udplite** {**sport** | **dport** | **checksum**}

### Table 47. UDP-Lite header expression
       ┌─────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**      │ **Type**             │
       ├─────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                  │                  │
       │sport    │ Source port      │ inet_service     │
       ├─────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                  │                  │
       │dport    │ Destination port │ inet_service     │
       ├─────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                  │                  │
       │checksum │ Checksum         │ integer (16 bit) │
       └─────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **SCTP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **sctp** {**sport** | **dport** | **vtag** | **checksum**}
           **sctp** **chunk** _CHUNK_ [ _FIELD_ ]

           _CHUNK_ := **data** | **init** | **init-ack** | **sack** | **heartbeat** |
                      **heartbeat-ack** | **abort** | **shutdown** | **shutdown-ack** | **error** |
                      **cookie-echo** | **cookie-ack** | **ecne** | **cwr** | **shutdown-complete**
                      | **asconf-ack** | **forward-tsn** | **asconf**

           _FIELD_ := _COMMON_FIELD_ | _DATA_FIELD_ | _INIT_FIELD_ | _INIT_ACK_FIELD_ |
                      _SACK_FIELD_ | _SHUTDOWN_FIELD_ | _ECNE_FIELD_ | _CWR_FIELD_ |
                      _ASCONF_ACK_FIELD_ | _FORWARD_TSN_FIELD_ | _ASCONF_FIELD_

           _COMMON_FIELD_ := **type** | **flags** | **length**
           _DATA_FIELD_ := **tsn** | **stream** | **ssn** | **ppid**
           _INIT_FIELD_ := **init-tag** | **a-rwnd** | **num-outbound-streams** |
                           **num-inbound-streams** | **initial-tsn**
           _INIT_ACK_FIELD_ := _INIT_FIELD_
           _SACK_FIELD_ := **cum-tsn-ack** | **a-rwnd** | **num-gap-ack-blocks** |
                           **num-dup-tsns**
           _SHUTDOWN_FIELD_ := **cum-tsn-ack**
           _ECNE_FIELD_ := **lowest-tsn**
           _CWR_FIELD_ := **lowest-tsn**
           _ASCONF_ACK_FIELD_ := **seqno**
           _FORWARD_TSN_FIELD_ := **new-cum-tsn**
           _ASCONF_FIELD_ := **seqno**

### Table 48. SCTP header expression
       ┌─────────┬────────────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**            │ **Type**                   │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                        │
       │sport    │ Source port            │ inet_service           │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                        │
       │dport    │ Destination port       │ inet_service           │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                        │
       │vtag     │ Verification Tag       │ integer (32 bit)       │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                        │
       │checksum │ Checksum               │ integer (32 bit)       │
       ├─────────┼────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │         │                        │                        │
       │chunk    │ Search chunk in packet │ without _FIELD_, boolean │
       │         │                        │ indicating existence   │
       └─────────┴────────────────────────┴────────────────────────┘

### Table 49. SCTP chunk fields
       ┌─────────────────────┬───────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
       │**Name**                 │ **Width** **in** **bits** │ **Chunk**                │ **Notes**                │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │type                 │ 8             │ all                  │ not useful, defined  │
       │                     │               │                      │ by chunk type        │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │flags                │ 8             │ all                  │ semantics defined on │
       │                     │               │                      │ per-chunk basis      │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │length               │ 16            │ all                  │ length of this chunk │
       │                     │               │                      │ in bytes excluding   │
       │                     │               │                      │ padding              │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │tsn                  │ 32            │ data                 │ transmission         │
       │                     │               │                      │ sequence number      │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │stream               │ 16            │ data                 │ stream identifier    │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │ssn                  │ 16            │ data                 │ stream sequence      │
       │                     │               │                      │ number               │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │ppid                 │ 32            │ data                 │ payload protocol     │
       │                     │               │                      │ identifier           │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │init-tag             │ 32            │ init, init-ack       │ initiate tag         │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │a-rwnd               │ 32            │ init, init-ack, sack │ advertised receiver  │
       │                     │               │                      │ window credit        │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │num-outbound-streams │ 16            │ init, init-ack       │ number of outbound   │
       │                     │               │                      │ streams              │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │num-inbound-streams  │ 16            │ init, init-ack       │ number of inbound    │
       │                     │               │                      │ streams              │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │initial-tsn          │ 32            │ init, init-ack       │ initial transmit     │
       │                     │               │                      │ sequence number      │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │cum-tsn-ack          │ 32            │ sack, shutdown       │ cumulative           │
       │                     │               │                      │ transmission         │
       │                     │               │                      │ sequence number      │
       │                     │               │                      │ acknowledged         │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │num-gap-ack-blocks   │ 16            │ sack                 │ number of Gap Ack    │
       │                     │               │                      │ Blocks included      │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │num-dup-tsns         │ 16            │ sack                 │ number of duplicate  │
       │                     │               │                      │ transmission         │
       │                     │               │                      │ sequence numbers     │
       │                     │               │                      │ received             │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │lowest-tsn           │ 32            │ ecne, cwr            │ lowest transmission  │
       │                     │               │                      │ sequence number      │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │seqno                │ 32            │ asconf-ack, asconf   │ sequence number      │
       ├─────────────────────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │                     │               │                      │                      │
       │new-cum-tsn          │ 32            │ forward-tsn          │ new cumulative       │
       │                     │               │                      │ transmission         │
       │                     │               │                      │ sequence number      │
       └─────────────────────┴───────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

   **DCCP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **dccp** {**sport** | **dport** | **type**}

### Table 50. DCCP header expression
       ┌────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**      │ **Type**         │
       ├────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┤
       │        │                  │              │
       │sport   │ Source port      │ inet_service │
       ├────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┤
       │        │                  │              │
       │dport   │ Destination port │ inet_service │
       ├────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────┤
       │        │                  │              │
       │type    │ Packet type      │ dccp_pkttype │
       └────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────┘

   **AUTHENTICATION** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **ah** {**nexthdr** | **hdrlength** | **reserved** | **spi** | **sequence**}

### Table 51. AH header expression
       ┌──────────┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**   │ **Description**              │ **Type**             │
       ├──────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                          │                  │
       │nexthdr   │ Next header protocol     │ inet_proto       │
       ├──────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                          │                  │
       │hdrlength │ AH Header length         │ integer (8 bit)  │
       ├──────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                          │                  │
       │reserved  │ Reserved area            │ integer (16 bit) │
       ├──────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                          │                  │
       │spi       │ Security Parameter Index │ integer (32 bit) │
       ├──────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │          │                          │                  │
       │sequence  │ Sequence number          │ integer (32 bit) │
       └──────────┴──────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **ENCRYPTED** **SECURITY** **PAYLOAD** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
           **esp** {**spi** | **sequence**}

### Table 52. ESP header expression
       ┌─────────┬──────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**              │ **Type**             │
       ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                          │                  │
       │spi      │ Security Parameter Index │ integer (32 bit) │
       ├─────────┼──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │         │                          │                  │
       │sequence │ Sequence number          │ integer (32 bit) │
       └─────────┴──────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **IPCOMP** **HEADER** **EXPRESSION**
       **comp** {**nexthdr** | **flags** | **cpi**}

### Table 53. IPComp header expression
       ┌────────┬───────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**           │ **Type**             │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                       │                  │
       │nexthdr │ Next header protocol  │ inet_proto       │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                       │                  │
       │flags   │ Flags                 │ bitmask          │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
       │        │                       │                  │
       │cpi     │ compression Parameter │ integer (16 bit) │
       │        │ Index                 │                  │
       └────────┴───────────────────────┴──────────────────┘

   **RAW** **PAYLOAD** **EXPRESSION**
           **@**_base_**,**_offset_**,**_length_

       The raw payload expression instructs to load _length_ bits starting at _offset_ bits. Bit 0
       refers to the very first bit — in the C programming language, this corresponds to the topmost
       bit, i.e. 0x80 in case of an octet. They are useful to match headers that do not have a
       human-readable template expression yet. Note that nft will not add dependencies for Raw
       payload expressions. If you e.g. want to match protocol fields of a transport header with
       protocol number 5, you need to manually exclude packets that have a different transport
       header, for instance by using **meta** **l4proto** **5** before the raw expression.

### Table 54. Supported payload protocol bases
       ┌─────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Base** │ **Description**                       │
       ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │     │                                   │
       │ll   │ Link layer, for example the       │
       │     │ Ethernet header                   │
       ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │     │                                   │
       │nh   │ Network header, for example IPv4  │
       │     │ or IPv6                           │
       ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │     │                                   │
       │th   │ Transport Header, for example TCP │
       └─────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

       **Matching** **destination** **port** **of** **both** **UDP** **and** **TCP**.

           inet filter input meta l4proto {tcp, udp} @th,16,16 { 53, 80 }

       The above can also be written as

           inet filter input meta l4proto {tcp, udp} th dport { 53, 80 }

       it is more convenient, but like the raw expression notation no dependencies are created or
       checked. It is the users responsibility to restrict matching to those header types that have
       a notion of ports. Otherwise, rules using raw expressions will errnously match unrelated
       packets, e.g. mis-interpreting ESP packets SPI field as a port.

### Rewrite arp packet target hardware address if target protocol address matches a given
       **address**.

           input meta iifname enp2s0 arp ptype 0x0800 arp htype 1 arp hlen 6 arp plen 4 @nh,192,32 0xc0a88f10 @nh,144,48 set 0x112233445566 accept


   **EXTENSION** **HEADER** **EXPRESSIONS**
       Extension header expressions refer to data from variable-sized protocol headers, such as IPv6
       extension headers, TCP options and IPv4 options.

       nftables currently supports matching (finding) a given ipv6 extension header, TCP option or
       IPv4 option.

           **hbh** {**nexthdr** | **hdrlength**}
           **frag** {**nexthdr** | **frag-off** | **more-fragments** | **id**}
           **rt** {**nexthdr** | **hdrlength** | **type** | **seg-left**}
           **dst** {**nexthdr** | **hdrlength**}
           **mh** {**nexthdr** | **hdrlength** | **checksum** | **type**}
           **srh** {**flags** | **tag** | **sid** | **seg-left**}
           **tcp** **option** {**eol** | **nop** | **maxseg** | **window** | **sack-perm** | **sack** | **sack0** | **sack1** | **sack2** | **sack3** | **timestamp**} _tcp_option_field_
           **ip** **option** { lsrr | ra | rr | ssrr } _ip_option_field_

       The following syntaxes are valid only in a relational expression with boolean type on
       right-hand side for checking header existence only:

           **exthdr** {**hbh** | **frag** | **rt** | **dst** | **mh**}
           **tcp** **option** {**eol** | **nop** | **maxseg** | **window** | **sack-perm** | **sack** | **sack0** | **sack1** | **sack2** | **sack3** | **timestamp**}
           **ip** **option** { lsrr | ra | rr | ssrr }

### Table 55. IPv6 extension headers
       ┌────────┬────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**            │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │        │                        │
       │hbh     │ Hop by Hop             │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │        │                        │
       │rt      │ Routing Header         │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │        │                        │
       │frag    │ Fragmentation header   │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │        │                        │
       │dst     │ dst options            │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │        │                        │
       │mh      │ Mobility Header        │
       ├────────┼────────────────────────┤
       │        │                        │
       │srh     │ Segment Routing Header │
       └────────┴────────────────────────┘

### Table 56. TCP Options
       ┌──────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**   │ **Description**               │ **TCP** **option** **fields**    │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │eol       │ End if option list        │ -                    │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │nop       │ 1 Byte TCP Nop padding    │ -                    │
       │          │ option                    │                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │maxseg    │ TCP Maximum Segment Size  │ length, size         │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │window    │ TCP Window Scaling        │ length, count        │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │sack-perm │ TCP SACK permitted        │ length               │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │sack      │ TCP Selective             │ length, left, right  │
       │          │ Acknowledgement (alias of │                      │
       │          │ block 0)                  │                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │sack0     │ TCP Selective             │ length, left, right  │
       │          │ Acknowledgement (block 0) │                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │sack1     │ TCP Selective             │ length, left, right  │
       │          │ Acknowledgement (block 1) │                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │sack2     │ TCP Selective             │ length, left, right  │
       │          │ Acknowledgement (block 2) │                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │sack3     │ TCP Selective             │ length, left, right  │
       │          │ Acknowledgement (block 3) │                      │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────┤
       │          │                           │                      │
       │timestamp │ TCP Timestamps            │ length, tsval, tsecr │
       └──────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────────────────┘

       TCP option matching also supports raw expression syntax to access arbitrary options:

           **tcp** **option**

           **tcp** **option** **@**_number_**,**_offset_**,**_length_

### Table 57. IP Options
       ┌────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**         │ **IP** **option** **fields**        │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                     │                         │
       │lsrr    │ Loose Source Route  │ type, length, ptr, addr │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                     │                         │
       │ra      │ Router Alert        │ type, length, value     │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                     │                         │
       │rr      │ Record Route        │ type, length, ptr, addr │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │        │                     │                         │
       │ssrr    │ Strict Source Route │ type, length, ptr, addr │
       └────────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

       **finding** **TCP** **options**.

           filter input tcp option sack-perm exists counter

       **matching** **TCP** **options**.

           filter input tcp option maxseg size lt 536

       **matching** **IPv6** **exthdr**.

           ip6 filter input frag more-fragments 1 counter

       **finding** **IP** **option**.

           filter input ip option lsrr exists counter


   **CONNTRACK** **EXPRESSIONS**
       Conntrack expressions refer to meta data of the connection tracking entry associated with a
       packet.

       There are three types of conntrack expressions. Some conntrack expressions require the flow
       direction before the conntrack key, others must be used directly because they are direction
       agnostic. The **packets**, **bytes** and **avgpkt** keywords can be used with or without a direction. If
       the direction is omitted, the sum of the original and the reply direction is returned. The
       same is true for the **zone**, if a direction is given, the zone is only matched if the zone id
       is tied to the given direction.

           **ct** {**state** | **direction** | **status** | **mark** | **expiration** | **helper** | **label** | **count** | **id**}
           **ct** [**original** | **reply**] {**l3proto** | **protocol** | **bytes** | **packets** | **avgpkt** | **zone**}
           **ct** {**original** | **reply**} {**proto-src** | **proto-dst**}
           **ct** {**original** | **reply**} {**ip** | **ip6**} {**saddr** | **daddr**}

       The conntrack-specific types in this table are described in the sub-section CONNTRACK TYPES
       above.

### Table 58. Conntrack expressions
       ┌───────────┬───────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**    │ **Description**               │ **Type**                │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │state      │ State of the connection   │ ct_state            │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │direction  │ Direction of the packet   │ ct_dir              │
       │           │ relative to the           │                     │
       │           │ connection                │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │status     │ Status of the connection  │ ct_status           │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │mark       │ Connection mark           │ mark                │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │expiration │ Connection expiration     │ time                │
       │           │ time                      │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │helper     │ Helper associated with    │ string              │
       │           │ the connection            │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │label      │ Connection tracking label │ ct_label            │
       │           │ bit or symbolic name      │                     │
       │           │ defined in connlabel.conf │                     │
       │           │ in the nftables include   │                     │
       │           │ path                      │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │l3proto    │ Layer 3 protocol of the   │ nf_proto            │
       │           │ connection                │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │saddr      │ Source address of the     │ ipv4_addr/ipv6_addr │
       │           │ connection for the given  │                     │
       │           │ direction                 │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │daddr      │ Destination address of    │ ipv4_addr/ipv6_addr │
       │           │ the connection for the    │                     │
       │           │ given direction           │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │protocol   │ Layer 4 protocol of the   │ inet_proto          │
       │           │ connection for the given  │                     │
       │           │ direction                 │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │proto-src  │ Layer 4 protocol source   │ integer (16 bit)    │
       │           │ for the given direction   │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │proto-dst  │ Layer 4 protocol          │ integer (16 bit)    │
       │           │ destination for the given │                     │
       │           │ direction                 │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │packets    │ packet count seen in the  │ integer (64 bit)    │
       │           │ given direction or sum of │                     │
       │           │ original and reply        │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │bytes      │ byte count seen, see      │ integer (64 bit)    │
       │           │ description for **packets**   │                     │
       │           │ keyword                   │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │avgpkt     │ average bytes per packet, │ integer (64 bit)    │
       │           │ see description for       │                     │
       │           │ **packets** keyword           │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │zone       │ conntrack zone            │ integer (16 bit)    │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │count      │ number of current         │ integer (32 bit)    │
       │           │ connections               │                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                     │
       │id         │ Connection id             │ ct_id               │
       └───────────┴───────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┘

       **restrict** **the** **number** **of** **parallel** **connections** **to** **a** **server**.

           nft add set filter ssh_flood '{ type ipv4_addr; flags dynamic; }'
           nft add rule filter input tcp dport 22 add @ssh_flood '{ ip saddr ct count over 2 }' reject


## STATEMENTS
       Statements represent actions to be performed. They can alter control flow (return, jump to a
       different chain, accept or drop the packet) or can perform actions, such as logging,
       rejecting a packet, etc.

       Statements exist in two kinds. Terminal statements unconditionally terminate evaluation of
       the current rule, non-terminal statements either only conditionally or never terminate
       evaluation of the current rule, in other words, they are passive from the ruleset evaluation
       perspective. There can be an arbitrary amount of non-terminal statements in a rule, but only
       a single terminal statement as the final statement.

   **VERDICT** **STATEMENT**
       The verdict statement alters control flow in the ruleset and issues policy decisions for
       packets.

           {**accept** | **drop** | **queue** | **continue** | **return**}
           {**jump** | **goto**} _chain_

       **accept** and **drop** are absolute verdicts — they terminate ruleset evaluation immediately.


       **accept**       Terminate ruleset evaluation and
                    accept the packet. The packet can
                    still be dropped later by another
                    hook, for instance accept in the
                    forward hook still allows to drop
                    the packet later in the
                    postrouting hook, or another
                    forward base chain that has a
                    higher priority number and is
                    evaluated afterwards in the
                    processing pipeline.

       **drop**         Terminate ruleset evaluation and
                    drop the packet. The drop occurs
                    instantly, no further chains or
                    hooks are evaluated. It is not
                    possible to accept the packet in
                    a later chain again, as those are
                    not evaluated anymore for the
                    packet.

       **queue**        Terminate ruleset evaluation and
                    queue the packet to userspace.
                    Userspace must provide a drop or
                    accept verdict. In case of
                    accept, processing resumes with
                    the next base chain hook, not the
                    rule following the queue verdict.

       **continue**     Continue ruleset evaluation with
                    the next rule. This is the
                    default behaviour in case a rule
                    issues no verdict.

       **return**       Return from the current chain and
                    continue evaluation at the next
                    rule in the last chain. If issued
                    in a base chain, it is equivalent
                    to the base chain policy.

       **jump** _chain_   Continue evaluation at the first
                    rule in _chain_. The current
                    position in the ruleset is pushed
                    to a call stack and evaluation
                    will continue there when the new
                    chain is entirely evaluated or a
                    **return** verdict is issued. In case
                    an absolute verdict is issued by
                    a rule in the chain, ruleset
                    evaluation terminates immediately
                    and the specific action is taken.

       **goto** _chain_   Similar to **jump**, but the current
                    position is not pushed to the
                    call stack, meaning that after
                    the new chain evaluation will
                    continue at the last chain
                    instead of the one containing the
                    goto statement.


       **Using** **verdict** **statements**.

           # process packets from eth0 and the internal network in from_lan
           # chain, drop all packets from eth0 with different source addresses.

           filter input iif eth0 ip saddr 192.168.0.0/24 jump from_lan
           filter input iif eth0 drop


   **PAYLOAD** **STATEMENT**
           _payload_expression_ **set** _value_

       The payload statement alters packet content. It can be used for example to set ip DSCP
       (diffserv) header field or ipv6 flow labels.

       **route** **some** **packets** **instead** **of** **bridging**.

           # redirect tcp:http from 192.160.0.0/16 to local machine for routing instead of bridging
           # assumes 00:11:22:33:44:55 is local MAC address.
           bridge input meta iif eth0 ip saddr 192.168.0.0/16 tcp dport 80 meta pkttype set unicast ether daddr set 00:11:22:33:44:55

       **Set** **IPv4** **DSCP** **header** **field**.

           ip forward ip dscp set 42


   **EXTENSION** **HEADER** **STATEMENT**
           _extension_header_expression_ **set** _value_

       The extension header statement alters packet content in variable-sized headers. This can
       currently be used to alter the TCP Maximum segment size of packets, similar to TCPMSS.

       **change** **tcp** **mss**.

           tcp flags syn tcp option maxseg size set 1360
           # set a size based on route information:
           tcp flags syn tcp option maxseg size set rt mtu


   **LOG** **STATEMENT**
           **log** [**prefix** _quoted_string_] [**level** _syslog-level_] [**flags** _log-flags_]
           **log** **group** _nflog_group_ [**prefix** _quoted_string_] [**queue-threshold** _value_] [**snaplen** _size_]
           **log** **level** **audit**

       The log statement enables logging of matching packets. When this statement is used from a
       rule, the Linux kernel will print some information on all matching packets, such as header
       fields, via the kernel log (where it can be read with [dmesg(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dmesg/1/markdown) or read in the syslog).

       In the second form of invocation (if _nflog_group_ is specified), the Linux kernel will pass
       the packet to nfnetlink_log which will send the log through a netlink socket to the specified
       group. One userspace process may subscribe to the group to receive the logs, see [man(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/man/8/markdown) ulogd
       for the Netfilter userspace log daemon and libnetfilter_log documentation for details in case
       you would like to develop a custom program to digest your logs.

       In the third form of invocation (if level audit is specified), the Linux kernel writes a
       message into the audit buffer suitably formatted for reading with auditd. Therefore no
       further formatting options (such as prefix or flags) are allowed in this mode.

       This is a non-terminating statement, so the rule evaluation continues after the packet is
       logged.

### Table 59. log statement options
       ┌────────────────┬──────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword**         │ **Description**              │ **Type**                      │
       ├────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                │                          │                           │
       │prefix          │ Log message prefix       │ quoted string             │
       ├────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                │                          │                           │
       │level           │ Syslog level of logging  │ string: emerg, alert,     │
       │                │                          │ crit, err, warn           │
       │                │                          │ [default], notice, info,  │
       │                │                          │ debug, audit              │
       ├────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                │                          │                           │
       │group           │ NFLOG group to send      │ unsigned integer (16 bit) │
       │                │ messages to              │                           │
       ├────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                │                          │                           │
       │snaplen         │ Length of packet payload │ unsigned integer (32 bit) │
       │                │ to include in netlink    │                           │
       │                │ message                  │                           │
       ├────────────────┼──────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                │                          │                           │
       │queue-threshold │ Number of packets to     │ unsigned integer (32 bit) │
       │                │ queue inside the kernel  │                           │
       │                │ before sending them to   │                           │
       │                │ userspace                │                           │
       └────────────────┴──────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

### Table 60. log-flags
       ┌─────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Flag**         │ **Description**                     │
       ├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                 │
       │tcp sequence │ Log TCP sequence numbers.       │
       ├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                 │
       │tcp options  │ Log options from the TCP packet │
       │             │ header.                         │
       ├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                 │
       │ip options   │ Log options from the IP/IPv6    │
       │             │ packet header.                  │
       ├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                 │
       │skuid        │ Log the userid of the process   │
       │             │ which generated the packet.     │
       ├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                 │
       │ether        │ Decode MAC addresses and        │
       │             │ protocol.                       │
       ├─────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                 │
       │all          │ Enable all log flags listed     │
       │             │ above.                          │
       └─────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **log** **statement**.

           # log the UID which generated the packet and ip options
           ip filter output log flags skuid flags ip options

           # log the tcp sequence numbers and tcp options from the TCP packet
           ip filter output log flags tcp sequence,options

           # enable all supported log flags
           ip6 filter output log flags all


   **REJECT** **STATEMENT**
           **reject** [ **with** _REJECT_WITH_ ]

           _REJECT_WITH_ := **icmp** _icmp_code_ |
                            **icmpv6** _icmpv6_code_ |
                            **icmpx** _icmpx_code_ |
                            **tcp** **reset**

       A reject statement is used to send back an error packet in response to the matched packet
       otherwise it is equivalent to drop so it is a terminating statement, ending rule traversal.
       This statement is only valid in base chains using the **input**, **forward** or **output** hooks, and
       user-defined chains which are only called from those chains.

### Table 61. different ICMP reject variants are meant for use in different table families
       ┌────────┬────────┬─────────────┐
       │**Variant** │ **Family** │ **Type**        │
       ├────────┼────────┼─────────────┤
       │        │        │             │
       │icmp    │ ip     │ icmp_code   │
       ├────────┼────────┼─────────────┤
       │        │        │             │
       │icmpv6  │ ip6    │ icmpv6_code │
       ├────────┼────────┼─────────────┤
       │        │        │             │
       │icmpx   │ inet   │ icmpx_code  │
       └────────┴────────┴─────────────┘

       For a description of the different types and a list of supported keywords refer to DATA TYPES
       section above. The common default reject value is **port-unreachable**.

       Note that in bridge family, reject statement is only allowed in base chains which hook into
       input or prerouting.

   **COUNTER** **STATEMENT**
       A counter statement sets the hit count of packets along with the number of bytes.

           **counter** **packets** _number_ **bytes** _number_
           **counter** { **packets** _number_ | **bytes** _number_ }

   **CONNTRACK** **STATEMENT**
       The conntrack statement can be used to set the conntrack mark and conntrack labels.

           **ct** {**mark** | **event** | **label** | **zone**} **set** _value_

       The ct statement sets meta data associated with a connection. The zone id has to be assigned
       before a conntrack lookup takes place, i.e. this has to be done in prerouting and possibly
       output (if locally generated packets need to be placed in a distinct zone), with a hook
       priority of **raw** (-300).

       Unlike iptables, where the helper assignment happens in the raw table, the helper needs to be
       assigned after a conntrack entry has been found, i.e. it will not work when used with hook
       priorities equal or before -200.

### Table 62. Conntrack statement types
       ┌────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Keyword** │ **Description**               │ **Value**                     │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │event   │ conntrack event bits      │ bitmask, integer (32 bit) │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │helper  │ name of ct helper object  │ quoted string             │
       │        │ to assign to the          │                           │
       │        │ connection                │                           │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │mark    │ Connection tracking mark  │ mark                      │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │label   │ Connection tracking label │ label                     │
       ├────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │        │                           │                           │
       │zone    │ conntrack zone            │ integer (16 bit)          │
       └────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

       **save** **packet** **nfmark** **in** **conntrack**.

           ct mark set meta mark

       **set** **zone** **mapped** **via** **interface**.

           table inet raw {
             chain prerouting {
                 type filter hook prerouting priority raw;
                 ct zone set iif map { "eth1" : 1, "veth1" : 2 }
             }
             chain output {
                 type filter hook output priority raw;
                 ct zone set oif map { "eth1" : 1, "veth1" : 2 }
             }
           }

       **restrict** **events** **reported** **by** **ctnetlink**.

           ct event set new,related,destroy


   **NOTRACK** **STATEMENT**
       The notrack statement allows to disable connection tracking for certain packets.

           **notrack**

       Note that for this statement to be effective, it has to be applied to packets before a
       conntrack lookup happens. Therefore, it needs to sit in a chain with either prerouting or
       output hook and a hook priority of -300 (**raw**) or less.

       See SYNPROXY STATEMENT for an example usage.

   **META** **STATEMENT**
       A meta statement sets the value of a meta expression. The existing meta fields are: priority,
       mark, pkttype, nftrace.

           **meta** {**mark** | **priority** | **pkttype** | **nftrace**} **set** _value_

       A meta statement sets meta data associated with a packet.

### Table 63. Meta statement types
       ┌─────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────┐
       │**Keyword**  │ **Description**               │ **Value**     │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────┤
       │         │                           │           │
       │priority │ TC packet priority        │ tc_handle │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────┤
       │         │                           │           │
       │mark     │ Packet mark               │ mark      │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────┤
       │         │                           │           │
       │pkttype  │ packet type               │ pkt_type  │
       ├─────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────┤
       │         │                           │           │
       │nftrace  │ ruleset packet tracing    │ 0, 1      │
       │         │ on/off. Use **monitor** **trace** │           │
       │         │ command to watch traces   │           │
       └─────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────┘

   **LIMIT** **STATEMENT**
           **limit** **rate** [**over**] _packet_number_ **/** _TIME_UNIT_ [**burst** _packet_number_ **packets**]
           **limit** **rate** [**over**] _byte_number_ _BYTE_UNIT_ **/** _TIME_UNIT_ [**burst** _byte_number_ _BYTE_UNIT_]

           _TIME_UNIT_ := **second** | **minute** | **hour** | **day**
           _BYTE_UNIT_ := **bytes** | **kbytes** | **mbytes**

       A limit statement matches at a limited rate using a token bucket filter. A rule using this
       statement will match until this limit is reached. It can be used in combination with the log
       statement to give limited logging. The optional **over** keyword makes it match over the
       specified rate. Default **burst** is 5. if you specify **burst**, it must be non-zero value.

### Table 64. limit statement values
       ┌──────────────┬───────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Value**         │ **Description**       │ **Type**                      │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │              │                   │                           │
       │packet_number │ Number of packets │ unsigned integer (32 bit) │
       ├──────────────┼───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │              │                   │                           │
       │byte_number   │ Number of bytes   │ unsigned integer (32 bit) │
       └──────────────┴───────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

   **NAT** **STATEMENTS**
           **snat** [[**ip** | **ip6**] **to**] _ADDR_SPEC_ [**:**_PORT_SPEC_] [_FLAGS_]
           **dnat** [[**ip** | **ip6**] **to**] _ADDR_SPEC_ [**:**_PORT_SPEC_] [_FLAGS_]
           **masquerade** [**to** **:**_PORT_SPEC_] [_FLAGS_]
           **redirect** [**to** **:**_PORT_SPEC_] [_FLAGS_]

           _ADDR_SPEC_ := _address_ | _address_ **-** _address_
           _PORT_SPEC_ := _port_ | _port_ **-** _port_

           _FLAGS_  := _FLAG_ [**,** _FLAGS_]
           _FLAG_  := **persistent** | **random** | **fully-random**

       The nat statements are only valid from nat chain types.

       The **snat** and **masquerade** statements specify that the source address of the packet should be
       modified. While **snat** is only valid in the postrouting and input chains, **masquerade** makes
       sense only in postrouting. The dnat and redirect statements are only valid in the prerouting
       and output chains, they specify that the destination address of the packet should be
       modified. You can use non-base chains which are called from base chains of nat chain type
       too. All future packets in this connection will also be mangled, and rules should cease being
       examined.

       The **masquerade** statement is a special form of snat which always uses the outgoing interface’s
       IP address to translate to. It is particularly useful on gateways with dynamic (public) IP
       addresses.

       The **redirect** statement is a special form of dnat which always translates the destination
       address to the local host’s one. It comes in handy if one only wants to alter the destination
       port of incoming traffic on different interfaces.

       When used in the inet family (available with kernel 5.2), the dnat and snat statements
       require the use of the ip and ip6 keyword in case an address is provided, see the examples
       below.

       Before kernel 4.18 nat statements require both prerouting and postrouting base chains to be
       present since otherwise packets on the return path won’t be seen by netfilter and therefore
       no reverse translation will take place.

### Table 65. NAT statement values
       ┌───────────┬──────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
       │**Expression** │ **Description**              │ **Type**                    │
       ├───────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │           │                          │                         │
       │address    │ Specifies that the       │ ipv4_addr, ipv6_addr,   │
       │           │ source/destination       │ e.g. [abcd::1234](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/abcd%3A%3A1234/markdown), or you │
       │           │ address of the packet    │ can use a mapping, e.g. │
       │           │ should be modified. You  │ meta mark map { 10 :    │
       │           │ may specify a mapping to │ 192.168.1.2, 20 :       │
       │           │ relate a list of tuples  │ 192.168.1.3 }           │
       │           │ composed of arbitrary    │                         │
       │           │ expression key with      │                         │
       │           │ address value.           │                         │
       ├───────────┼──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
       │           │                          │                         │
       │port       │ Specifies that the       │ port number (16 bit)    │
       │           │ source/destination       │                         │
       │           │ address of the packet    │                         │
       │           │ should be modified.      │                         │
       └───────────┴──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┘

### Table 66. NAT statement flags
       ┌─────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Flag**         │ **Description**                       │
       ├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                   │
       │persistent   │ Gives a client the same           │
       │             │ source-/destination-address for   │
       │             │ each connection.                  │
       ├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                   │
       │random       │ In kernel 5.0 and newer this is   │
       │             │ the same as fully-random. In      │
       │             │ earlier kernels the port mapping  │
       │             │ will be randomized using a seeded │
       │             │ MD5 hash mix using source and     │
       │             │ destination address and           │
       │             │ destination port.                 │
       ├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │             │                                   │
       │fully-random │ If used then port mapping is      │
       │             │ generated based on a 32-bit       │
       │             │ pseudo-random algorithm.          │
       └─────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **NAT** **statements**.

           # create a suitable table/chain setup for all further examples
           add table nat
           add chain nat prerouting { type nat hook prerouting priority dstnat; }
           add chain nat postrouting { type nat hook postrouting priority srcnat; }

           # translate source addresses of all packets leaving via eth0 to address 1.2.3.4
           add rule nat postrouting oif eth0 snat to 1.2.3.4

           # redirect all traffic entering via eth0 to destination address 192.168.1.120
           add rule nat prerouting iif eth0 dnat to 192.168.1.120

           # translate source addresses of all packets leaving via eth0 to whatever
           # locally generated packets would use as source to reach the same destination
           add rule nat postrouting oif eth0 masquerade

           # redirect incoming TCP traffic for port 22 to port 2222
           add rule nat prerouting tcp dport 22 redirect to :2222

           # inet family:
           # handle ip dnat:
           add rule inet nat prerouting dnat ip to 10.0.2.99
           # handle ip6 dnat:
           add rule inet nat prerouting dnat ip6 to [fe80::dead](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/fe80%3A%3Adead/markdown)
           # this masquerades both ipv4 and ipv6:
           add rule inet nat postrouting meta oif ppp0 masquerade


   **TPROXY** **STATEMENT**
       Tproxy redirects the packet to a local socket without changing the packet header in any way.
       If any of the arguments is missing the data of the incoming packet is used as parameter.
       Tproxy matching requires another rule that ensures the presence of transport protocol header
       is specified.

           **tproxy** **to** _address_**:**_port_
           **tproxy** **to** {_address_ | **:**_port_}

       This syntax can be used in **ip/ip6** tables where network layer protocol is obvious. Either IP
       address or port can be specified, but at least one of them is necessary.

           **tproxy** {**ip** | **ip6**} **to** _address_[**:**_port_]
           **tproxy** **to** **:**_port_

       This syntax can be used in **inet** tables. The **ip/ip6** parameter defines the family the rule will
       match. The **address** parameter must be of this family. When only **port** is defined, the address
       family should not be specified. In this case the rule will match for both families.

### Table 67. tproxy attributes
       ┌────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Name**    │ **Description**                     │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                 │
       │address │ IP address the listening socket │
       │        │ with IP_TRANSPARENT option is   │
       │        │ bound to.                       │
       ├────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
       │        │                                 │
       │port    │ Port the listening socket with  │
       │        │ IP_TRANSPARENT option is bound  │
       │        │ to.                             │
       └────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘

       **Example** **ruleset** **for** **tproxy** **statement**.

           table ip x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook prerouting priority mangle; policy accept;
                   tcp dport ntp tproxy to 1.1.1.1
                   udp dport ssh tproxy to :2222
               }
           }
           table ip6 x {
               chain y {
                  type filter hook prerouting priority mangle; policy accept;
                  tcp dport ntp tproxy to [[dead::beef](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/dead%3A%3Abeef/markdown)]
                  udp dport ssh tproxy to :2222
               }
           }
           table inet x {
               chain y {
                   type filter hook prerouting priority mangle; policy accept;
                   tcp dport 321 tproxy to :ssh
                   tcp dport 99 tproxy ip to 1.1.1.1:999
                   udp dport 155 tproxy ip6 to [[dead::beef](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/dead%3A%3Abeef/markdown)]:smux
               }
           }


   **SYNPROXY** **STATEMENT**
       This statement will process TCP three-way-handshake parallel in netfilter context to protect
       either local or backend system. This statement requires connection tracking because sequence
       numbers need to be translated.

           **synproxy** [**mss** _mss_value_] [**wscale** _wscale_value_] [_SYNPROXY_FLAGS_]

### Table 68. synproxy statement attributes
       ┌───────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Name**   │ **Description**                       │
       ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │       │                                   │
       │mss    │ Maximum segment size announced to │
       │       │ clients. This must match the      │
       │       │ backend.                          │
       ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │       │                                   │
       │wscale │ Window scale announced to         │
       │       │ clients. This must match the      │
       │       │ backend.                          │
       └───────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

### Table 69. synproxy statement flags
       ┌──────────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Flag**      │ **Description**                       │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │          │                                   │
       │sack-perm │ Pass client selective             │
       │          │ acknowledgement option to backend │
       │          │ (will be disabled if not          │
       │          │ present).                         │
       ├──────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │          │                                   │
       │timestamp │ Pass client timestamp option to   │
       │          │ backend (will be disabled if not  │
       │          │ present, also needed for          │
       │          │ selective acknowledgement and     │
       │          │ window scaling).                  │
       └──────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

       **Example** **ruleset** **for** **synproxy** **statement**.

           Determine tcp options used by backend, from an external system

                         tcpdump -pni eth0 -c 1 'tcp[tcpflags] == (tcp-syn|tcp-ack)'
                             port 80 &
                         telnet 192.0.2.42 80
                         18:57:24.693307 IP 192.0.2.42.80 > 192.0.2.43.48757:
                             Flags [S.], seq 360414582, ack 788841994, win 14480,
                             options [mss 1460,sackOK,
                             TS val 1409056151 ecr 9690221,
                             nop,wscale 9],
                             length 0

           Switch tcp_loose mode off, so conntrack will mark out-of-flow packets as state INVALID.

                         echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_tcp_loose

           Make SYN packets untracked.

                   table ip x {
                           chain y {
                                   type filter hook prerouting priority raw; policy accept;
                                   tcp flags syn notrack
                           }
                   }

           Catch UNTRACKED (SYN  packets) and INVALID (3WHS ACK packets) states and send
           them to SYNPROXY. This rule will respond to SYN packets with SYN+ACK
           syncookies, create ESTABLISHED for valid client response (3WHS ACK packets) and
           drop incorrect cookies. Flags combinations not expected during  3WHS will not
           match and continue (e.g. SYN+FIN, SYN+ACK). Finally, drop invalid packets, this
           will be out-of-flow packets that were not matched by SYNPROXY.

               table ip x {
                       chain z {
                               type filter hook input priority filter; policy accept;
                               ct state invalid, untracked synproxy mss 1460 wscale 9 timestamp sack-perm
                               ct state invalid drop
                       }
               }


   **FLOW** **STATEMENT**
       A flow statement allows us to select what flows you want to accelerate forwarding through
       layer 3 network stack bypass. You have to specify the flowtable name where you want to
       offload this flow.

       **flow** **add** **@**_flowtable_

   **QUEUE** **STATEMENT**
       This statement passes the packet to userspace using the nfnetlink_queue handler. The packet
       is put into the queue identified by its 16-bit queue number. Userspace can inspect and modify
       the packet if desired. Userspace must then drop or re-inject the packet into the kernel. See
       libnetfilter_queue documentation for details.

           **queue** [**flags** _QUEUE_FLAGS_] [**to** _queue_number_]
           **queue** [**flags** _QUEUE_FLAGS_] [**to** _queue_number_from_ - _queue_number_to_]
           **queue** [**flags** _QUEUE_FLAGS_] [**to** _QUEUE_EXPRESSION_ ]

           _QUEUE_FLAGS_ := _QUEUE_FLAG_ [**,** _QUEUE_FLAGS_]
           _QUEUE_FLAG_  := **bypass** | **fanout**
           _QUEUE_EXPRESSION_ := **numgen** | **hash** | **symhash** | **MAP** **STATEMENT**

       QUEUE_EXPRESSION can be used to compute a queue number at run-time with the hash or numgen
       expressions. It also allows to use the map statement to assign fixed queue numbers based on
       external inputs such as the source ip address or interface names.

### Table 70. queue statement values
       ┌──────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
       │**Value**             │ **Description**               │ **Type**                      │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                           │
       │queue_number      │ Sets queue number,        │ unsigned integer (16 bit) │
       │                  │ default is 0.             │                           │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                           │
       │queue_number_from │ Sets initial queue in the │ unsigned integer (16 bit) │
       │                  │ range, if fanout is used. │                           │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
       │                  │                           │                           │
       │queue_number_to   │ Sets closing queue in the │ unsigned integer (16 bit) │
       │                  │ range, if fanout is used. │                           │
       └──────────────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

### Table 71. queue statement flags
       ┌───────┬───────────────────────────────────┐
       │**Flag**   │ **Description**                       │
       ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │       │                                   │
       │bypass │ Let packets go through if         │
       │       │ userspace application cannot back │
       │       │ off. Before using this flag, read │
       │       │ libnetfilter_queue documentation  │
       │       │ for performance tuning            │
       │       │ recommendations.                  │
       ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
       │       │                                   │
       │fanout │ Distribute packets between        │
       │       │ several queues.                   │
       └───────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

   **DUP** **STATEMENT**
       The dup statement is used to duplicate a packet and send the copy to a different destination.

           **dup** **to** _device_
           **dup** **to** _address_ **device** _device_

### Table 72. Dup statement values
       ┌───────────┬───────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
       │**Expression** │ **Description**               │ **Type**                     │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                          │
       │address    │ Specifies that the copy   │ ipv4_addr, ipv6_addr,    │
       │           │ of the packet should be   │ e.g. [abcd::1234](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/abcd%3A%3A1234/markdown), or you  │
       │           │ sent to a new gateway.    │ can use a mapping, e.g.  │
       │           │                           │ ip saddr map {           │
       │           │                           │ 192.168.1.2 : 10.1.1.1 } │
       ├───────────┼───────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
       │           │                           │                          │
       │device     │ Specifies that the copy   │ string                   │
       │           │ should be transmitted via │                          │
       │           │ device.                   │                          │
       └───────────┴───────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘

       **Using** **the** **dup** **statement**.

           # send to machine with ip address 10.2.3.4 on eth0
           ip filter forward dup to 10.2.3.4 device "eth0"

           # copy raw frame to another interface
           netdev ingress dup to "eth0"
           dup to "eth0"

           # combine with map dst addr to gateways
           dup to ip daddr map { 192.168.7.1 : "eth0", 192.168.7.2 : "eth1" }


   **FWD** **STATEMENT**
       The fwd statement is used to redirect a raw packet to another interface. It is only available
       in the netdev family ingress and egress hooks. It is similar to the dup statement except that
       no copy is made.

       **fwd** **to** _device_

   **SET** **STATEMENT**
       The set statement is used to dynamically add or update elements in a set from the packet
       path. The set setname must already exist in the given table and must have been created with
       one or both of the dynamic and the timeout flags. The dynamic flag is required if the set
       statement expression includes a stateful object. The timeout flag is implied if the set is
       created with a timeout, and is required if the set statement updates elements, rather than
       adding them. Furthermore, these sets should specify both a maximum set size (to prevent
       memory exhaustion), and their elements should have a timeout (so their number will not grow
       indefinitely) either from the set definition or from the statement that adds or updates them.
       The set statement can be used to e.g. create dynamic blacklists.

           {**add** | **update**} **@**_setname_ **{** _expression_ [**timeout** _timeout_] [**comment** _string_] **}**

       **Example** **for** **simple** **blacklist**.

           # declare a set, bound to table "filter", in family "ip".
           # Timeout and size are mandatory because we will add elements from packet path.
           # Entries will timeout after one minute, after which they might be
           # re-added if limit condition persists.
           nft add set ip filter blackhole \
               "{ type ipv4_addr; flags dynamic; timeout 1m; size 65536; }"

           # declare a set to store the limit per saddr.
           # This must be separate from blackhole since the timeout is different
           nft add set ip filter flood \
               "{ type ipv4_addr; flags dynamic; timeout 10s; size 128000; }"

           # whitelist internal interface.
           nft add rule ip filter input meta iifname "internal" accept

           # drop packets coming from blacklisted ip addresses.
           nft add rule ip filter input ip saddr @blackhole counter drop

           # add source ip addresses to the blacklist if more than 10 tcp connection
           # requests occurred per second and ip address.
           nft add rule ip filter input tcp flags syn tcp dport ssh \
               add @flood { ip saddr limit rate over 10/second } \
               add @blackhole { ip saddr } \
               drop

           # inspect state of the sets.
           nft list set ip filter flood
           nft list set ip filter blackhole

           # manually add two addresses to the blackhole.
           nft add element filter blackhole { 10.2.3.4, 10.23.1.42 }


   **MAP** **STATEMENT**
       The map statement is used to lookup data based on some specific input key.

           _expression_ **map** **{** _MAP_ELEMENTS_ **}**

           _MAP_ELEMENTS_ := _MAP_ELEMENT_ [**,** _MAP_ELEMENTS_]
           _MAP_ELEMENT_  := _key_ **:** _value_

       The _key_ is a value returned by _expression_.

       **Using** **the** **map** **statement**.

           # select DNAT target based on TCP dport:
           # connections to port 80 are redirected to 192.168.1.100,
           # connections to port 8888 are redirected to 192.168.1.101
           nft add rule ip nat prerouting dnat tcp dport map { 80 : 192.168.1.100, 8888 : 192.168.1.101 }

           # source address based SNAT:
           # packets from net 192.168.1.0/24 will appear as originating from 10.0.0.1,
           # packets from net 192.168.2.0/24 will appear as originating from 10.0.0.2
           nft add rule ip nat postrouting snat to ip saddr map { 192.168.1.0/24 : 10.0.0.1, 192.168.2.0/24 : 10.0.0.2 }


   **VMAP** **STATEMENT**
       The verdict map (vmap) statement works analogous to the map statement, but contains verdicts
       as values.

           _expression_ **vmap** **{** _VMAP_ELEMENTS_ **}**

           _VMAP_ELEMENTS_ := _VMAP_ELEMENT_ [**,** _VMAP_ELEMENTS_]
           _VMAP_ELEMENT_  := _key_ **:** _verdict_

       **Using** **the** **vmap** **statement**.

           # jump to different chains depending on layer 4 protocol type:
           nft add rule ip filter input ip protocol vmap { tcp : jump tcp-chain, udp : jump udp-chain , icmp : jump icmp-chain }


## ADDITIONAL COMMANDS
       These are some additional commands included in nft.

   **MONITOR**
       The monitor command allows you to listen to Netlink events produced by the nf_tables
       subsystem. These are either related to creation and deletion of objects or to packets for
       which **meta** **nftrace** was enabled. When they occur, nft will print to stdout the monitored
       events in either JSON or native nft format.

           **monitor** [**new** | **destroy**] _MONITOR_OBJECT_
           **monitor** **trace**

           _MONITOR_OBJECT_ := **tables** | **chains** | **sets** | **rules** | **elements** | **ruleset**

       To filter events related to a concrete object, use one of the keywords in _MONITOR_OBJECT_.

       To filter events related to a concrete action, use keyword **new** or **destroy**.

       The second form of invocation takes no further options and exclusively prints events
       generated for packets with **nftrace** enabled.

       Hit ^C to finish the monitor operation.

       **Listen** **to** **all** **events,** **report** **in** **native** **nft** **format**.

           % nft monitor

       **Listen** **to** **deleted** **rules,** **report** **in** **JSON** **format**.

           % nft -j monitor destroy rules

       **Listen** **to** **both** **new** **and** **destroyed** **chains,** **in** **native** **nft** **format**.

           % nft monitor chains

### Listen to ruleset events such as table, chain, rule, set, counters and quotas, in native nft
       **format**.

           % nft monitor ruleset

       **Trace** **incoming** **packets** **from** **host** **10.0.0.1**.

           % nft add rule filter input ip saddr 10.0.0.1 meta nftrace set 1
           % nft monitor trace


## ERROR REPORTING
       When an error is detected, nft shows the line(s) containing the error, the position of the
       erroneous parts in the input stream and marks up the erroneous parts using carets (^). If the
       error results from the combination of two expressions or statements, the part imposing the
       constraints which are violated is marked using tildes (~).

       For errors returned by the kernel, nft cannot detect which parts of the input caused the
       error and the entire command is marked.

       **Error** **caused** **by** **single** **incorrect** **expression**.

           <cmdline>:1:19-22: Error: Interface does not exist
           filter output oif eth0
                             ^^^^

       **Error** **caused** **by** **invalid** **combination** **of** **two** **expressions**.

           <cmdline>:1:28-36: Error: Right hand side of relational expression (==) must be constant
           filter output tcp dport == tcp dport
                                   ~~ ^^^^^^^^^

       **Error** **returned** **by** **the** **kernel**.

           <cmdline>:0:0-23: Error: Could not process rule: Operation not permitted
           filter output oif wlan0
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


## EXIT STATUS
       On success, nft exits with a status of 0. Unspecified errors cause it to exit with a status
       of 1, memory allocation errors with a status of 2, unable to open Netlink socket with 3.

## SEE ALSO
           [libnftables(3)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/libnftables/3/markdown), [libnftables-json(5)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/libnftables-json/5/markdown), [iptables(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/iptables/8/markdown), [ip6tables(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ip6tables/8/markdown), [arptables(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/arptables/8/markdown), [ebtables(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ebtables/8/markdown), [ip(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/ip/8/markdown), [tc(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/tc/8/markdown)

       There is an official wiki at: <https://wiki.nftables.org>

## AUTHORS
       nftables was written by Patrick McHardy and Pablo Neira Ayuso, among many other contributors
       from the Netfilter community.

## COPYRIGHT
       Copyright © 2008-2014 Patrick McHardy <<kaber@trash.net>> Copyright © 2013-2018 Pablo Neira
       Ayuso <<pablo@netfilter.org>>

       nftables is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
       GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

       This documentation is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
       4.0 license, CC BY-SA 4.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/>.



                                             02/24/2026                                       [NFT(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/NFT/8/markdown)
