Description

atalkd is responsible for all user level AppleTalk network management. This includes routing, name registration and lookup, zone lookup, and the AppleTalk Echo Protocol (similar to ping(8)). atalkd is typically started at boot time from system init scripts or services. It first reads from its configuration file, atalkd.conf. If there is no configuration file, atalkd will attempt to configure all available interfaces and will create a configuration file. The file consists of a series of interfaces, one per line. Lines with `#' in the first column are ignored, as are blank lines. The syntax is

interface [ -seed ] [ -phase number ] [ -net net-range ] [ -addr address ] [ -zone zonename ] ...

Note that all fields except the interface are optional. The loopback interface is configured automatically. If -seed is specified, all other fields must be present. Also, atalkd will exit during bootstrap­ping, if a router disagrees with its seed information. If -seed is not given, all other information may be overridden during auto-configuration. If no -phase option is given, the default phase as given on the command line is used (the default is 2). If -addr is given and -net is not, a net-range of one is assumed.

The first -zone directive for each interface is the ``default'' zone. Under Phase 1, there is only one zone. Under Phase 2, all routers on the network are configured with the default zone and must agree. atalkd maps ``*'' to the default zone of the first interface. Note: The default zone for a machine is determined by the configuration of the local routers; to appear in a non-default zone, each service, e.g. afpd, must individually specify the desired zone. See also nbp_name(3).

Routing

If you are connecting a netatalk router to an existing AppleTalk network, you should first contact your local network administrators to obtain appropriate network addresses.

atalkd can provide routing between interfaces by configuring multiple interfaces. Each interface must be assigned a unique net-range between 1 and 65279 (0 and 65535 are illegal, and addresses between 65280 and 65534 are reserved for startup). It is best to choose the smallest useful net-range, i.e. if you have three machines on a LAN, don't chose a net-range of 1000-2000. Each net-range may have an arbitrary list of zones associated with it.

Examples

Below is an example configuration file for a sun4/40. The machine has two interfaces, ``le0'' and ``le1''. The ``le0'' interface is configured automatically from other routers on the network. The machine is the only router for the ``le1'' interface.

   le0
   le1 -seed -net 9461-9471 -zone netatalk -zone Argus

atalkd automatically acts as a router if there is more than one interface.

Files

atalkd.conf configuration file

Bugs

On some systems, atalkd can not be restarted.

SEE ALSO

atalkd.conf(5)