atalkd — userland AppleTalk network manager daemon
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)). Specifically, this corresponds to the RTMP, NBP, ZIP, and AEP protocols.
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).
Forces AppleTalk Phase 1.
Forces AppleTalk Phase 2.
Write some additional debugging information to stdout.
configfileConsult configfile instead of
atalkd.conf for the configuration
information.
pidfileSpecifies the file in which atalkd stores its process id.
Turns on transition routing.
Print version information and exit.
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.
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.