6.1.6 Options Statements
Options statements allow specification of some global options. If used, options must appear
before any other type of configuration statement in the GateD.conf file.
The options statement syntax is:
options
[ nosend ]
[ noresolv ]
[ gendefault [ preference preference ] [ gateway gateway] ]
[ syslog [ upto ] log_level ]
[ mark time ]
;
The options list can contain one or more of the following options:
- gendefault [ preference preference] [ gateway gateway]
- When gendefault is enabled, and when a BGP or EGP neighbor is up it causes the
creation of a default route with the special protocol default. This can be disabled
per BGP/EGP group with the nogendefault option. By default, this route has a
preference of 20. This route is normally not installed in the kernel forwarding table.
It is only present so it can be announced to other protocols. If a gateway is specified,
the default route will be installed in the kernel forwarding table with a next hop of
the listed gateway.
- Note that the use of the more general option is preferred to the use of this
gendefault option. The gendefault option may go away in future releases. See
the section on Route Aggregation for more information on the generatestatement.
- nosend
- Do not send any packets. This option makes it possible to run GateD on a live network
to test protocol interactions without actually participating in the routing protocols. The
packet traces in the GateD log can be examined to verify that GateD is functioning
properly. This is most useful for RIP and HELLO and possibly the SMUX SNMP
interface. This option does not yet apply to BGP and is less than useful with EGP and
OSPF.
- noresolv
- By default, GateD will try to resolve symbolic names into IP addresses by using the
gethostbyname() and getnetbyname() library calls. These calls usually use the Domain
Name System (DNS) instead of the hosts local host and network tables. If there is
insufficient routing information to send DNS queries, GateD will deadlock during
startup. This option can be used to prevent these calls, symbolic names will result in
configuration file errors.
- syslog [ upto ] log_level
- Controls the amount of data GateD logs via syslog on systems where setlogmask() is
supported. The available logging levels and other terminology are defined in the
setlogmask(3) main page.
- The values for log_level are (high to low):
log_level value |
setlogmask term |
Definition |
emerg (high) |
LOG_EMERG |
A panic condition. |
alert |
LOG_ALERT |
A condition that should be
correct immediately such as
a corrupted system database. |
crit |
LOG_CRIT |
Critical Conditions, e.g.,
hard disk errors. |
err |
LOG_ERR |
Errors. |
warnings |
LOG_WARNING |
Warning messages |
notice |
LOG_NOTICE |
Conditions that are not error
conditions, but should
possibly be handled
specially |
info |
LOG_INFO |
Informational messages |
debug (low) |
LOG_DEBUG |
Messages that contain
information normally of use
only when debugging is a
program. |
The default is equivalent to syslog upto info.
- mark time
- Specifying this option causes GateD to output a message to the trace log at the
specified interval. This can be used as one method of determining if GateD is still
running.
Last updated April 25, 1997
gated@gated.merit.edu