Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell.com!decwrl!sgi!vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com
From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Timeout mechanism to invalidate ARP cache entries
Summary: check the source
Keywords: ARP unix SunOS Ultrix
Message-ID: <87193@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 23 Feb 91 20:09:45 GMT
References: <2669@inews.intel.com>
Sender: guest@sgi.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 20

In article <2669@inews.intel.com>, echan@cadev6.intel.com (Eldon Chan ~ ) writes:
> Would someone tell me what [ARP cache timeout mechanisms] are implemented
>	and how it is done on SunOS,
> Ultrix and other UNIX machines ?

The most reliable way to answer such a question is to check the source,
when possible.  That way you don't rely on hearsay and rumor.

I suspect 4.* BSD was influential in most versions of SunOs and Ultrix.
(Take that statement as hearsay or rumor).  The 4.3BSD-network-release code
is in arptimer() in .../netinet/if_ether.c in your favorite public source
repository, such as UUNET.  An official tape of the 4.3BSD network source
is cheap, and is required reading for any serious student of TCP/IP.

If you want a rumor of how 4.3BSD does it, mine is that it uses simple
timers which delete completed entries 20 minutes after creation.

Vernon Schryver,    vjs@sgi.com




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