batctl - html man page (v2024.0-1-g05e6984)




SYNOPSIS

       batctl [options] command|debug table|debug JSON [parameters]


DESCRIPTION

       batctl offers a convenient way to configure the batman-adv kernel mod-
       ule as well as displaying debug information such as originator tables
       and translation tables. In combination with a bat-hosts file batctl al-
       lows the use of host names instead of MAC addresses.

       B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced operates on layer 2. Thus all hosts participating
       in the virtual switched network are transparently connected together
       for all protocols above layer 2. Therefore the common diagnosis tools
       do not work as expected. To overcome these problems batctl contains the
       commands ping, traceroute, tcpdump which provide similar functionality
       to the normal ping(1), traceroute(1), tcpdump(1) commands, but modified
       to layer 2 behaviour or using the B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced protocol. For
       similar reasons, throughputmeter, a command to test network perfor-
       mances, is also included.



OPTIONS

       -m     specify mesh interface (default 'bat0')

       -h     print general batctl help

       -v     print batctl version and batman-adv version (if the module is
              loaded)



COMMANDS

       bisect_iv [-l MAC][-t MAC][-r MAC][-s min [- max]][-o MAC][-n] logfile1
       ...
              Analyses the B.A.T.M.A.N. IV logfiles to build a small internal
              database of all sent sequence numbers and routing table changes.
              This database can then be analyzed in a number of different
              ways. With "-l" the database can be used to search for routing
              loops. Use "-t" to trace OGMs of a host throughout the network.
              Use "-r" to display routing tables of the nodes. The option "-s"
              can be used to limit the output to a range of sequence numbers,
              between min and max, or to one specific sequence number, min.
              Furthermore using "-o" you can filter the output to a specified
              originator. If "-n" is given batctl will not replace the MAC ad-
              dresses with bat-host names in the output.

       event|e [-t|-r]
              batctl will monitor for events from the netlink kernel interface
              of batman-adv. The local timestamp of the event will be printed
              when parameter -t is specified. Parameter -r will do the same
              but with relative timestamps.

       [meshif netdev] interface|if
       [meshif netdev] interface|if [-M] add|del iface ...
              If no parameter is given or the first parameter is neither "add"
              nor "del" the current interface settings are displayed.  In or-
              der to add or delete interfaces specify "add" or "del" as first
              argument and append the interface names you wish to add or
              delete. Multiple interfaces can be specified.  The "-M" option
              tells batctl to not automatically create the batman-adv inter-
              face on "add". It can also be used to suppress the warning about
              the manual destruction when "del" removed all interfaces which
              belonged to it.

       [meshif netdev] interface|if create [routing_algo|ra RA_NAME]
              A batman-adv interface without attached interfaces can be cre-
              ated using "create". The parameter routing_algo can be used to
              overwrite the (default) routing algorithm.

       [meshif netdev] interface|if destroy
              Remove all attached interfaces and destroy the batman-adv inter-
              face.

       [meshif netdev] ping|p [-c count][-i interval][-t time][-R][-T] MAC_ad-
       dress|bat-host_name|host_name|IP_address
              Layer 2 ping of a MAC address or bat-host name.  batctl will try
              to find the bat-host name if the given parameter was not a MAC
              address. It can also try to guess the MAC address using an
              IPv4/IPv6 address or a hostname when the IPv4/IPv6 address was
              configured on top of the batman-adv interface of the destination
              device and both source and destination devices are in the same
              IP subnet.  The "-c" option tells batctl how man pings should be
              sent before the program exits. Without the "-c" option batctl
              will continue pinging without end. Use CTRL + C to stop it.
              With "-i" and "-t" you can set the default interval between
              pings and the timeout time for replies, both in seconds. When
              run with "-R", the route taken by the ping messages will be
              recorded. With "-T" you can disable the automatic translation of
              a client MAC address to the originator address which is respon-
              sible for this client.

       routing_algo|ra [algorithm]
              If no parameter is given the current routing algorithm configu-
              ration as well as supported routing algorithms are displayed.
              Otherwise the parameter is used to select the routing algorithm
              for the following batX interface to be created.

       [meshif netdev] statistics|s
              Retrieve traffic counters from batman-adv kernel module. The
              output may vary depending on which features have been compiled
              into the kernel module.
              Each module subsystem has its own counters which are indicated
              by their prefixes:

              mgmt   mesh protocol counters
                tt   translation table counters
              All counters without a prefix concern payload (pure user data)
              traffic.

       tcpdump|td [-c][-n][-p filter][-x filter] interface ...
              batctl will display all packets that are seen on the given in-
              terface(s). A variety of options to filter the output are avail-
              able: To only print packets that match the compatibility number
              of batctl specify the "-c" (compat filter) option. If "-n" is
              given batctl will not replace the MAC addresses with bat-host
              names in the output. To filter the shown packet types you can
              either use "-p" (dump only specified packet types) or "-x" (dump
              all packet types except specified). The following packet types
              are available:


                1   batman ogm packets
                2   batman icmp packets
                4   batman unicast packets
                8   batman broadcast packets
               16   batman unicast tvlv packets

               32   batman fragmented packets
               64   batman tt / roaming packets
              128   non batman packets
              Example: batctl td <interface> -p 129 -> only display batman ogm
              packets and non batman packets

       [meshif netdev] throughputmeter|tp MAC
              This command starts a throughput test entirely controlled by
              batman module in kernel space: the computational resources
              needed to align memory and copy data between user and kernel
              space that are required by other user space tools may represent
              a bottleneck on some low profile device.

              The test consist of the transfer of 14 MB of data between the
              two nodes. The protocol used to transfer the data is somehow
              similar to TCP, but simpler: some TCP features are still miss-
              ing, thus protocol performances could be worst. Since a fixed
              amount of data is transferred the experiment duration depends on
              the network conditions. The experiment can be interrupted with
              CTRL + C. At the end of a successful experiment the throughput
              in KBytes per second is returned, together with the experiment
              duration in millisecond and the amount of bytes transferred. If
              too many packets are lost or the specified MAC address is not
              reachable, a message notifying the error is returned instead of
              the result.

       [meshif netdev] traceroute|tr [-n][-T] MAC_ad-
       dress|bat-host_name|host_name|IP_address
              Layer 2 traceroute to a MAC address or bat-host name. batctl
              will try to find the bat-host name if the given parameter was
              not a MAC address. It can also try to guess the MAC address us-
              ing an IPv4/IPv6 address or a hostname when the IPv4/IPv6 ad-
              dress was configured on top of the batman-adv interface of the
              destination device and both source and destination devices are
              in the same IP subnet.  batctl will send 3 packets to each host
              and display the response time. If "-n" is given batctl will not
              replace the MAC addresses with bat-host names in the output.
              With "-T" you can disable the automatic translation of a client
              MAC address to the originator address which is responsible for
              this client.

       [meshif netdev] translate|t MAC_address|bat-host_name|host_name|IP_ad-
       dress
              Translates a destination (hostname, IP, MAC, bat_host-name) to
              the originator mac address responsible for it.



SETTINGS

       [meshif netdev] aggregation|ag [0|1]
              If no parameter is given the current aggregation setting is dis-
              played. Otherwise the parameter is used to enable or disable OGM
              packet aggregation.

       [meshif netdev] ap_isolation|ap [0|1]
              If no parameter is given the current ap isolation setting is
              displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to enable or disable
              ap isolation.

       [meshif netdev] ap_isolation|ap [0|1]
       [meshif netdev] vid <vid> ap_isolation|ap [0|1]
       vlan vdev ap_isolation|ap [0|1]
              tion won't be available.

       [meshif netdev] distributed_arp_table|dat [0|1]
              If no parameter is given the current distributed arp table set-
              ting is displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to enable or
              disable the distributed arp table.

       hardif hardif elp_interval|et [interval]
              If no parameter is given the current ELP interval setting of the
              hard interface is displayed otherwise the parameter is used to
              set the ELP interval. The interval is in units of milliseconds.

       [meshif netdev] fragmentation|f [0|1]
              If no parameter is given the current fragmentation mode setting
              is displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to enable or dis-
              able fragmentation.

       [meshif netdev] gw_mode|gw [off|client|server] [sel_class|bandwidth]
              If no parameter is given the current gateway mode is displayed
              otherwise the parameter is used to set the gateway mode. The
              second (optional) argument specifies the selection class (if
              'client' was the first argument) or the gateway bandwidth (if
              'server' was the first argument). If the node is a server this
              parameter is used to inform other nodes in the network about
              this node's internet connection bandwidth. Just enter any number
              (optionally followed by "kbit" or "mbit") and the batman-adv
              module will propagate the entered value in the mesh. Use "/" to
              separate the down- and upload rates. You can omit the upload
              rate and the module will assume an upload of download / 5.
                        default: 10000 -> 10.0/2.0 MBit
                       examples:  5000 ->  5.0/1.0 MBit
                                  5000kbit
                                  5mbit
                                  5mbit/1024
                                  5mbit/1024kbit
                                  5mbit/1mbit
              If the node is a gateway client the parameter will decide which
              criteria to consider when the batman-adv module has to choose
              between different internet connections announced by the afore-
              mentioned servers.
              B.A.T.M.A.N. IV:
                        default: 20 -> late switch (TQ 20)
                       examples:  1 -> fast connection
                                       consider the gateway's advertised
                                       throughput as well as the link quality
                                       towards the gateway and stick with the
                                       selection until the gateway disappears
                                  2 -> stable connection
                                       chooses the gateway with the best link
                                       quality and sticks with it (ignore the
                                       advertised throughput)
                                  3 -> fast switch connection
                                       chooses the gateway with the best link
                                       quality but switches to another gateway
                                       as soon as a better one is found
                                 XX -> late switch connection
                                       chooses the gateway with the best link
                                       quality but switches to another gateway
                                       as soon as a better one is found which
                                       is at least XX TQ better than the cur-
                                       rently selected gateway (XX has to be a
                                       number between 3 and 256).
              B.A.T.M.A.N. V:
                        default: 5000 -> late switch (5000 kbit/s throughput)
                        example: 1500 -> fast switch connection
                                         switches to another gateway as soon
                                         as a better one is found which is at
                                         least 1500 kbit/s faster throughput
                                         than the currently selected gateway.
                                         Throughput is determined by evaluat-
                                         ing which is lower: the advertised
                                         throughput by the gateway or the max-
                                         imum bandwidth across the entire
                                         path.

       [meshif netdev] hop_penalty|hp [penalty]
              If no parameter is given the current hop penalty setting is dis-
              played. Otherwise the parameter is used to set the hop penalty.
              The penalty is can be 0-255 (255 sets originator message's TQ to
              zero when forwarded by this hop).

       [hardif hardif] hop_penalty|hp [penalty]
              If no parameter is given the current hop penalty setting of the
              hard interface is displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to
              set the hop penalty. The penalty can be 0-255 (255 sets origina-
              tor message's TQ to zero when forwarded over this interface).

       [meshif netdev] isolation_mark|mark [value[/mask]]
              If no parameter is given the current isolation mark value is
              displayed.  Otherwise the parameter is used to set or unset the
              isolation mark used by the Extended Isolation feature.
              The input is supposed to be of the form $value/$mask, where
              $value can be any 32bit long integer (expressed in decimal or
              hex base) and $mask is a generic bitmask (expressed in hex base)
              that selects the bits to take into consideration from $value. It
              is also possible to enter the input using only $value and in
              this case the full bitmask is used by default.

              Example 1: 0x00000001/0xffffffff
              Example 2: 0x00040000/0xffff0000
              Example 3: 16 or 0x0F

       [meshif netdev] loglevel|ll [level ...]
              If no parameter is given the current log level settings are dis-
              played otherwise the parameter(s) is/are used to set the log
              level. Level 'none' disables all verbose logging. Level 'batman'
              enables messages related to routing / flooding / broadcasting.
              Level 'routes' enables messages related to routes being added /
              changed / deleted. Level 'tt' enables messages related to trans-
              lation table operations. Level 'bla' enables messages related to
              the bridge loop avoidance. Level 'dat' enables messages related
              to ARP snooping and the Distributed Arp Table. Level 'nc' en-
              ables messages related to network coding.  Level 'mcast' enables
              messages related to multicast optimizations. Level 'tp' enables
              messages related to throughput meter.  Level 'all' enables all
              messages. The messages are sent to the kernels trace buffers.
              Use trace-cmd stream -e batadv:batadv_dbg to receive the system
              wide log messages.

       [meshif netdev] multicast_fanout|mo [fanout]
              If no parameter is given the current multicast fanout setting is
              displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to set the multicast
              fanout. The multicast fanout defines the maximum number of
              packet copies that may be generated for a multicast-to-unicast
              conversion. Once this limit is exceeded distribution will fall
              back to broadcast.

       [meshif netdev] multicast_forceflood|mff [0|1]
              If no parameter is given the current multicast forceflood set-
              ting is displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to enable or
              disable multicast forceflood. This setting defines whether mul-
              ticast optimizations should be replaced by simple broadcast-like
              flooding of multicast packets. If set to non-zero then all nodes
              in the mesh are going to use classic flooding for any multicast
              packet with no optimizations.

       [meshif netdev] network_coding|nc [0|1]
              If no parameter is given the current network coding mode setting
              is displayed. Otherwise the parameter is used to enable or dis-
              able network coding.

       [meshif netdev] orig_interval|it [interval]
              If no parameter is given the current originator interval setting
              is displayed otherwise the parameter is used to set the origina-
              tor interval. The interval is in units of milliseconds.

       hardif hardif throughput_override|to [bandwidth]
              If no parameter is given the current througput override is dis-
              played otherwise the parameter is used to set the throughput
              override for the specified hard interface.  Just enter any num-
              ber (optionally followed by "kbit" or "mbit").



DEBUG TABLES

       The batman-adv kernel module comes with a variety of debug tables con-
       taining various information about the state of the mesh seen by each
       individual node.

       All of the debug tables support the following options:

       -w     refresh the list every second or add a number to let it refresh
              at a custom interval in seconds (with optional decimal places)

       -n     do not replace the MAC addresses with bat-host names in the out-
              put

       -H     do not show the header of the debug table


       The originator table also supports the "-t" filter option to remove all
       originators from the output that have not been seen for the specified
       amount of seconds (with optional decimal places). It furthermore sup-
       ports the "-i" parameter to specify an interface for which the origina-
       tor table should be printed. If this parameter is not supplied, the de-
       fault originator table is printed.

       The local and global translation tables also support the "-u" and "-m"
       option to only display unicast or multicast translation table announce-
       ments respectively.


       [meshif netdev] backbonetable|bbt [-n] [-H] [-w interval]
              (compile time option)

       [meshif netdev] claimtable|cl [-n] [-H] [-w interval]

              (compile time option)

       [meshif netdev] translocal|tl [-n] [-H] [-w interval] [-u] [-m]



JSON QUERIES

       The generic netlink family provided by the batman-adv kernel module can
       be queried (read-only) by batctl and automatically translated to JSON.
       This can be used to monitor the state of the system without the need of
       parsing the freeform debug tables or the native netlink messages.


       [meshif netdev] bla_backbone_json|bbj

       [meshif netdev] bla_claim_json|clj

       [meshif netdev] dat_cache_json|dcj

       [meshif netdev] gateways_json|gwj

       hardif hardif hardif_json|hj

       [meshif netdev] hardifs_json|hj

       [meshif netdev] mcast_flags_json|mfj

       [meshif netdev] mesh_json|mj

       [meshif netdev] neighbors_json|nj

       [meshif netdev] originators_json|oj

       [meshif netdev] transtable_global_json|tgj

       [meshif netdev] transtable_local_json|tlj

       [meshif netdev] vid <vid> vlan_json|vj
       vlan vdev vlan_json|vj



EXAMPLES

       The setup of a batadv interface usually consists of creation of the the
       main interface, attaching of the (lower) hard-interface, adjusting of
       settings and bringup of the interface:

           # create batadv (mesh) interface bat0 with routing algorithm B.A.T.M.A.N. IV
           $ batctl meshif bat0 interface create routing_algo BATMAN_IV
           # add the (already up and running) mesh0 interface as lower (hard) interface to bat0
           $ batctl meshif bat0 interface -M add mesh0
           # change some settings to better match the requirements of the user
           $ batctl meshif bat0 orig_interval 5000
           $ batctl meshif bat0 distributed_arp_table disable
           ...
           # set the batadv (mesh) interface up before it is possible to use it
           $ ip link set up dev bat0

       This only makes sure that the layer 2 functionality of bat0 is started
       up. It is the responsibility of the user to make sure that the bat0 de-
       vice itself gets attached to a bridge, configured with an IP address
       (manually/DHCP client/...)  or integrated in other parts of the system
       before it gets used.

       Also the attached (lower) hard-interfaces attached to the batadv inter-
       face must be configured by the user to support transportation of ether-
       net unicast and broadcast packets between its linked peers. The most
       common reason for a not working batman-adv mesh are incorrect configu-
       rations of the hard-interfaces, hardware, firmware or driver bugs which
       prevent that some of the packet types are correctly exchanged.

       The current status of interface can be checked using the debug tables.
       It is often relevant to check from which direct neighbors discovery
       packets were received.  The next step is to check the (preferred)
       routes to originators. These will only be established when the metric
       has detected bidirectional connections between neighbors and might have
       forwarded discovery packets from not directly reachable nodes/origina-
       tors.

           # get list of neighbors from which the current node was able to receive discovery packets
           $ batctl meshif bat0 neighbors
           # get (preferred) routes the routing algorithm found
           $ batctl meshif bat0 originators

       If the bat0 interface should no longer used by the system, it can be
       destroyed again:

           # destroy the interface and let the system remove its state
           $ batctl meshif bat0 interface destroy



FILES

       bat-hosts
              This file is similar to the /etc/hosts file. You can write one
              MAC address and one host name per line. batctl will search for
              bat-hosts in /etc, your home directory and the current direc-
              tory. The found data is used to match MAC address to your pro-
              vided host name or replace MAC addresses in debug output and
              logs. Host names are much easier to remember than MAC addresses.



SEE ALSO

       bridge(8), dmesg(1), ip(8), ip-link(8), ping(8), tcpdump(8), tracer-
       oute(1), trace-cmd(1)


AUTHOR

       batctl was written by Andreas Langer <an.langer@gmx.de> and Marek Lind-
       ner <mareklindner@neomailbox.ch>.

       This manual page was written by Simon Wunderlich <sw@simonwunder-
       lich.de>, Marek Lindner <mareklindner@neomailbox.ch> and Andrew Lunn
       <andrew@lunn.ch>



Linux                            July 17, 2015                       BATCTL(8)

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