icmp(4) BSD Kernel Interfaces Manual icmp(4)
NAME
icmp -- Internet Control Message Protocol
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
int
socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, proto);
DESCRIPTION
ICMP is the error and control message protocol used by IP and the Inter-
net protocol family. It may be accessed through a ``raw socket'' for
network monitoring and diagnostic functions. The proto parameter to the
socket call to create an ICMP socket is obtained from getprotobyname(3).
ICMP sockets are connectionless, and are normally used with the sendto
and recvfrom calls, though the connect(2) call may also be used to fix
the destination for future packets (in which case the read(2) or recv(2)
and write(2) or send(2) system calls may be used).
Outgoing packets automatically have an IP header prepended to them (based
on the destination address). Incoming packets are received with the IP
header and options intact. Note that the ip_off and ip_len fields are in
host byte order. For more information about the IP header structure, see
ip(4).
Non-privileged ICMP
ICMP sockets can be opened with the SOCK_DGRAM socket type without
requiring root privileges. The synopsis is the following:
socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_ICMP)
Datagram oriented ICMP sockets offer a subset of the functionality avail-
able to raw ICMP sockets. Only IMCP request messages of the following
types can be sent: ICMP_ECHO, ICMP_TSTAMP or ICMP_MASKREQ. The code
field must be the value zero (0). The minimal length of an ICMP message
request is eight (8) octets.
The advantage of using datagram oriented ICMP sockets is that even a non-
privileged process can use ICMP echo requests to gauge the quality of the
connectivity to a host, or to receive ICMP destination unreachable mes-
sage for path MTU discovery, or to receive time exceeded messages for
traceroute.
The following IP level option can be used with datagram oriented ICMP
sockets:
IP_OPTIONS
IP_HDRINCL
IP_TOS
IP_TTL
IP_RECVOPTS
IP_RECVRETOPTS
IP_RECVDSTADDR
IP_RETOPTS
IP_MULTICAST_IF
IP_MULTICAST_TTL
IP_MULTICAST_LOOP
IP_ADD_MEMBERSHIP
IP_DROP_MEMBERSHIP
IP_MULTICAST_VIF
IP_PORTRANGE
IP_RECVIF
IP_IPSEC_POLICY
IP_STRIPHDR
When the IP option IP_HDRINCL is used, the provided IP header must obey
the following rules:
ip_v Must be IPVERSION (4);
ip_hl Between 5 and 10 (inclusive);
ip_tos Any value;
ip_len Must be the total length of IP datagram (IP header + ICMP
message);
ip_id Must be zero, will be automatically set;
ip_off Must be zero, will be automatically set;
ip_ttl Any value;
ip_p Must be IPPROTO_IP;
ip_sum Value ignored, will be automatically set;
ip_src Must be an IP address currently assigned to one of the
local interface or INADDR_ANY;
ip_dst Any address;
ip_opts Any option.
The maximum length of a IMCP message that can be sent is controlled by
the sysctl variable net.inet.raw.maxdgram.
DIAGNOSTICS
A socket operation may fail with one of the following errors returned:
[EISCONN] when trying to establish a connection on a socket which
already has one, or when trying to send a datagram with
the destination address specified and the socket is
already connected;
[ENOTCONN] when trying to send a datagram, but no destination
address is specified, and the socket hasn't been con-
nected;
[ENOBUFS] when the system runs out of memory for an internal data
structure;
[EADDRNOTAVAIL] when an attempt is made to create a socket with a net-
work address for which no network interface exists;
[EINVAL] when an invalid value is used with IMCP datagram socket
for a field of the IP or ICMP header.
SEE ALSO
recv(2), send(2), inet(4), intro(4), ip(4)
HISTORY
The icmp protocol appeared in 4.3BSD.
4.3 Berkeley Distribution June 19, 2002 4.3 Berkeley Distribution
Mac OS X 10.9 - Generated Tue Oct 15 20:57:49 CDT 2013