.TH RARPD 8
.SH NAME
rarpd \- reverse address resolution protocol daemon
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rarpd
.RB [ \-d ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Rarpd
listens on the ethernet for broadcast packets asking for reverse address
resolution.  These packets are sent by hosts at boot time to find out their
IP address.
.B Rarpd
looks up the six octet ethernet number in the
.B /etc/ethers
file finding a host name.  This name is translated to the IP address of the
host by a DNS lookup.  The IP address is then sent to the host.
.PP
The first thing
.B rarpd
does when started is to send an unsolicited RARP reply to the local host if
it can be found in the
.B /etc/hosts
file.  This way the host gets to know its IP address at boot time even if
no other RARP server is present.  Note that the hostname must be found in
the hosts file by an exact match.  The DNS is not yet running, so it can't
translate a simple name to a fully qualified name.
.PP
.B Warning!
Sun diskless workstations assume that the first RARP server that answers is
the host they are to boot from.  For this to work all other Sun RARP servers
delay their answer if they are not also the requestors boot server.  The
Minix
.B rarpd
does not have this kludge so it will happily engage the Sun boot server to
see who can answer the client first.  Unless your Minix host can actually
serve a Sun diskless client, it is better not to list any more hosts in the
ethers file than necessary.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-d
Turns on debugging messages.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR ifconfig (8),
.BR ethers (5),
.BR hosts (5),
.BR set_net_default (8),
.BR boot (8),
.BR inetd (8),
.BR irdpd (8),
.BR nonamed (8).
.SH AUTHOR
Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)