dhclient.conf(5)                                              dhclient.conf(5)



[1mNAME[0m
       dhclient.conf - DHCP client configuration file

[1mDESCRIPTION[0m
       The dhclient.conf file contains configuration information for [4mdhclient,[0m
       the Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client.

       The dhclient.conf file is a free-form ASCII text file.   It is parsed
       by the recursive-descent parser built into dhclient.   The file may
       contain extra tabs and newlines for formatting purposes.  Keywords in
       the file are case-insensitive.   Comments may be placed anywhere within
       the file (except within quotes).   Comments begin with the # character
       and end at the end of the line.

       The dhclient.conf file can be used to configure the behaviour of the
       client in a wide variety of ways: protocol timing, information
       requested from the server, information required of the server, defaults
       to use if the server does not provide certain information, values with
       which to override information provided by the server, or values to
       prepend or append to information provided by the server.  The
       configuration file can also be preinitialized with addresses to use on
       networks that don't have DHCP servers.

[1mPROTOCOL TIMING[0m
       The timing behaviour of the client need not be configured by the user.
       If no timing configuration is provided by the user, a fairly reasonable
       timing behaviour will be used by default - one which results in fairly
       timely updates without placing an inordinate load on the server.

       The following statements can be used to adjust the timing behaviour of
       the DHCP client if required, however:

       [4mThe[24m [1mtimeout [4m[22mstatement[0m

       [1mtimeout [4m[22mtime[24m [1m;[0m

       The [4mtimeout[24m statement determines the amount of time that must pass
       between the time that the client begins to try to determine its address
       and the time that it decides that it's not going to be able to contact
       a server.   By default, this timeout is sixty seconds.   After the
       timeout has passed, if there are any static leases defined in the
       configuration file, or any leases remaining in the lease database that
       have not yet expired, the client will loop through these leases
       attempting to validate them, and if it finds one that appears to be
       valid, it will use that lease's address.   If there are no valid static
       leases or unexpired leases in the lease database, the client will
       restart the protocol after the defined retry interval.

       [4mThe[24m [1mretry [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mretry [4m[22mtime[24m[1m;[0m

       The [4mretry[24m statement determines the time that must pass after the client
       has determined that there is no DHCP server present before it tries
       again to contact a DHCP server.   By default, this is five minutes.

       [4mThe[24m [1mselect-timeout [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mselect-timeout [4m[22mtime[24m[1m;[0m

       It is possible (some might say desirable) for there to be more than one
       DHCP server serving any given network.   In this case, it is possible
       that a client may be sent more than one offer in response to its
       initial lease discovery message.   It may be that one of these offers
       is preferable to the other (e.g., one offer may have the address the
       client previously used, and the other may not).

       The [4mselect-timeout[24m is the time after the client sends its first lease
       discovery request at which it stops waiting for offers from servers,
       assuming that it has received at least one such offer.   If no offers
       have been received by the time the [4mselect-timeout[24m has expired, the
       client will accept the first offer that arrives.

       By default, the select-timeout is zero seconds - that is, the client
       will take the first offer it sees.

       [4mThe[24m [1mreboot [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mreboot [4m[22mtime[24m[1m;[0m

       When the client is restarted, it first tries to reacquire the last
       address it had.   This is called the INIT-REBOOT state.   If it is
       still attached to the same network it was attached to when it last ran,
       this is the quickest way to get started.   The [4mreboot[24m statement sets
       the time that must elapse after the client first tries to reacquire its
       old address before it gives up and tries to discover a new address.
       By default, the reboot timeout is ten seconds.

       [4mThe[24m [1mbackoff-cutoff [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mbackoff-cutoff [4m[22mtime[24m[1m;[0m

       The client uses an exponential backoff algorithm with some randomness,
       so that if many clients try to configure themselves at the same time,
       they will not make their requests in lockstep.   The [4mbackoff-cutoff[0m
       statement determines the maximum amount of time that the client is
       allowed to back off, the actual value will be evaluated randomly
       between 1/2 to 1 1/2 times the [4mtime[24m specified.   It defaults to two
       minutes.

       [4mThe[24m [1minitial-interval [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1minitial-interval [4m[22mtime[24m[1m;[0m

       The [4minitial-interval[24m statement sets the amount of time between the
       first attempt to reach a server and the second attempt to reach a
       server.  Each time a message is sent, the interval between messages is
       incremented by twice the current interval multiplied by a random number
       between zero and one.  If it is greater than the backoff-cutoff amount,
       it is set to that amount.  It defaults to ten seconds.

[1mLEASE REQUIREMENTS AND REQUESTS[0m
       The DHCP protocol allows the client to request that the server send it
       specific information, and not send it other information that it is not
       prepared to accept.   The protocol also allows the client to reject
       offers from servers if they don't contain information the client needs,
       or if the information provided is not satisfactory.

       There is a variety of data contained in offers that DHCP servers send
       to DHCP clients.  The data that can be specifically requested is what
       are called [4mDHCP[24m [4mOptions[24m.  DHCP Options are defined in
        [1mdhcp-options(5)[22m.

       [4mThe[24m [1mrequest [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mrequest [ [4m[22moption[24m ] [[1m, [4m[22m...[24m [4moption[24m ][1m;[0m

       The request statement causes the client to request that any server
       responding to the client send the client its values for the specified
       options.   Only the option names should be specified in the request
       statement - not option parameters.   By default, the DHCP server
       requests the subnet-mask, broadcast-address, time-offset, routers,
       domain-name, domain-name-servers and host-name options.

       In some cases, it may be desirable to send no parameter request list at
       all.   To do this, simply write the request statement but specify no
       parameters:

            request;

       [4mThe[24m [1mrequire [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mrequire [ [4m[22moption[24m ] [[1m, [4m[22m...[24m [4moption[24m [4m][24m[1m;[0m

       The require statement lists options that must be sent in order for an
       offer to be accepted.   Offers that do not contain all the listed
       options will be ignored.

       [4mThe[24m [1msend [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1msend { [ [4m[22moption[24m [4mdeclaration[24m ] [[1m, [4m[22m...[24m [4moption[24m [4mdeclaration[24m ][1m}[0m

       The send statement causes the client to send the specified options to
       the server with the specified values.  These are full option
       declarations as described in [1mdhcp-options(5)[22m.  Options that are always
       sent in the DHCP protocol should not be specified here, except that the
       client can specify a [1mrequested-lease-time [22moption other than the default
       requested lease time, which is two hours.  The other obvious use for
       this statement is to send information to the server that will allow it
       to differentiate between this client and other clients or kinds of
       clients.

[1mDYNAMIC DNS[0m
       The client now has some very limited support for doing DNS updates when
       a lease is acquired.   This is prototypical, and probably doesn't do
       what you want.   It also only works if you happen to have control over
       your DNS server, which isn't very likely.

       To make it work, you have to declare a key and zone as in the DHCP
       server (see [1mdhcpd.conf[22m(5) for details).   You also need to configure
       the fqdn option on the client, as follows:

         send fqdn.fqdn "grosse.fugue.com.";
         send fqdn.encoded on;
         send fqdn.server-update off;

       The [4mfqdn.fqdn[24m option [1mMUST [22mbe a fully-qualified domain name.   You [1mMUST[0m
       define a zone statement for the zone to be updated.   The [4mfqdn.encoded[0m
       option may need to be set to [4mon[24m or [4moff[24m, depending on the DHCP server
       you are using.

       [4mThe[24m [1mdo-forward-updates [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mdo-forward-updates [ [4m[22mflag[24m ] [1m;[0m

       If you want to do DNS updates in the DHCP client script (see [1mdhclient-[0m
       [1mscript(8)[22m) rather than having the DHCP client do the update directly
       (for example, if you want to use SIG(0) authentication, which is not
       supported directly by the DHCP client, you can instruct the client not
       to do the update using the [1mdo-forward-updates [22mstatement.   [4mFlag[24m should
       be [1mtrue [22mif you want the DHCP client to do the update, and [1mfalse [22mif you
       don't want the DHCP client to do the update.   By default, the DHCP
       client will do the DNS update.

[1mOPTION MODIFIERS[0m
       In some cases, a client may receive option data from the server which
       is not really appropriate for that client, or may not receive
       information that it needs, and for which a useful default value exists.
       It may also receive information which is useful, but which needs to be
       supplemented with local information.   To handle these needs, several
       option modifiers are available.

       [4mThe[24m [1mdefault [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mdefault [ [4m[22moption[24m [4mdeclaration[24m ] [1m;[0m

       If for some option the client should use the value supplied by the
       server, but needs to use some default value if no value was supplied by
       the server, these values can be defined in the [1mdefault [22mstatement.

       [4mThe[24m [1msupersede [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1msupersede [ [4m[22moption[24m [4mdeclaration[24m ] [1m;[0m

       If for some option the client should always use a locally-configured
       value or values rather than whatever is supplied by the server, these
       values can be defined in the [1msupersede [22mstatement.

       [4mThe[24m [1mprepend [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mprepend [ [4m[22moption[24m [4mdeclaration[24m ] [1m;[0m

       If for some set of options the client should use a value you supply,
       and then use the values supplied by the server, if any, these values
       can be defined in the [1mprepend [22mstatement.   The [1mprepend [22mstatement can
       only be used for options which allow more than one value to be given.
       This restriction is not enforced - if you ignore it, the behaviour will
       be unpredictable.

       [4mThe[24m [1mappend [4m[22mstatement[0m

        [1mappend [ [4m[22moption[24m [4mdeclaration[24m ] [1m;[0m

       If for some set of options the client should first use the values
       supplied by the server, if any, and then use values you supply, these
       values can be defined in the [1mappend [22mstatement.   The [1mappend [22mstatement
       can only be used for options which allow more than one value to be
       given.   This restriction is not enforced - if you ignore it, the
       behaviour will be unpredictable.

[1mLEASE DECLARATIONS[0m
       [4mThe[24m [1mlease [4m[22mdeclaration[0m

        [1mlease { [4m[22mlease-declaration[24m [ ... [4mlease-declaration[24m [4m][24m [1m}[0m

       The DHCP client may decide after some period of time (see [1mPROTOCOL[0m
       [1mTIMING[22m) that it is not going to succeed in contacting a server.   At
       that time, it consults its own database of old leases and tests each
       one that has not yet timed out by pinging the listed router for that
       lease to see if that lease could work.   It is possible to define one
       or more [4mfixed[24m leases in the client configuration file for networks
       where there is no DHCP or BOOTP service, so that the client can still
       automatically configure its address.   This is done with the [1mlease[0m
       statement.

       NOTE: the lease statement is also used in the dhclient.leases file in
       order to record leases that have been received from DHCP servers.  Some
       of the syntax for leases as described below is only needed in the
       dhclient.leases file.   Such syntax is documented here for
       completeness.

       A lease statement consists of the lease keyword, followed by a left
       curly brace, followed by one or more lease declaration statements,
       followed by a right curly brace.   The following lease declarations are
       possible:

        [1mbootp;[0m

       The [1mbootp [22mstatement is used to indicate that the lease was acquired
       using the BOOTP protocol rather than the DHCP protocol.   It is never
       necessary to specify this in the client configuration file.   The
       client uses this syntax in its lease database file.

        [1minterface "[4m[22mstring[24m[1m";[0m

       The [1minterface [22mlease statement is used to indicate the interface on
       which the lease is valid.   If set, this lease will only be tried on a
       particular interface.   When the client receives a lease from a server,
       it always records the interface number on which it received that lease.
       If predefined leases are specified in the dhclient.conf file, the
       interface should also be specified, although this is not required.

        [1mfixed-address [4m[22mip-address[24m[1m;[0m

       The [1mfixed-address [22mstatement is used to set the ip address of a
       particular lease.   This is required for all lease statements.   The IP
       address must be specified as a dotted quad (e.g., 12.34.56.78).

        [1mfilename "[4m[22mstring[24m[1m";[0m

       The [1mfilename [22mstatement specifies the name of the boot filename to use.
       This is not used by the standard client configuration script, but is
       included for completeness.

        [1mserver-name "[4m[22mstring[24m[1m";[0m

       The [1mserver-name [22mstatement specifies the name of the boot server name to
       use.   This is also not used by the standard client configuration
       script.

        [1moption [4m[22moption-declaration[24m[1m;[0m

       The [1moption [22mstatement is used to specify the value of an option supplied
       by the server, or, in the case of predefined leases declared in
       dhclient.conf, the value that the user wishes the client configuration
       script to use if the predefined lease is used.

        [1mscript "[4m[22mscript-name[24m[1m";[0m

       The [1mscript [22mstatement is used to specify the pathname of the dhcp client
       configuration script.  This script is used by the dhcp client to set
       each interface's initial configuration prior to requesting an address,
       to test the address once it has been offered, and to set the
       interface's final configuration once a lease has been acquired.   If no
       lease is acquired, the script is used to test predefined leases, if
       any, and also called once if no valid lease can be identified.   For
       more information, see [1mdhclient-script(8).[0m

        [1mvendor option space "[4m[22mname[24m[1m";[0m

       The [1mvendor option space [22mstatement is used to specify which option space
       should be used for decoding the vendor-encapsulate-options option if
       one is received.  The [4mdhcp-vendor-identifier[24m can be used to request a
       specific class of vendor options from the server.   See [1mdhcp-options(5)[0m
       for details.

        [1mmedium "[4m[22mmedia[24m [4msetup[24m[1m";[0m

       The [1mmedium [22mstatement can be used on systems where network interfaces
       cannot automatically determine the type of network to which they are
       connected.  The media setup string is a system-dependent parameter
       which is passed to the dhcp client configuration script when
       initializing the interface.  On Unix and Unix-like systems, the
       argument is passed on the ifconfig command line when configuring the
       interface.

       The dhcp client automatically declares this parameter if it uses a
       media type (see the [1mmedia [22mstatement) when configuring the interface in
       order to obtain a lease.  This statement should be used in predefined
       leases only if the network interface requires media type configuration.

        [1mrenew [4m[22mdate[24m[1m;[0m

        [1mrebind [4m[22mdate[24m[1m;[0m

        [1mexpire [4m[22mdate[24m[1m;[0m

       The [1mrenew [22mstatement defines the time at which the dhcp client should
       begin trying to contact its server to renew a lease that it is using.
       The [1mrebind [22mstatement defines the time at which the dhcp client should
       begin to try to contact [4many[24m dhcp server in order to renew its lease.
       The [1mexpire [22mstatement defines the time at which the dhcp client must
       stop using a lease if it has not been able to contact a server in order
       to renew it.

       These declarations are automatically set in leases acquired by the DHCP
       client, but must also be configured in predefined leases - a predefined
       lease whose expiry time has passed will not be used by the DHCP client.

       Dates are specified in one of two ways.  The software will output times
       in these two formats depending on if the [1mdb-time-format [22mconfiguration
       parameter has been set to [4mdefault[24m or [4mlocal[24m.

       If it is set to [4mdefault[24m, then [4mdate[24m values appear as follows:

        [4m<weekday>[24m [4m<year>[24m[1m/[4m[22m<month>[24m[1m/[4m[22m<day>[24m [4m<hour>[24m[1m:[4m[22m<minute>[24m[1m:[4m[22m<second>[0m

       The weekday is present to make it easy for a human to tell when a lease
       expires - it's specified as a number from zero to six, with zero being
       Sunday.  When declaring a predefined lease, it can always be specified
       as zero.  The year is specified with the century, so it should
       generally be four digits except for really long leases.  The month is
       specified as a number starting with 1 for January.  The day of the
       month is likewise specified starting with 1.  The hour is a number
       between 0 and 23, the minute a number between 0 and 59, and the second
       also a number between 0 and 59.

       If the [1mdb-time-format [22mconfiguration was set to [4mlocal[24m, then the [4mdate[0m
       values appear as follows:

        [1mepoch [4m[22m<seconds-since-epoch>[24m[1m; # [4m[22m<day-name>[24m [4m<month-name>[24m [4m<day-number>[0m
       [4m<hours>[24m[1m:[4m[22m<minutes>[24m[1m:[4m[22m<seconds>[24m [4m<year>[0m

       The [4mseconds-since-epoch[24m is as according to the system's local clock
       (often referred to as "unix time").  The [1m# [22msymbol supplies a comment
       that describes what actual time this is as according to the system's
       configured timezone, at the time the value was written.  It is provided
       only for human inspection, the epoch time is the only recommended value
       for machine inspection.

       Note that when defining a static lease, one may use either time format
       one wishes, and need not include the comment or values after it.

       If the time is infinite in duration, then the [4mdate[24m is [1mnever [22minstead of
       an actual date.

[1mALIAS DECLARATIONS[0m
        [1malias {  [4m[22mdeclarations[24m [4m...[24m [1m}[0m

       Some DHCP clients running TCP/IP roaming protocols may require that in
       addition to the lease they may acquire via DHCP, their interface also
       be configured with a predefined IP alias so that they can have a
       permanent IP address even while roaming.   The Internet Systems
       Consortium DHCP client doesn't support roaming with fixed addresses
       directly, but in order to facilitate such experimentation, the dhcp
       client can be set up to configure an IP alias using the [1malias[0m
       declaration.

       The alias declaration resembles a lease declaration, except that
       options other than the subnet-mask option are ignored by the standard
       client configuration script, and expiry times are ignored.  A typical
       alias declaration includes an interface declaration, a fixed-address
       declaration for the IP alias address, and a subnet-mask option
       declaration.   A medium statement should never be included in an alias
       declaration.

[1mOTHER DECLARATIONS[0m
        [1mdb-time-format [22m[ [4mdefault[24m | [4mlocal[24m ] [1m;[0m

       The [1mdb-time-format [22moption determines which of two output methods are
       used for printing times in leases files.  The [4mdefault[24m format provides
       day-and-time in UTC, whereas [4mlocal[24m uses a seconds-since-epoch to store
       the time value, and helpfully places a local timezone time in a comment
       on the same line.  The formats are described in detail in this manpage,
       whithin the LEASE DECLARATIONS section.

        [1mreject [4m[22mcidr-ip-address[24m [[1m, [4m[22m...[24m [4mcidr-ip-address[24m ] [1m;[0m

       The [1mreject [22mstatement causes the DHCP client to reject offers from
       servers whose server identifier matches any of the specified hosts or
       subnets.  This can be used to avoid being configured by rogue or
       misconfigured dhcp servers, although it should be a last resort -
       better to track down the bad DHCP server and fix it.

       The [4mcidr-ip-address[24m configuration type is of the form [4mip-[0m
       [4maddress[24m[[1m/[4m[22mprefixlen[24m], where [4mip-address[24m is a dotted quad IP address, and
       prefixlen is the CIDR prefix length of the subnet, counting the number
       of significant bits in the netmask starting from the leftmost end.
       Example configuration syntax:

       [4mreject[24m 192.168.0.0[1m/[22m16[1m, [22m10.0.0.5[1m;[0m

The above example would cause offers from any server identifier in the entire
RFC 1918 "Class C" network 192.168.0.0/16, or the specific single address
10.0.0.5, to be rejected.

 [1minterface "[4m[22mname[24m[1m" { [4m[22mdeclarations[24m [4m...[24m  [1m}[0m

A client with more than one network interface may require different behaviour
depending on which interface is being configured.   All timing parameters and
declarations other than lease and alias declarations can be enclosed in an
interface declaration, and those parameters will then be used only for the
interface that matches the specified name.   Interfaces for which there is no
interface declaration will use the parameters declared outside of any
interface declaration, or the default settings.

[1mNote well: [22mISC dhclient only maintains one list of interfaces, which is either
determined at startup from command line arguments, or otherwise is
autodetected.  If you supplied the list of interfaces on the command line,
this configuration clause will add the named interface to the list in such a
way that will cause it to be configured by DHCP.  Which may not be the result
you had intended.  This is an undesirable side effect that will be addressed
in a future release.

 [1mpseudo "[4m[22mname[24m" "[4mreal-name[24m[1m" { [4m[22mdeclarations[24m [4m...[24m  [1m}[0m

Under some circumstances it can be useful to declare a pseudo-interface and
have the DHCP client acquire a configuration for that interface.  Each
interface that the DHCP client is supporting normally has a DHCP client state
machine running on it to acquire and maintain its lease.  A pseudo-interface
is just another state machine running on the interface named [4mreal-name[24m, with
its own lease and its own state.   If you use this feature, you must provide a
client identifier for both the pseudo-interface and the actual interface, and
the two identifiers must be different.   You must also provide a separate
client script for the pseudo-interface to do what you want with the IP
address.   For example:

     interface "ep0" {
          send dhcp-client-identifier "my-client-ep0";
     }
     pseudo "secondary" "ep0" {
          send dhcp-client-identifier "my-client-ep0-secondary";
          script "/etc/dhclient-secondary";
     }

The client script for the pseudo-interface should not configure the interface
up or down - essentially, all it needs to handle are the states where a lease
has been acquired or renewed, and the states where a lease has expired.   See
[1mdhclient-script(8) [22mfor more information.

 [1mmedia "[4m[22mmedia[24m [4msetup[24m[1m" [4m[22m[[24m [1m, "[4m[22mmedia[24m [4msetup[24m[1m", [4m[22m...[24m [4m][24m[1m;[0m

The [1mmedia [22mstatement defines one or more media configuration parameters which
may be tried while attempting to acquire an IP address.   The dhcp client will
cycle through each media setup string on the list, configuring the interface
using that setup and attempting to boot, and then trying the next one.   This
can be used for network interfaces which aren't capable of sensing the media
type unaided - whichever media type succeeds in getting a request to the
server and hearing the reply is probably right (no guarantees).

The media setup is only used for the initial phase of address acquisition (the
DHCPDISCOVER and DHCPOFFER packets).   Once an address has been acquired, the
dhcp client will record it in its lease database and will record the media
type used to acquire the address.  Whenever the client tries to renew the
lease, it will use that same media type.   The lease must expire before the
client will go back to cycling through media types.

[1mSAMPLE[0m
       The following configuration file is used on a laptop running NetBSD
       1.3.   The laptop has an IP alias of 192.5.5.213, and has one
       interface, ep0 (a 3com 3C589C).   Booting intervals have been shortened
       somewhat from the default, because the client is known to spend most of
       its time on networks with little DHCP activity.   The laptop does roam
       to multiple networks.


       timeout 60;
       retry 60;
       reboot 10;
       select-timeout 5;
       initial-interval 2;
       reject 192.33.137.209;

       interface "ep0" {
           send host-name "andare.fugue.com";
           send dhcp-client-identifier 1:0:a0:24:ab:fb:9c;
           send dhcp-lease-time 3600;
           supersede domain-name "fugue.com rc.vix.com home.vix.com";
           prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;
           request subnet-mask, broadcast-address, time-offset, routers,
                domain-name, domain-name-servers, host-name;
           require subnet-mask, domain-name-servers;
           script "/usr/local/sbin/dhclient-script";
           media "media 10baseT/UTP", "media 10base2/BNC";
       }

       alias {
         interface "ep0";
         fixed-address 192.5.5.213;
         option subnet-mask 255.255.255.255;
       }
       This is a very complicated dhclient.conf file - in general, yours
       should be much simpler.   In many cases, it's sufficient to just create
       an empty dhclient.conf file - the defaults are usually fine.

[1mSEE ALSO[0m
       dhcp-options(5), dhcp-eval(5), dhclient.leases(5), dhcpd(8),
       dhcpd.conf(5), RFC2132, RFC2131.

[1mAUTHOR[0m
       [1mdhclient(8) [22mwas written by Ted Lemon under a contract with Vixie Labs.
       Funding for this project was provided by Internet Systems Consortium.
       Information about Internet Systems Consortium can be found at
       [1mhttps://www.isc.org.[0m



                                                              dhclient.conf(5)
