Page Menu
Home
FreeBSD
Search
Configure Global Search
Log In
Files
F142924552
D45854.id.diff
No One
Temporary
Actions
View File
Edit File
Delete File
View Transforms
Subscribe
Mute Notifications
Flag For Later
Award Token
Size
7 KB
Referenced Files
None
Subscribers
None
D45854.id.diff
View Options
diff --git a/share/man/man4/gif.4 b/share/man/man4/gif.4
--- a/share/man/man4/gif.4
+++ b/share/man/man4/gif.4
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
.\" $KAME: gif.4,v 1.28 2001/05/18 13:15:56 itojun Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998 WIDE Project.
+.\" Copyright (C) 2024 Hiroki Sato <hrs@FreeBSD.org>
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd October 21, 2018
+.Dd July 2, 2024
.Dt GIF 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
@@ -67,8 +68,8 @@
.Pp
To use
.Nm ,
-the administrator needs to configure the protocol and addresses used for the outer
-header.
+the administrator needs to configure the protocol and addresses used for
+the outer header.
This can be done by using
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Cm tunnel ,
@@ -79,8 +80,7 @@
inner header, with
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
Note that IPv6 link-local addresses
-(those that start with
-.Li fe80:: )
+.Pq those that start with Li fe80\&:\&:
will be automatically configured whenever possible.
You may need to remove IPv6 link-local addresses manually using
.Xr ifconfig 8 ,
@@ -89,12 +89,139 @@
Finally, you must modify the routing table to route the packets through the
.Nm
interface.
+.Ss MTU Configuration and Path MTU Discovery
+The
+.Nm
+interface uses the fixed length,
+.Li 1280 ,
+to determine whether the outgoing IPv6 packets are split.
+This means the MTU value configured on the interface will be ignored
+when the outer protocol is IPv6.
+When the
+.Dv IFF_LINK0
+interface flag is set,
+.Nm
+uses the configured value as IPv4 communications.
+This behavior prevents potential issues when the path MTU is
+smaller than the interface MTU.
+This section describes the reason why the default behavior is different.
+The
+.Dv IFF_LINK0
+interface flag can be set using the following command:
+.Pp
+.Dl ifconfig Ar gif0 Cm link0
+.Pp
+and clear the flag using the following:
+.Pp
+.Dl ifconfig Ar gif0 Cm -link0
+.Pp
+where
+.Ar gif0
+is the actual interface name.
+.Pp
+A tunnel interface always has an implicit smaller MTU for the inner protocol
+than the outer protocol because of the additional header.
+Note that the interface MTU on a
+.Nm
+interface,
+the default value is
+.Li 1280 ,
+is used as MTU for the outer protocol.
+This means that the MTU for the inner protocol varies depending on the
+outer protocol header length.
+If an outgoing packet bigger than the inner protocol MTU arrives at a
+.Nm
+interface for encapsulation,
+it will be split into fragments.
+Specifically,
+if IPv4 is used as the outer protocol,
+the inner is 20 octets smaller than the interface MTU.
+In the case of the default interface MTU,
+.Li 1280 ,
+inner packets bigger than
+.Li 1260
+will be fragmented.
+In the case of IPv6,
+the inner is 40 octets smaller than the outer.
+.Pp
+This fragmentation is not harmful though it can degrade the
+performance.
+Note that while an increased MTU on
+.Nm
+interface helps to mitigate this reduced performance issue,
+it can also cause packet losses on the intermediate narrowest path
+between the two communication endpoints in IPv6.
+IPv6 allows fragmentation only on the sender,
+not on the routers in the communication path.
+A big outgoing packet will be dropped on a router with a smaller MTU.
.Pp
+In normal IPv6 communication,
+an ICMPv6 Packet Too Big error will be sent back to the sender,
+who can adjust the packet length and re-send it.
+This process is performed in the upper protocols than L3,
+such as TCP,
+and makes the packet length shorter so that packets go through
+the path without fragmentation.
+This behavior is known as path MTU discovery.
+.Pp
+When using a
+.Nm
+interface,
+the Packet Too Big message is generated for the outer protocol.
+Since the
+.Nm
+interface does not translate this error to the inner protocol,
+the inner protocol sees it just as a packet loss with no useful
+information to adjust the length of the next packets.
+In this situation,
+path MTU discovery does not work,
+and communications of the inner protocol
+become stalled.
+.Pp
+In order to avoid this,
+a
+.Nm
+interface silently splits a packet of over 1240 octets into fragments to make
+the outer protocol packets equal or shorter than 1280 octets,
+even when the interface MTU is configured as larger than 1280.
+Note that this occurs only when the outer protocol is IPv6.
+.Li 1280
+is the smallest MTU in IPv6 and guarantees no packet loss occurs
+on intermediate routers.
+.Pp
+As mentioned earlier,
+the performance is sub-optimal if the actual path MTU is larger than
+.Li 1280 .
+A typical confusing scenario is as follows.
+The
+.Nm
+interface can have Ethernet,
+whose MTU is usually 1500,
+as the inner protocol.
+It is called an EtherIP tunnel,
+and can be configured by adding the
+.Nm
+interface as a member of
+.Xr if_bridge 4
+interface.
The
+.Xr if_bridge 4
+interface forcibly changes the MTU of the
+.Nm
+interface with those for the other member interfaces,
+which are likely 1500.
+In this case,
+a situation in which the MTU of the
.Nm
-device can be configured to be ECN friendly.
-This can be configured by
-.Dv IFF_LINK1 .
+interface is 1500 but fragmentation in 1280 octets always occurs.
+.Pp
+The default behavior is most conservative to prevent confusing packet loss.
+Depending on the network configuration,
+enabling the
+.Dv IFF_LINK0
+interface flag might be helpful for better performance.
+It is crucial to ensure that the path MTU is equal to or larger than
+the interface MTU when enabling this flag.
.Ss ECN friendly behavior
The
.Nm
@@ -169,6 +296,7 @@
to the desired level of nesting.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr gre 4 ,
+.Xr if_bridge 4 ,
.Xr inet 4 ,
.Xr inet6 4 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
@@ -199,7 +327,8 @@
defined differently from each other.
The
.Nm
-device may not interoperate with peers which are based on different specifications,
+device may not interoperate with peers which are based on different
+specifications,
and are picky about outer header fields.
For example, you cannot usually use
.Nm
@@ -219,7 +348,8 @@
.Pp
The
.Nm
-device does not translate ICMP messages for the outer header into the inner header.
+device does not translate ICMP messages for the outer header into the inner
+header.
.Pp
In the past,
.Nm
@@ -227,3 +357,5 @@
.Dv IFF_LINK0
flag.
The behavior is obsolete and is no longer supported.
+This flag is now used to determine whether performing fragmentation when
+the outer protocol is IPv6.
diff --git a/sys/netinet6/in6_gif.c b/sys/netinet6/in6_gif.c
--- a/sys/netinet6/in6_gif.c
+++ b/sys/netinet6/in6_gif.c
@@ -289,6 +289,7 @@
{
struct gif_softc *sc = ifp->if_softc;
struct ip6_hdr *ip6;
+ u_long mtu;
/* prepend new IP header */
NET_EPOCH_ASSERT();
@@ -304,11 +305,15 @@
ip6->ip6_nxt = proto;
ip6->ip6_hlim = V_ip6_gif_hlim;
/*
- * force fragmentation to minimum MTU, to avoid path MTU discovery.
- * it is too painful to ask for resend of inner packet, to achieve
- * path MTU discovery for encapsulated packets.
+ * Enforce fragmentation to minimum MTU, even if the interface MTU
+ * is larger, to avoid path MTU discovery when IFF_LINK0 is not
+ * set (default). IPv6 does not allow fragmentation on intermediate
+ * router nodes, so it is too painful to ask for resend of inner
+ * packet, to achieve path MTU discovery for encapsulated packets.
*/
- return (ip6_output(m, 0, NULL, IPV6_MINMTU, 0, NULL, NULL));
+ mtu = ((GIF2IFP(sc)->if_flags & IFF_LINK0) == 0) ? IPV6_MINMTU : 0;
+
+ return (ip6_output(m, 0, NULL, mtu, 0, NULL, NULL));
}
static int
File Metadata
Details
Attached
Mime Type
text/plain
Expires
Sun, Jan 25, 6:08 PM (2 h, 24 m)
Storage Engine
blob
Storage Format
Raw Data
Storage Handle
27957680
Default Alt Text
D45854.id.diff (7 KB)
Attached To
Mode
D45854: if_gif(4): Support the IFF_LINK0 flag to change the MTU handling for IPv6
Attached
Detach File
Event Timeline
Log In to Comment