.\" @(#)ipallocd.8c 1.1 94/10/31 SMI;
.TH IPALLOCD 8C "4 December 1987"
.SH NAME
ipallocd \- Ethernet-to-IP address allocator
.SH SYNOPSIS 
.B /usr/etc/rpc.ipallocd
.SH AVAILABILITY
.LP
Available only on Sun 386i systems running a SunOS 4.0.\fIx\fR
release or earlier.  Not a SunOS 4.1 release feature.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX "ipallocd" "" "\fLipallocd\fP \(em Ethernet-to-IP address mapper"
.LP
.B ipallocd
is a daemon that determines or temporarily allocates
.SM IP
addresses
within a network segment.  
The service is only available on the 
system which is home to the address authority
for the network segment, currently the
Network Information Service
(\s-1NIS\s0)
master of the 
.B hosts.byaddr
map although the service is not tied to the
.SM NIS
service.
It has complete knowledge of the hosts listed in the 
.SM NIS
service,
and, if the system is running the name server,
of any hosts listed in internet domain tables 
automatically accessed on that host through the standard library
.BR gethostent (3N)
call.
.LP
This protocol uses 
.SM DES
authentication (the Sun Secure 
.SM RPC
protocol) to restrict access to 
this function.
The only clients privileged to allocate addresses are those whose
net
.SM ID\s0s
are in the networks
group. For machine
.SM ID\s0s,
the machine must be an
.SM NIS
server.
.LP
The daemon uses permanent entries in the
.B /etc/ethers 
and
.B /etc/hosts
files when they exist and are usable.
In other cases, such as when a system
is new to the network,
.B ipallocd
enters a temporary mapping in a local cache.
Entries in the cache are 
removed when there have been no references to a given entry in the last hour.
This cache survives system crashes so that
.SM IP
addresses remain consistent.
.LP
The daemon also provides corresponding
.SM IP
address to name mapping.
.LP
If the file
.B /etc/ipalloc.netrange
exists,
.B ipallocd
refuses to allocate addresses on networks not listed in the
.B netrange
file, or for which no free address
is available.
.SH FILES
.PD 0
.TP 20
.\" .BI /etc/yp/ domainname /hosts.byaddr.{dir,pag}
.\" .TP
.B /etc/ipalloc.cache
temporary cache
.TP
.B /etc/ipalloc.netrange
optional file to allocate network addresses
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ipalloc (3R), 
.BR pnp (3R),
.BR ipalloc.netrange (5),
.BR ipallocd (8C), 
.BR netconfig (8C),
.BR pnpboot (8C),
.BR rarpd (8C)
.SH NOTES
.LP
The Network Information Service
(\s-1NIS\s0)
was formerly known as Sun Yellow Pages
(\s-1YP\s0). 
The functionality of the two remains the same;
only the name has changed.