GRE(4)

NAME
gre - encapsulating network device

SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following line in the kernel configuration file:

pseudo-device gre

Alternatively, to load this driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):

    if_gre_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
The gre network interface pseudo device encapsulates datagrams into IP. These encapsulated datagrams are routed to a destination host, where they are decapsulated and further routed to their final destination. The “tunnel” appears to the inner datagrams as one hop.

gre interfaces are dynamically created and destroyed with the ifconfig(8) create and destroy subcommands.

This driver currently supports the following modes of operation:

GRE encapsulation (IP protocol number 47)
    Encapsulated datagrams are prepended an outer datagram and a GRE header. The GRE header specifies the type of the encapsulated datagram and thus allows for tunneling other protocols than IP. GRE mode is also the default tunnel mode on Cisco routers. This is also the default mode of operation of the gre interfaces.

MOBILE encapsulation (IP protocol number 55)
    Datagrams are encapsulated into IP, but with a shorter encapsulation. The original IP header is modified and the modifications are inserted between the so modified header and the original payload. Like gif(4), only for IP-in-IP encapsulation.

The gre interfaces support a number of ioctl(2)s, such as:

GRESADDRS
    Set the IP address of the local tunnel end. This is the source address set by or displayed by ifconfig(8) for the gre interface.

GRESADDRD
    Set the IP address of the remote tunnel end. This is the destination address set by or displayed by ifconfig(8) for the gre interface.

GREGADDRS
    Query the IP address that is set for the local tunnel end. This is the address the encapsulation header carries as local address (i.e., the real address of the tunnel start point).

GREGADDRD
    Query the IP address that is set for the remote tunnel end. This is the address the encapsulated packets are sent to (i.e., the real address of the remote tunnel endpoint).

GRESPROTO
    Set the operation mode to the specified IP protocol value. The protocol is passed to the interface in (struct ifreq)->ifr_flags. The operation mode can also be given as

    link0
        IPPROTO_GRE
    -link0
        IPPROTO_MOBILE

    to ifconfig(8).

    The link1 flag is not used to choose encapsulation, but to modify the internal route search for the remote tunnel endpoint, see the BUGS section below.

GREGPROTO
    Query operation mode.

Note that the IP addresses of the tunnel endpoints may be the same as the ones defined with ifconfig(8) for the interface (as if IP is encapsulated), but need not be.

EXAMPLES
Configuration example:

    Host X-- Host A  ----------------tunnel---------- Cisco D------Host E
              \                                          |
               \                                        /
                +------Host B----------Host C----------+

On host A (DragonFly):

    route add default B
    ifconfig greN create
    ifconfig greN A D netmask 0xffffffff linkX up
    ifconfig greN tunnel A D
    route add E D

On Host D (Cisco):

    Interface TunnelX
     ip unnumbered D   ! e.g. address from Ethernet interface
     tunnel source D   ! e.g. address from Ethernet interface
     tunnel destination A
    ip route C <some interface and mask>
    ip route A mask C
    ip route X mask tunnelX

OR

On Host D (DragonFly):

    route add default C
    ifconfig greN create
    ifconfig greN D A
    ifconfig greN tunnel D A

If all goes well, you should see packets flowing ;-)

If you want to reach Host A over the tunnel (from Host D (Cisco)), then you have to have an alias on Host A for e.g. the Ethernet interface like:

    ifconfig <etherif> alias Y

and on the Cisco:

    ip route Y mask tunnelX

A similar setup can be used to create a link between two private networks (for example in the 192.168 subnet) over the Internet:

    192.168.1.* --- Router A  -------tunnel-------- Router B --- 192.168.2.*
                       \                              /
                        \                            /
                         +------ the Internet ------+

Assuming router A has the (external) IP address A and the internal address 192.168.1.1, while router B has external address B and internal address 192.168.2.1, the following commands will configure the tunnel:

On router A:

    ifconfig greN create
    ifconfig greN 192.168.1.1 192.168.2.1 link1
    ifconfig greN tunnel A B
    route add -net 192.168.2 -netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.2.1

On router B:

    ifconfig greN create
    ifconfig greN 192.168.2.1 192.168.1.1 link1
    ifconfig greN tunnel B A
    route add -net 192.168.1 -netmask 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

Note that this is a safe situation where the link1 flag (as discussed in the BUGS section below) may (and probably should) be set.

NOTES
The MTU of gre interfaces is set to 1476 by default, to match the value used by Cisco routers. This may not be an optimal value, depending on the link between the two tunnel endpoints. It can be adjusted via ifconfig(8).

For correct operation, the gre device needs a route to the destination that is less specific than the one over the tunnel. (Basically, there needs to be a route to the decapsulating host that does not run over the tunnel, as this would be a loop.) If the addresses are ambiguous, doing the ifconfig tunnel step before the ifconfig(8) call to set the gre IP addresses will help to find a route outside the tunnel.

In order to tell ifconfig(8) to actually mark the interface as “up”, the keyword up must be given last on its command line.

The kernel must be set to forward datagrams by setting the net.inet.ip.forwarding sysctl(8) variable to non-zero.

SEE ALSO
gif(4), inet(4), ip(4), netintro(4), protocols(5), ifconfig(8), sysctl(8)

A description of GRE encapsulation can be found in RFC 1701 and RFC 1702.

A description of MOBILE encapsulation can be found in RFC 2004.

AUTHORS
Heiko W. Rupp <hwr@pilhuhn.de>

BUGS
The gre_compute_route() code in if_gre.c toggles the last bit of the IP-address to provoke the search for a less specific route than the one directly over the tunnel to prevent loops. This is possibly not the best solution.

To avoid the address munging described above, turn on the link1 flag on the ifconfig(8) command line. This implies that the GRE packet destination and the ifconfig remote host are not the same IP addresses, and that the GRE destination does not route over the gre interface itself.

The GRE RFCs are not yet fully implemented (no GRE options).