.TH BABELD 8
.SH NAME
babeld \- ad-hoc network routing daemon
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B babeld
.IR option ...
[
.B \-\-
]
.IR interface ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
Babel is a loop-avoiding distance-vector routing protocol roughly
based on DSDV and AODV, but with provisions for link cost estimation
and redistribution of routes from other routing protocols.

While it is optimised for wireless mesh networks, Babel will also work
efficiently on wired networks.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BI \-m " multicast-address"
Specify the link-local multicast address to be used by the protocol.
The default is
.BR ff02:0:0:0:0:0:1:6 .
.TP
.BI \-p " port"
Specify the UDP port number to be used by the protocol.  The default is
.BR 6696 .
.TP
.BI \-S " state-file"
Set the name of the file used for preserving long-term information
between invocations of the
.B babeld
daemon.  If this file is deleted, the daemon will run in passive mode
for 3 minutes when it is next started (see
.B -P
below), and other hosts might initially ignore it.  The default is
.BR /var/lib/babel-state .
.TP
.BI \-h " hello-interval"
Specify the interval in seconds at which scheduled hello packets are
sent on wireless interfaces.  The default is 4 seconds.
.TP
.BI \-H " wired-hello-interval"
Specify the interval in seconds at which scheduled hello packets are
sent on wired interfaces.  The default is 4 seconds.
.TP
.BI \-z " kind" " \fR[\fB," factor "\fR]"
Enable diversity-sensitive routing.  The value
.B kind
defines the diversity algorithm used, and can be one of
.B 0
(no diversity),
.B 1
(per-interface diversity with no memory),
.B 2
(per-channel diversity with no memory),
or
.B 3
(per-channel diversity with memory).
The value
.B factor
specifies by how much the cost of non-interfering routes is multiplied,
in units of 1/256; the default is 128 (i.e. division by 2).
.TP
.BI \-k " priority"
Specify the priority value used when installing routes into the kernel.
The default is 0.
.TP
.BI \-A " priority"
Allow duplicating external routes when their kernel priority is at least
.IR priority .
Do not use this option unless you know what you are doing, as it can cause
persistent route flapping.
.TP
.B \-l
Use IFF_RUNNING (carrier sense) when determining interface availability.
.TP
.B \-w
Don't optimise wired links, assume all interfaces are wireless unless
explicitly overridden in the configuration file.
.TP
.B \-s
Do not perform split-horizon processing on wired interfaces.
Split-horizon is not performed on wireless interfaces.
.TP
.B \-u
Do not flush unfeasible (useless) routes.  This is useful in order to
announce more information to a front-end (see
.BR \-g ).
.TP
.B \-P
Run in parasitic (passive) mode.  The daemon will only announce
redistributed routes.
.TP
.BI \-d " level"
Debug level.  A value of 1 requests a routing table dump at every
iteration through the daemon's main loop.  A value of 2 additionally
requests tracing every message sent or received.  A value of
3 additionally dumps all interactions with the OS kernel.  The default
is 0.
.TP
.BI \-g " port"
Listen for connections from a front-end on port
.IR port .
.TP
.BI \-t " table"
Use the given kernel routing table for routes inserted by
.BR babeld .
.TP
.BI \-T " table"
Export routes from the given kernel routing table.
.TP
.BI \-c " filename"
Specify the name of the configuration file.  The default is
.BR /etc/babeld.conf .
.TP
.BI \-C " statement"
Specify a configuration statement directly on the command line.
.TP
.B \-D
Daemonise at startup.
.TP
.BI \-L " logfile"
Specify a file to log random ``how do you do?'' messages to.  This
defaults to standard error if not daemonising, and to
.B /var/log/babeld.log
otherwise.
.TP
.BI \-I " pidfile"
Specify a file to write our process id to.  The default is
.BR /var/run/babeld.pid .
.TP
.IR interface ...
The list of interfaces on which the protocol should operate.
.SH CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
The configuration file is a sequence of lines each of which specifies
either an interface or a filtering rule.  Blank lines are ignored.  Comments
are introduced with an octothorp
.RB `` # ''
and terminate at the end of the line.
.SS Interface configuration
An interface is configured by a single line with the following format:
.IP
.B interface
.I name
.RI [ parameter ...]
.PP
.I Name
is the name of the interface (something like
.BR eth0 ).

Each
.I parameter
specifies a parameter of the given interface.  It can be one of:
.TP
.BR wired " {" true | false | auto }
This specifies whether to enable optimisations specific to wired interfaces.
By default, this is determined automatically unless the
.B \-w
command-line flag was specified.
.TP
.BR link\-quality " {" true | false | auto }
This specifies whether link quality estimation should be performed on this
interface.  The default is to perform link quality estimation on wireless
interfaces but not on wired interfaces.
.TP
.BR split\-horizon " {" true | false | auto }
This specifies whether to perform split-horizon processing on this
interface.  The default is to never perform split-horizon processing on
wireless interfaces; on wired interfaces, the default depends on the
.B \-s
flag.
.TP
.BI rxcost " cost"
This defines the cost of receiving frames on the given interface under
ideal conditions (no packet loss); how this relates to the actual cost used
for computing metrics of routes going through this interface depends on
whether link quality estimation is being done.  The default is 96 for wired
interfaces, and 256 for wireless ones.
.TP
.BI channel " channel"
Sets the channel for this interface.  The value
.I channel
can be either an integer, or one of the strings
.B interfering
or
.BR noninterfering .
The default is to autodetect the channel number for wireless interfaces,
and
.B noninterfering
for wired interfaces.
.TP
.BR faraway " {" true | false }
This specifies whether the network is "far away", in the sense that
networks behind it don't interfere with networks in front of it.  By
default, networks are not far away.
.TP
.BI hello\-interval " interval"
This defines the interval between hello packets sent on this interface.
The default is specified with the
.B \-h
and
.B \-H
command-line flags.
.TP
.BI update\-interval " interval"
This defines the interval between full routing table dumps sent on this
interface; since Babel uses triggered updates and doesn't count to
infinity, this can be set to a fairly large value, unless significant
packet loss is expected.  The default is four times the hello interval.
.SS Filtering rules
A filtering rule is defined by a single line with the following format:
.IP
.I filter
.IR selector ...
.I action
.PP
.I Filter
specifies the filter to which this entry will be added, and can be one of
.BR in ,
.BR out ,
or
.BR redistribute .

Each
.I selector
specifies the conditions under which the given statement matches.  It
can be one of
.TP
.BI ip " prefix"
This entry only applies to routes in the given prefix.
.TP
.BI eq " plen"
This entry only applies to routes with a prefix length equal to
.BR plen .
.TP
.BI le " plen"
This entry only applies to routes with a prefix length less or equal to
.BR plen .
.TP
.BI ge " plen"
This entry only applies to routes with a prefix length greater or equal to
.BR plen .
.TP
.BI neigh " address"
This entry only applies to routes learned from a neighbour with
link-local address
.IR address .
.TP
.BI id " id"
This entry only applies to routes originated by a router with router-id
.IR id .
.TP
.BI proto " p"
This entry only applies to kernel routes with kernel protocol number
.IR p .
If neither
.B proto
nor
.B local
is specified, this entry applies to all non-local kernel routes with
a protocol different from "boot".
.TP
.B local
This entry only applies to local addresses.
.TP
.BI if " interface"
For an input filter, this specifies the interface over which the route
is learned.  For an output filter, this specifies the interface over
which this route is advertised.  For a redistribute statement, this
specifies the interface over which the route forwards packets.
.PP
.I Action
specifies the action to be taken when this entry matches.  It can have
one of the following values:
.TP
.B allow
Allow this route, without changing its metric (or setting its metric
to 0 in case of a redistribute filter).
.TP
.B deny
Ignore this route.
.TP
.BI metric " value"
For an input or output filter, allow this route after increasing its metric by
.IR value .
For a redistribute filter, redistribute this route with metric
.IR value .
.PP
If
.I action
is not specified, it defaults to
.BR allow .

By default,
.B babeld
redistributes all local addresses, and no other routes.  In order to
make sure that only the routes you specify are redistributed, you
should include the line
.IP
redistribute local deny
.PP
as the last line in your configuration file.
.SH EXAMPLES
You can participate in a Babel network by simply running
.IP
# babeld wlan0
.PP
where
.B wlan0
is the name of your wireless interface.

In order to gateway between multiple interfaces, just list them all on
the command line:
.IP
# babeld wlan0 eth0 sit1
.PP
On an access point, you'll probably want to redistribute some external
routes into Babel:
.IP
# babeld \\
    \-C 'redistribute metric 256' \\
    wlan0
.PP
or, if you want to constrain the routes that you redistribute,
.IP
# babeld \\
    \-C 'redistribute proto 11 ip ::/0 le 64 metric 256' \\
    \-C 'redistribute proto 11 ip 0.0.0.0/0 le 24 metric 256' \\
    wlan0
.SH FILES
.TP
.B /etc/babeld.conf
The default location of the configuration file.
.TP
.B /var/lib/babel\-state
The default location of the file storing long-term state.
.TP
.B /var/run/babeld.pid
The default location of the pid file.
.TP
.B /var/log/babeld.log
The default location of the log file.
.SH SIGNALS
.TP
.B SIGUSR1
Dump Babel's routing tables to standard output or to the log file.
.TP
.B SIGUSR2
Check interfaces and kernel routes right now, then reopen the log file.
.SH SECURITY
Babel is a completely insecure protocol: any attacker able to inject
IP packets with a link-local source address can disrupt the protocol's
operation.  This is no different from unsecured neighbour discovery or ARP.

Since Babel uses link-local IPv6 packets only, there is no need to update
firewalls to allow forwarding of Babel protocol packets.  If local
filtering is being done, UDP datagrams to the port used by the protocol
should be allowed.  As Babel uses unicast packets in some cases, it is not
enough to just allow packets destined to Babel's multicast address.
.SH BUGS
Plenty.  This is experimental software, run at your own risk.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR routed (8),
.BR route6d (8),
.BR zebra (8),
.BR ahcpd (8).
.SH AUTHOR
Juliusz Chroboczek.