SUMMARY: DLPI in SunOS 4.1.x

From: Mitarbeiter EM C14 (c14@uebemc.siemens.de)
Date: Wed Oct 06 1993 - 22:56:05 CDT


Thanx a lot to:

stern@sunne.East.Sun.COM (Hal Stern - NE Area Systems Engineer)
john@oncology.uthscsa.edu (John Justin Hough)
guy@auspex.com (Guy Harris)
kevin@uniq.com.au (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})

My original question was:

++> does anybody know, is there in SunOS 4.1.x something like the DLPI
++> (Data Link Provider Interface) in SOLARIS 2.x available ??
 
Summarise the answers:

>>in sunos 4.1 it's the NIT (network interface tap)
>>in solaris 2.x it's the DLPI

-> 4.1.3 has the nit interface which as with all things between 4.x
-> and 2.x, it seems to me is easier to use than dlpi which I am
-> still trying to port my nit stuff too. The filter stuff is the
-> same except for that the include files name has been changed.

=>No. SunOS 5.x (the OS component of Solaris 2.x) is SVR4-based, and uses
=>SVR4-style STREAMS-based networking, including stuff such as DLPI; SunOS
=>4.x's networking is BSD-based, and doesn't use STREAMS-based stuff such
=>as DLPI at the link layer (the only STREAMS-based stuff in 4.x is:
=>
=> the tty subsystem
=>
=> NIT, which uses a sockets-to-STREAMS converter
=>
=> the TLI stuff for TCP in 4.1[.x]
=>
=> the streams pipe spoodge used by RFS in 4.1[.x]).
=>
=>The stuff that serves the same function as DLPI - i.e., connecting
=>link-layer drivers to network-layer protocol implementations - is
=>basically that of BSD.

=>One more note: if you want to use DLPI to snoop for *raw* Ethernet
=>packets in a user-mode program, or to transmit *raw* Ethernet packets
=>you've constructed in a user-mode program, NIT is the mechanism you use
=>in 4.x.

~>No. The TLI libraries are there for application compatibility, but the
~>DLPI interface was part of the STREAMS rewrite of network drivers for
~>5.x. In 4.x, the Berkeley network protocol stack was used.

==== Joerg Bruchertseifer
==== jb@uebemc.siemens.de



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