TAP(4) | Device Drivers Manual | TAP(4)

# NAME

`tap` — Ethernet tunnel software network interface

# SYNOPSIS

`pseudo-device tap`

# DESCRIPTION

The `tap` driver allows the creation and use of virtual Ethernet devices. Those interfaces appear just as any real Ethernet NIC to the kernel, but can also be accessed by userland through a character device node in order to read frames being sent by the system or to inject frames. In that respect it is very similar to what tun(4) provides.

## INTERFACE CREATION

Interfaces may be created in two different ways: using the ifconfig(8) `create` command with a specified device number, or its ioctl(2) equivalent, `SIOCIFCREATE`, or using the special cloning device /dev/tap.

The former works the same as any other cloning network interface: the administrator can create and destroy interfaces at any time, notably at boot time. This is the easiest way of combining `tap` and bridge(4). Later, userland will actually access the interfaces through the specific device nodes /dev/tapN.

The latter is aimed at applications that need a virtual Ethernet device for the duration of their execution. A new interface is created at the opening of /dev/tap, and is later destroyed when the last process using the file descriptor closes it.

## CHARACTER DEVICES

Whether the `tap` devices are accessed through the special cloning device /dev/tap or through the specific devices /dev/tapN, the possible actions to control the matching interface are the same.

When using /dev/tap though, as the interface is created on-the-fly, its name is not known immediately by the application. Therefore the `TAPGIFNAME` ioctl is provided. It should be the first action an application using the special cloning device will do. It takes a pointer to a struct ifreq as an argument.

Ethernet frames sent out by the kernel on a `tap` interface can be obtained by the controlling application with read(2). It can also inject frames in the kernel with write(2). There is absolutely no validation of the content of the injected frame, it can be any data, of any length.

One call of write(2) will inject a single frame in the kernel, as one call of read(2) will retrieve a single frame from the queue, to the extent of the provided buffer. If the buffer is not large enough, the frame will be truncated.

`tap` character devices support the `FIONREAD` ioctl which returns the size of the next available frame, or 0 if there is no available frame in the queue.

They also support non-blocking I/O through the `FIONBIO` ioctl. In that mode, `EWOULDBLOCK` is returned by read(2) when no data is available.

Asynchronous I/O is supported through the `FIOASYNC`, `FIOSETOWN`, and `FIOGETOWN` ioctls. The first will enable `SIGIO` generation, while the two other configure the process group that will receive the signal when data is ready.

Synchronisation may also be achieved through the use of select(2), poll(2), or kevent(2).

## ETHERNET ADDRESS

When a `tap` device is created, it is assigned an Ethernet address of the form f2:0b:a4:xx:xx:xx. This address can later be changed using ifconfig(8) to add an active link layer address, or directly via the `SIOCALIFADDR` ioctl on a `PF_LINK` socket, as it is not available on the ioctl handler of the character device interface.

## LINK STATE

When an application has opened the `tap` character device the link is considered up, otherwise down. As such, it is best to open the character device once connectivity has been established so that Duplicate Address Detection, if applicable, can be performed. If connectivity is lost, the character device should be closed.

# FILES

/dev/tap
  cloning device
/dev/tap[0-9]*
  individual character device nodes

# SEE ALSO

bridge(4), l2tp(4), tun(4), vether(4), ifconfig(8)

# HISTORY

The `tap` driver first appeared in NetBSD 3.0.

# CAVEATS

Starting from NetBSD 10.0, the `tap` driver can no longer be used as a bridge(4) endpoint because it supports a link state based on if it has been opened or not. Use the vether(4) driver instead as it's been explicitly designed for this purpose.

May 2, 2022 | NetBSD 11.0