.TH BRIDGE 8 "1 August 2012" "iproute2" "Linux"
.SH NAME
bridge \- show / manipulate bridge addresses and devices
.SH SYNOPSIS

.ad l
.in +8
.ti -8
.B bridge
.RI "[ " OPTIONS " ] " OBJECT " { " COMMAND " | "
.BR help " }"
.sp

.ti -8
.IR OBJECT " := { "
.BR fdb " | " monitor " }"
.sp

.ti -8
.IR OPTIONS " := { "
\fB\-V\fR[\fIersion\fR] |
\fB\-s\fR[\fItatistics\fR]

.ti -8
.BR "bridge fdb" " { " add " | " del " } "
.I LLADDR
.B  dev
.IR DEV " { "
.BR local " | " temp " } { "
.BR self " } { " embedded " } "

.ti -8
.BR "bridge fdb" " [ " show " ] [ "
.B  dev
.IR DEV " ]"

.ti -8
.BR "bridge monitor" " [ " all " | " neigh " | " link " ]"

.SH OPTIONS

.TP
.BR "\-V" , " -Version"
print the version of the
.B bridge
utility and exit.

.TP
.BR "\-s" , " \-stats", " \-statistics"
output more information.  If the option
appears twice or more, the amount of information increases.
As a rule, the information is statistics or some time values.


.SH BRIDGE - COMMAND SYNTAX

.SS
.I OBJECT

.TP
.B fdb 
- Forwarding Database entry.

.SS
.I COMMAND

Specifies the action to perform on the object.
The set of possible actions depends on the object type.
As a rule, it is possible to
.BR "add" , " delete"
and
.B show
(or
.B list
) objects, but some objects do not allow all of these operations
or have some additional commands.  The
.B help
command is available for all objects.  It prints
out a list of available commands and argument syntax conventions.
.sp
If no command is given, some default command is assumed.
Usually it is
.B list
or, if the objects of this class cannot be listed,
.BR "help" .

.SH bridge fdb - forwarding database management

.B fdb
objects contain known Ethernet addresses on a  link.

.P
The corresponding commands display fdb entries, add new entries,
and delete old ones.

.SS bridge fdb add - add a new fdb entry

This command creates a new fdb entry.

.TP
.BI "ADDRESS"
the Ethernet MAC address.

.TP
.BI dev " NAME"
the interface to which this address is associated.

.TP
.in +8
.B local
- the address is associated with a local interface on the system
and is never forwarded.
.sp

.B temp
- the address is a dynamic entry, and will be removed if not used.
.sp

.B self
- the address is associated with a software fdb (default)
.sp

.B embedded
- the address is associated with an offloaded fdb
.sp

.in -8

.SS bridge fdb delete - delete a forwarding database entry
This command removes an existing fdb entry.

.PP
The arguments are the same as with
.BR "bridge fdb add" ,

.SS bridge fdb show - list forwarding entries.

This commands displays current forwarding table.

.PP
With the
.B -statistics
option, the command becomes verbose.  It prints out the last updated
and last used time for each entry.

.SH bridge monitor - state monitoring

The
.B bridge
utility can monitor the state of devices and  addresses
continuously.  This option has a slightly different format.
Namely, the
.B monitor
command is the first in the command line and then the object list follows:

.BR "bridge monitor" " [ " all " |"
.IR LISTofOBJECTS " ]"

.I OBJECT-LIST
is the list of object types that we want to monitor.
It may contain
.BR link ",  and " fdb "."
If no
.B file
argument is given,
.B bridge
opens RTNETLINK, listens on it and dumps state changes in the format
described in previous sections.

.P
If a file name is given, it does not listen on RTNETLINK,
but opens the file containing RTNETLINK messages saved in binary format
and dumps them.  Such a history file can be generated with the


.SH NOTES
This command uses facilities added in Linux 3.0.

Although the forwarding table is maintained on a per-bridge device basis
the bridge device is not part of the syntax. This is a limitation of the
underlying netlink neighbour message protocol. When displaying the
forwarding table, entries for all bridges are displayed.
Add/delete/modify commands determine the underlying bridge device
based on the bridge to which the coresponding ethernet device is attached. 


.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ip (8)
.br
.RB "Please direct bugreports and patches to: " <netdev@vger.kernel.org>

.SH AUTHOR
Original Manpage by Stephen Hemminger