NGCTL(8)		  BSD System Manager's Manual		      NGCTL(8)

NAME
     ngctl — netgraph control utility

SYNOPSIS
     ngctl [-d] [-f filename] [-n nodename] [command ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The ngctl utility creates a new netgraph node of type socket which can be
     used to issue netgraph commands.  If no -f flag is given, no command is
     supplied on the command line, and standard input is a tty, ngctl will
     enter interactive mode.  Otherwise ngctl will execute the supplied com‐
     mand(s) and exit immediately.

     Nodes can be created, removed, joined together, etc.  ASCII formatted
     control messages can be sent to any node if that node supports
     binary/ASCII control message conversion.

     In interactive mode, ngctl will display any control messages and data
     packets received by the socket node.  In the case of control messages,
     the message arguments are displayed in ASCII form if the originating node
     supports conversion.

     The options are as follows:

     -f nodeinfo
	     Read commands from the named file.  A single dash represents the
	     standard input.  Blank lines and lines starting with a “#” are
	     ignored.

     -n nodename
	     Assign nodename to the newly created netgraph node.  The default
	     name is ngctlXXX where XXX is the process ID number.

     -d      Increase the debugging verbosity level.

COMMANDS
     The currently supported commands in ngctl are:

	   config     get or set configuration of node at <path>
	   connect    Connects hook <peerhook> of the node at <relpath> to <hook>
	   debug      Get/set debugging verbosity level
	   dot	      Produce a GraphViz (.dot) of the entire netgraph.
	   help       Show command summary or get more help on a specific command
	   list       Show information about all nodes
	   mkpeer     Create and connect a new node to the node at "path"
	   msg	      Send a netgraph control message to the node at "path"
	   name       Assign name <name> to the node at <path>
	   read       Read and execute commands from a file
	   rmhook     Disconnect hook "hook" of the node at "path"
	   show       Show information about the node at <path>
	   shutdown   Shutdown the node at <path>
	   status     Get human readable status information from the node at <path>
	   types      Show information about all installed node types
	   write      Send a data packet down the hook named by "hook".
	   quit       Exit program

     Some commands have aliases, e.g., “ls” is the same as “list”.  The “help”
     command displays the available commands, their usage and aliases, and a
     brief description.

EXIT STATUS
     The ngctl utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
     netgraph(3), netgraph(4), nghook(8)

HISTORY
     The netgraph system was designed and first implemented at Whistle Commu‐
     nications, Inc. in a version of FreeBSD 2.2 customized for the Whistle
     InterJet.

AUTHORS
     Archie Cobbs ⟨archie@whistle.com⟩

BSD			       January 19, 1999 			   BSD