1RSTPCTL(8)                                                          RSTPCTL(8)
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NAME

6       rstpd  -  Daemon  implementing  Rapid  Spanning Tree Protocol for Linux
7       bridges.
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SYNOPSIS

10       rstpd [-d] [-v <level>]
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DESCRIPTION

13       rstpd implements the Rapid  Spanning  Tree  Protocol  (RSTP)  on  Linux
14       bridges.  When  started, it merely monitors the ethernet bridges on the
15       machine until instructed to run RSTP on  any  of  them  using  rstpctl.
16       When run with the -d option, it runs in the foreground and outputs mes‐
17       sages which are normally logged through syslog to standard  output  and
18       standard  error. With the -v option, the level of verbosity of the logs
19       can be controlled.  See rstpctl(8) for more information on  configuring
20       RSTP.
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SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL

24       Multiple  ethernet bridges can work together to create even larger net‐
25       works of ethernets using the IEEE 802.1d spanning tree  protocol.  This
26       protocol  is  used for finding the shortest path between two ethernets,
27       and for eliminating loops from the topology.  As  this  protocol  is  a
28       standard,  linux bridges will interwork properly with other third party
29       bridge products. Bridges communicate  with  eachother  by  sending  and
30       receiving BPDUs (Bridge Protocol Data Units). These BPDUs can be recog‐
31       nised by an ethernet destination address of 01:80:c2:00:00:00.
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33       The spanning tree protocol can also be turned off (for those situations
34       where  it  just  doesn't make sense, for example when this linux box is
35       the only bridge on the LAN, or when you know that there are no loops in
36       the topology.)
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38       The  2004 version of the 802.1D specification describes the Rapid Span‐
39       ning Tree Protocol, which supercedes the older Spanning  Tree  Protocol
40       while providing for backward compatible operation with it.  It provides
41       for faster reconfiguration during network  changes  than  STP  in  many
42       cases.
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NOTES

46       TODO:  Indicate lack of persistence of configuration across restarts of
47       daemon.
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SEE ALSO

51       rstpctl(8), brctl(8)
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55       This manual page Copyright (c) 2006 EMC Corporation.
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57       This manual page is free software; you can redistribute it and/or  mod‐
58       ify  it  under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
59       by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of  the  License,  or
60       (at your option) any later version. It comes with NO WARRANTY.
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AUTHOR

64       Srinivas Aji <Aji_Srinivas@emc.com>
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68                                August 20, 2006                     RSTPCTL(8)
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