NDP(8) System Manager's Manual NDP(8)

ndpcontrol/diagnose IPv6 neighbor discovery protocol

ndp -a [-lntx]

ndp -A wait [-nt]

ndp -c [-nt]

ndp -d [-nt] hostname

ndp -f [-nt] filename

ndp -H

ndp -I [delete | interface]

ndp -i interface [flags...]

ndp -p

ndp -P

ndp -r

ndp -R

ndp -s [-nt] -s nodename etheraddr [temp] [proxy]

The ndp command manipulates the address mapping table used by the Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP).

Dump the currently existing NDP entries. The following information will be printed:
Neighbor
IPv6 address of the neighbor.
Linklayer Address
Linklayer address of the neighbor. It could be “(incomplete)” when the address is not available.
Netif
Network interface associated with the neighbor cache entry.
Expire
The time until expiry of the entry. The entry could become “permanent”, in which case it will never expire.
S
State of the neighbor cache entry, as a single letter:

N
Nostate
W
Waitdelete
I
Incomplete
R
Reachable
S
Stale
D
Delay
P
Probe
Flags
Flags on the neighbor cache entry, in a single letter. They are: Router, proxy neighbor advertisement (“p”). The field could be followed by a decimal number, which means the number of NS probes the node has sent during the current state.
wait
Repeat -a (dump NDP entries) every wait seconds.
Erase all the NDP entries.
Delete specified NDP entry.
filename
Cause the file filename to be read and multiple entries to be set in the NDP table. Entries in the file should be of the form

hostname ether_addr [temp] [proxy]

with argument meanings as given above. Leading whitespace and empty lines are ignored. A ‘#’ character will mark the rest of the line as a comment.

Harmonize consistency between the routing table and the default router list; install the top entry of the list into the kernel routing table.
Shows the default interface used as the default route when there is no default router.
interface
Specifies the default interface used as the default route when there is no default router. The interface will be used as the default.
delete
The current default interface will be deleted from the kernel.
interface [expressions ...]
View ND information for the specified interface. If additional arguments expressions are given, ndp sets or clears the flags or variables for the interface as specified in the expression. Each expression should be separated by white spaces or tab characters. Possible expressions are as follows. Some of the expressions can begin with the special character ‘-’, which means the flag specified in the expression should be cleared. Note that you need -- before -foo in this case.
Turn on or off NUD (Neighbor Unreachability Detection) on the interface. NUD is usually turned on by default.
Disable IPv6 operation on the interface. When disabled, the interface discards any IPv6 packets received on or being sent to the interface. In the sending case, an error of ENETDOWN will be returned to the application. This flag is typically set automatically in the kernel as a result of a certain failure of Duplicate Address Detection. If the auto_linklocal per-interface flag is set, automatic link-local address configuration is performed again when this flag is cleared.
the interface is enabled to proxy neighbor discovery for global scope prefixes matching those on link at other interfaces.
do not use cryptographically generated addresses (CGA) on this interface.
 
Address autoconfiguration proceeds under the assumption that interface configuration is replicated by a sleep proxy at another node on the link. Disables optimistic DAD and sends unsolicited NA with O=1 when DAD completes. Ignores DAD failures from other hardware addresses.
 
Show link-layer reachability information.
Do not try to resolve numeric addresses to hostnames.
Show prefix list. The following information will be printed:
The network interface associated with this prefix.
The status of the prefix, expressed by a combination of the following letters:

This prefix can be used for stateless address autoconfiguration.
O
This prefix can be used for on-link determination; that is, it can be used to determine whether a given destination address is on-link.
There are no reachable routers advertising this prefix.
Valid lifetime; the length of time for which the prefix and a stateless autoconfigured address generated from this prefix can be used for the source or destination address of a packet.
Preferred lifetime; the length of time for which the prefix and a stateless autoconfigured address generated from this prefix can be used by upper-layer protocols unrestrictedly.
This is the remaining time that the prefix is in the valid state.
The number of kernel references held for this prefix.
Flush all the entries in the prefix list.
Show default router list.
Flush all the entries in the default router list.
Register an NDP entry for a node. The entry will be permanent unless the word temp is given in the command. If the word proxy is given, this system will act as a proxy NDP server, responding to requests for hostname even though the host address is not its own.
Print timestamp for each entry, to make it possible to merge the output with tcpdump(1). Most useful when used with -A.
Show extended link-layer reachability information in addition to that shown by the -l flag.
Show the cryptographically generated address (CGA) parameters for the node.

The ndp command will exit with 0 on success, and non-zero on errors.

arp(8)

The ndp command first appeared in WIDE Hydrangea IPv6 protocol stack kit.

May 17, 1998 macOS 15.2