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

NAME
     configd -- System Configuration Daemon

SYNOPSIS
     configd [-bdv] [-B bundleID] [-V bundleID] [-t bundle-path]

DESCRIPTION
     The configd daemon is responsible for many configuration aspects of the local system.  configd main-tains maintains
     tains data reflecting the desired and current state of the system, provides notifications to applica-tions applications
     tions when this data changes, and hosts a number of configuration agents in the form of loadable bun-dles. bundles.
     dles.

     Each configuration agent is responsible for a well-defined aspect of configuration management. The
     agents look to one or more input sources (preferences, low-level kernel events, configd notifications,
     etc) and, through a set of policy modules, interacts with the system to establish the desired opera-tional operational
     tional configuration.

     Access to the data maintained by configd is via the SystemConfiguration.framework SCDynamicStore APIs.

OPTIONS
     The command line options are as follows:

     -b  Don't actually load any bundles.

     -B bundleID
         Prevents the loading of the bundle with the specified bundleID.

     -d  Run configd in the foreground without forking.  This is useful for debugging.

     -v  Puts configd into verbose mode.  Displays debugging information about bundles as they are being
         loaded.

     -V bundleID
         Turns verbose mode on for the bundle with the specified bundleID.

     -t bundle-path
         Loads only the bundle specified by bundle-path.

BUNDLES
     At the present time, the majority of the configuration agents (or bundles) hosted by configd are used
     to establish and maintain the network configuration.  These agents include:

   KernelEventMonitor
     This bundle is responsible for monitoring kernel events and conveying changes to the network state
     (e.g. link status) to other configuration agents and interested applications.

   InterfaceNamer
     This bundle provides a name to each of the system's network interfaces.  The bundle queries the IOKit
     Registry for a list of network devices attached to the system and gives them BSD style names such as
     "en0".

   IPConfiguration
     This agent is responsible for establishing and maintaining IPv4 addresses on the system.  These
     addresses may be manually specified in the network preferences or acquired using DHCP (or BOOTP).

   IP6Configuration
     This agent is responsible for establishing and maintaining IPv6 addresses on the system.

   IPMonitor
     This agent is responsible for establishing and maintaining the primary network service, the default
     route, the active DNS configuration, and the active network proxies on the system.

   LinkConfiguration
     This agent is responsible for establishing and maintaining the media type, media options, and MTU for
     ethernet interfaces.

   PreferencesMonitor
     This agent is responsible for conveying the network configuration preferences specified by the adminis-trator administrator
     trator to the various configuration agents (IPv4, IPv6, ...).

   PPPController
     This agent is responsible for establishing and maintaining PPP connections on the system.

FILES
     /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/
         Directory of configd bundles

     /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
         Default directory for system configuration persistent store files.

         .../preferences.plist               System configuration

         .../NetworkInterfaces.plist         Network interface --> BSD interface mappings

         .../VirtualNetworkInterfaces.plist  Virtual network interface (VLAN) configuration

ERRORS
     Log messages generated by configd and any configuration agents will are sent to the system log daemon
     by syslog(3).  The syslog facility used is LOG_DAEMON.  If the -d option is specified, log messages
     with written to stdout (or stderr if the priority is greater than LOG_NOTICE).

SIGNALS
     configd was designed to run without any intervention but if you insist on sending a signal to the dae-mon daemon
     mon then the following are available:

     SIGHUP   This signal, typically used to tell a daemon to reload it's configuration, is ignored (there
              is no configuration).

     SIGTERM  This signal initiates a "graceful" shutdown of the daemon.

SEE ALSO
     scutil(8), scselect(8)

HISTORY
     The configd daemon appeared in Mac OS X Public Beta.

NOTES
     Unless started with the -d option, configd will register with launchd(8) such that the daemon will be
     restarted in the event of a crash.  This registration will be removed during "graceful" shutdowns of
     the daemon.

     This daemon and its current behavior may change without notice.  Do not rely on its existence or its
     behavior.  Consider it an unsupported command.

Mac OS X                                      November 4, 2003                                      Mac OS X