dhcp-probe

dhcp-probe is intended to be used by network administrators to locate unknown BootP and DHCP servers on a directly-attached network.

dhcp-probe is intended for use by a network administrator. Before running the program on any network other than one for which you are responsible, contact that network's administrator to learn if it is acceptable for you to run this software on that network. Running this software on a network where you don't have permission to do so may violate that network's acceptable use policy.

For help, see the dhcp_probe(8) and dhcp_probe.cf(5) man pages.

Build & Install

The program depends on libpcap and libnet (>1.3), patched earlier versions of libnet, compatible with dhcp-probe, are available in most Linux distributions. On Debian/Ubuntu derived systems:

sudo apt install libpcap-dev libnet1-dev

The dhcp-probe configure script and Makefile supports de facto standard settings and environment variables such as --prefix=PATH and DESTDIR= for the install process. For example, to install dhcp-probe to /usr, instead of the default /usr/local, and redirect install to a package directory in /tmp:

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
make
make DESTDIR=/tmp/dhcp-probe-1.4.0 install-strip

Building from GIT

If you want to contribute, or simply just try out the latest but unreleased features, then you need to know a few things about the GNU build system:

• configure.ac and a per-directory Makefile.am are key files
• configure and Makefile.in are generated from autogen.sh
• Makefile is generated by configure script

To build from GIT you first need to clone the repository and run the autogen.sh script. This requires automake and autoconf to be installed on your system (not required when you build from released tarballs):

git clone https://github.com/libnet/dhcp-probe.git
cd dhcp-probe/
./autogen.sh
./configure && make

GIT sources are a moving target and are not recommended for production systems, unless you know what you are doing!

Contributing

The basic functionality has been tested thoroughly over the years, but that does not mean the program is bug free. Please report bugs, feature requests, patches and pull requests at GitHub.

Origin & References

This software was created by the Network Systems Group at Princeton University's Office of Information Technology, . With Irwin Tillman as the principal author. The project is now maintained by the Libnet project.

dhcp_probe was intended for our use at Princeton University, so was written to operate on the platform(s) we use, with the features we need. As others have asked for the software, we've made it generally available, however, we do not have the resources available to port it to additional platforms or add features.

The product is free, however, it includes code that was published in other programs; those parts are subject to the copyright and license restrictions listed in these files:

• src/report.c
• src/daemonize.c
• src/get_myeaddr.c
• src/get_myipaddr.c

This software is provided "as is" and any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose are disclaimed. In no event shall the authors or Princeton University be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special exemplary, or consequential damages (including, but not limited to, procurement of substitute goods or services; loss of use, data, or profits; or business interruption) however caused and on any theory of liability, whether in contract, strict liability, or tort (including negligence or otherwise) arising in any way out of the use of this software, even if advised of the possibility of such damage.