BIRD Internet Routing Daemon

The proto/bmp/* package provides a basic implementation of the BGP Monitoring Protocol (BMP) for BIRD. This implementation was initiated as a pilot program by Akamai Technologies to evaluate the feasibility of BMP within BIRD.

Note: This package provides only the basic features of the BMP specification required for evaluation and is not a full implementation of the protocol. The content was originally provided as a patch for BIRD release v2.0.7.

To create a compressed TGZ archive of the current repository state, use the make archive command or the tools/make-archive script.

To create Debian (.deb) or Red Hat (.rpm) packages for the current system, use the following commands:

• For DEBs: make deb or tools/make-deb
• For RPMs: make rpm or tools/make-rpm

# Create a TGZ archive
make archive

# Create DEB packages
make deb

# Create RPM packages
make rpm

The BIRD CLI uses a simple textual protocol over a stream connection (e.g., a UNIX domain socket on UNIX systems). Sessions consist of a sequence of requests and replies, similar to FTP or SMTP.

Request Format

Commands are encoded as a single line of text.

Reply Format

Replies consist of lines starting with a four-digit numeric code:

• XXXX (space): The last line of the reply.
• XXXX- (minus sign): A continuation line, indicating more data follows.
• XXXX (space, same code as previous): If a line has the same code as the previous one and is a continuation, the prefix can be replaced by a single whitespace character.

Numeric Reply Codes

• 0xxx: Action successfully completed.
• 1xxx: Table entry.
• 8xxx: Runtime error.
• 9xxx: Syntax error.

When executing commands via the BIRD client, the exit status of the process reflects the result of the last command executed by the server.

• A return code below 8000 typically indicates success or a standard BIRD response.
• A return code 8000 or higher indicates an error or failure condition.

The BIRD CLI interface is designed for command-line interaction with the routing daemon. It supports both synchronous and asynchronous message handling.

Key characteristics for developers interacting with the CLI layer:

• Restricted Mode: The CLI can be configured in a restricted state, which limits access to read-only commands. If a command is attempted in this mode, the system returns an access denied error (code 8007).
• Logging and Output: Commands can output messages using cli_msg or cli_printf. The CLI supports log masking (log_mask) and thresholds (log_threshold) to manage message volume.
• Asynchronous Messaging: The CLI uses a ring buffer for asynchronous messages, allowing the daemon to send information to the CLI without blocking.
• Time Formatting: Time output can be customized via cli_set_timeformat using a timeformat structure.

General Support and Discussion

For general questions, debugging assistance, or to follow development, subscribe to the BIRD users mailing list at bird-users@network.cz. To subscribe, send subscribe to bird-request@network.cz or visit https://bird.nic.cz/lists/bird-users/.

Security Issues

Do not send security vulnerabilities to the public mailing list. Instead, contact the team privately at bird-support@network.cz. This address is also used for commercial support inquiries.

Issue Tracking

While core development work is partially tracked on GitLab, the team does not use GitLab issues for official bug reporting.

You can access BIRD documentation in several formats:

• Online Documentation: The latest version is available at https://bird.nic.cz/doc/latest/.
• PDF Version: A formatted PDF version is available for download (packed in TGZ) from the online documentation page.
• Local Build: If you have SGMLtools and LaTeX installed, you can build local HTML or PDF documentation from the doc directory using the following commands:

make docs
make install-docs

BIRD can be installed using several methods depending on your operating system and requirements:

• Standard OS Package (Recommended): Use your operating system's default package manager.
• Official Binary Repositories: Available for Debian and Ubuntu via https://pkg.labs.nic.cz/doc/?project=bird.
• Source Code: Download the latest stable release from https://bird.nic.cz/get-bird/. For detailed instructions on building from source, refer to the INSTALL file in the repository.
• Development Code: Clone the Git repository from https://gitlab.nic.cz/labs/bird/.

The BIRD client is a command-line interface used to interact with the BIRD routing daemon via a control socket. It comes in two variants: a regular variant (depending on readline and ncurses) and a light variant (using only libc).

Usage

You can run the client in interactive mode or pass commands directly as arguments.

# Interactive mode
birdc

# Direct command execution
birdc show protocols

# Example usage patterns
birdc
birdc show protocols
birdc -s /path/to/socket show protocols

The client API provides functions to manage the input/output state, such as handling terminal lines, pagination (the more command), and input notification.

• input_init: Initializes the input subsystem.
• input_read: Reads input from the user.
• input_notify: Notifies the input system of a prompt change.
• more_begin / more_end: Controls pagination/paging behavior for long outputs.
• cleanup: Performs necessary cleanup of client resources.

The BIRD client provides utilities for command-line interaction, including tab-completion and command expansion.

• cmd_complete: Attempts to complete a command buffer. It takes the current command string, its length, a buffer to store the result, and an again flag.
• cmd_expand: Expands a command string (e.g., handling aliases or shorthand).
• cmd_help: Displays help information for a specific command.

// Example of how completion might be invoked internally
char buffer[256];
int result = cmd_complete(input_buffer, len, buffer, 0);