During the research for commit a5cf4cfb77f745 it turned out that
OpenVPN's behaviour regarding "--dev arbitrary-name" is very
platform-specific and not very well documented.
The referenced commit fixed DCO behaviour to be in line with non-DCO
linux behaviour, this commit catches up on the documentation.
v2: disambiguate Linux ("all drivers") and FreeBSD ("only DCO"), add
comment about --dev-type being necessary for devices not starting with
tun* or tap*
Signed-off-by: Gert Doering <g...@greenie.muc.de>
---
doc/man-sections/vpn-network-options.rst | 38 +++++++++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/man-sections/vpn-network-options.rst
b/doc/man-sections/vpn-network-options.rst
index 5b2f8470..72cf9064 100644
--- a/doc/man-sections/vpn-network-options.rst
+++ b/doc/man-sections/vpn-network-options.rst
@@ -69,15 +69,34 @@ routing.
dev tap4
dev ovpn
- When the device name starts with :code:`tun` or :code:`tap`, the device
- type is extracted automatically. Otherwise the ``--dev-type`` option
- needs to be added as well.
+ What happens if the device name is not :code:`tun` or :code:`tap` is
+ platform dependent.
+
+ On most platforms, :code:`tunN` (e.g. tun2, tun30) and :code:`tapN`
+ (e.g. tap3) will create a numbered tun/tap interface with the number
+ specified - this is useful if multiple OpenVPN instances are active,
+ and the instance-to-device mapping needs to be known. Some platforms
+ do not support "numbered tap", so trying ``--dev tap3`` will fail.
+
+ Arbitrary device names (e.g. ``--dev tun-home``) will only work on
+ FreeBSD (with the DCO kernel driver for ``tun`` devices) and Linux
+ (for both ``tun`` and ``tap`` devices, DCO and tun/tap driver).
+
+ If such a device name starts with ``tun`` or ``tap`` (e.g. ``tun-home``),
+ OpenVPN will choose the right device type automatically. Otherwise the
+ desired device type needs to be specified with ``--dev-type tun`` or
+ ``--dev-type tap``.
+
+ On Windows, only the names :code:`tun` and :code:`tap` are supported.
+ Selection among multiple installed drivers or driver instances is done
+ with ``--dev-node`` and ``--windows-driver``.
--dev-node node
- Explicitly set the device node rather than using :code:`/dev/net/tun`,
- :code:`/dev/tun`, :code:`/dev/tap`, etc. If OpenVPN cannot figure out
- whether ``node`` is a TUN or TAP device based on the name, you should
- also specify ``--dev-type tun`` or ``--dev-type tap``.
+ This is a highly system dependent option to influence tun/tap driver
+ selection.
+
+ On Linux, tun/tap devices are created by accessing :code:`/dev/net/tun`,
+ and this device name can be changed using ``--dev-node ...``.
Under Mac OS X this option can be used to specify the default tun
implementation. Using ``--dev-node utun`` forces usage of the native
@@ -93,6 +112,11 @@ routing.
both the network connections control panel name and the GUID for each
TAP-Win32 adapter.
+ On other platforms, ``--dev-node node`` will influence the naming of the
+ created tun/tap device, if supported on that platform. If OpenVPN cannot
+ figure out whether ``node`` is a TUN or TAP device based on the name,
+ you should also specify ``--dev-type tun`` or ``--dev-type tap``.
+
--dev-type device-type
Which device type are we using? ``device-type`` should be :code:`tun`
(OSI Layer 3) or :code:`tap` (OSI Layer 2). Use this option only if
--
2.35.1
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