CONTENTS

SYNOPSIS

RTA_OK(rta", "attrlen) returns true if rta points to a valid routing attribute; attrlen is the running length of the attribute buffer. When not true then you must assume there are no more attributes in the message, even if attrlen is non-zero.
RTA_DATA(rta) returns a pointer to the start of this attribute’s data.
RTA_PAYLOAD(rta) returns the length of this attribute’s data.
RTA_NEXT(rta", "attrlen) gets the next attribute after rta. Calling this macro will update attrlen. You should use RTA_OK to check for the validity of the returned pointer.
RTA_LENGTH(len) returns the length which is required for len bytes of data plus the header.
RTA_SPACE(len) returns the amount of space which will be needed in the message with len bytes of data.

Creating a rtnetlink message to set a MTU of a device.
struct {
struct nlmsghdr nh;
struct ifinfomsg if;
char attrbuf[512];
} req;
struct rtattr *rta;
unsigned int mtu = 1000;
int rtnetlink_sk = socket(PF_NETLINK, SOCK_DGRAM, NETLINK_ROUTE);

memset(&req, 0, sizeof(req));
req.nh.nlmsg_len = NLMSG_LENGTH(sizeof(struct ifinfomsg));
req.nh.nlmsg_flags = NLM_F_REQUEST;
req.nh.nlmsg_type = RTML_NEWLINK;
req.if.ifi_family = AF_UNSPEC;
req.if.ifi_index = INTERFACE_INDEX;
req.if.ifi_change = 0xffffffff; /* ???*/
rta = (struct rtattr *)(((char *) &req) +
NLMSG_ALIGN(n->nlmsg_len));
rta->rta_type = IFLA_MTU;
rta->rta_len = sizeof(unsigned int);
req.n.nlmsg_len = NLMSG_ALIGN(req.n.nlmsg_len) +
RTA_LENGTH(sizeof(mtu));
memcpy(RTA_DATA(rta), &mtu, sizeof (mtu));
send(rtnetlink_sk, &req, req.n.nlmsg_len);