Command Tool

The tipc tool for managing TIPC is available via the iproute2 package in the major Linux distros.



Manageable Objects

$ tipc -h
Transparent Inter-Process Communication Protocol
Usage: tipc [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS] ...

Options:
-h, --help Print help for last given command

COMMANDS:
 bearer - Show or modify bearers
 link - Show or modify links
 media - Show or modify media
 nametable - Show nametable
 node - Show or modify node related parameters
 socket - Show sockets

Bearer

A bearer is an abstraction of a network interface, with additional parameters for TIPC. A node may attach up to three interfaces, but only two of the same type. A bearer has configurable properties, such as default link tolerance and default priority, which are inherited by the links activated across that bearer.

$ tipc bearer -h
Usage: tipc bearer COMMAND [ARGS] ...

COMMANDS
 enable - Enable a bearer
 disable - Disable a bearer
 set - Set various bearer properties
 get - Get various bearer properties
 list - List bearers

Media

A media is a bearer type, from which bearers are instantiated. Currently, four media types are supported: Ethernet, Infiniband, UDP/IPv4 and UDP/IPv6. Some media properites, such as default link tolerance and send window size, are configurable and inherited by the instantiated bearers.

$ tipc media -h
Usage: tipc media COMMAND [ARGS] ...

COMMANDS:
 list - List active media types
 get - Get various media properties
 set - Set various media properties

Link

A link is a pipe for exchanging packets with the peer nodes, and also for for monitoring availability of those nodes. A link has three configurable parameters: tolerance (for peer node unresponsiveness), priority and send window size.

$ tipc link -h
Usage: tipc link COMMAND [ARGS] ...

COMMANDS
 list - List links
 get - Get various link properties
 set - Set various link properties
 statistics - Show or reset statistics

Name Table

The service binding table, also called the name table, contains the cluster global bindings between service addesses
and socket addresses, as well as the node local bindings with node scope visibility.

$ tipc nametable -h
Usage: tipc nametable COMMAND

COMMANDS
 show - Show nametable

Node

The own node has two settable and readable poperties: node identity and cluster identity. Note that
before Linux 4.17 those properties are called node address and network identity, with command
keywords address and netid.

$ tipc node -h
Usage: tipc media COMMAND [ARGS] ...

COMMANDS
 list - List remote nodes
 get - Get local node parameters
 set - Set local node parameters

Socket

The socket list command will show the existing sockets on the node, inclusive their service bindings,
if any. Note also that from Linux 4.17 the ss tool in iproute2 comes with powerful statistics/diagnostics
support for TIPC sockets.

$ tipc socket -h
Usage: tipc socket COMMAND

COMMANDS:
 list - List sockets (ports)