plclist(1) Qualcomm Atheros Open Powerline Toolkit plclist(1)
NAME
plclist - List Atheros Device Addresses
SYNOPSIS
plclist [options] [device] [device] [...]
DESCRIPTION
print the local device address or all network device addresses for a specific device. This program is ideal for that
special script jokey in your life. It only prints device addresses. Nothing else.
Devices are detected using one of two methods. The two methods can be used in combination to determine network topology.
The first method sends one VS_SW_VER message to the Qualcomm Atheros Local Management Address and prints the Ethernet
source address found in each received confirmation message. The method is used when no device addresses appear on the
command line. The result is a list of all local devices, being this connected directly to the local host. Each local
device device may bridge to an independent powerline network having remote devices as members.
The second method sends one VS_NW_INFO message to each specified device and prints the Ethernet source address found in
each received message plus the Ethernet addresses of each network station identified in that message body. This method
is used whenever one, or more, device addresses appear on the command line. It is possible to query remote powerline
devices directly and so duplicate devices addresses are printed when devices share powerline neighbors.
This program is part of the Qualcomm Atheros Powerline Toolkit. See the plc man page for an overview and installation
instructions.
COMMENTS
This program is identical to legacy program int6klist but uses version 1 of the Qualcomm Atheros VS_NW_INFO vendor-spe‐
cific message. Older firmware versions may not recognize this message version.
OPTIONS
-b Print bridge device addresses. Each specified device reports it's own address. This option has no effect if no
devices are specified.
-i Select the host Ethernet interface. All requests are sent via this host interface and only reponses received via
this host interface are recognized. The default interface is eth1 because most people use eth0 as their principle
network connection; however, if environment string "PLC" is defined then it takes precedence over the default
interface. This option then takes precedence over either default.
-n Append a newline to output.
-q Enter quiet mode. This option has no effect at this time.
-r Print remote device addresses. Each specified device reports neighbor device addresses. This option has no effect
when no devices are specified.
-s Insert a newline, instead of a space, between each device address.
-v Enter verbose mode. All Etherenet frames sent or received by the program are displayed on stdout.
-?, --help
Print program help summary on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the command line.
-!, --version
Print program version information on stdout. This option takes precedence over other options on the command line.
Use this option when sending screen dumps to Atheros Technical Support so that they know exactly which version of
the Linux Toolkit you are using.
ARGUMENTS
device The MAC address of some powerline device. More than one address may be specified. If omitted the the program out‐
put consists of local device addresses only. Otherwise, output conisists of the specified device followed by all
devices associated with it. The default address is local. See DEVICES for information about symbolic device
addresses.
DEVICES
Powerline devices use Ethernet Media Access Control (MAC) addresses. A MAC address is a 48-bit value entered as 12 hexa‐
decimal digits in upper, lower or mixed character case. Octets may be separated with colons for clarity. For example,
"00b052000001", "00:b0:52:00:00:01" and "00b052:000001" are valid and equivalent.
The following MAC addresses are special and may be entered by name instead of number.
all Same as "broadcast".
broadcast
A synonym for the Ethernet broadcast address, FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. All devices, whether local, remote or foreign
recognize messages sent to this address. A remote device is any device at the far end of a powerline connection.
A foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros.
local A synonym for the Qualcomm Atheros vendor specific Local Management Address (LMA), 00:B0:52:00:00:01. All local
Atheros devices recognize this address but remote and foreign devices do not. A remote device is any device at the
far end of a powerline connection. A foreign device is any device not manufactured by Atheros.
REFERENCES
See the Qualcomm Atheros HomePlug AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual for more information.
DISCLAIMER
Atheros HomePlug AV Vendor Specific Management Message Entry structure and content is proprietary to Qualcomm Atheros,
Ocala FL USA. Consequently, public information may not be available. Qualcomm Atheros reserves the right to modify mes‐
sage structure and content in future firmware releases without any obligation to notify or compensate users of this pro‐
gram.
EXAMPLES
The following command lists all local devices. Since no devices are specified on the command line, one VS_SW_VER message
is addressed to 00:B0:52:00:00:01 and the responses are collected. As we can see, there is only one local device avail‐
able at this time. Observe that the prompt appears immediately after the address because newlines are omitted by default.
# plclist
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 #
The next example does the same thing but there are now three local devices available. Observe that all devices are
printed without intervening newlines so that the output of this program can be used as input to other toolkit programs.
# plclist
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01 # int6k
The next example queries the first local device from the previous example, 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04, for a list neighbor
devices. This time a VS_NW_INFO message is sent because we named a device on the command line. The named device happens
to be a local device but it need not be. We can see that the device has no neighbors.
# plclist 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 # int6k
The next example we query the next local device, 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02, and find that it has two neighbor devices that did
not show up earlier because they are remote devices. Observe that the three devices comprise a complete logical powerline
network. Device 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 is connected to the local host but 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 and 00:0f:00:F2:01:13 are con‐
nected to other hosts, somewhere.
# plclist 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
The next example shows that we can query multiple devices at a time for neighbors. We have copied the output from the
second example and pasted it onto the command line. We now have a list of all devices, local and remote.
# plclist 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
This next example does the same thing but uses option -n to append a newline after each query. This output is eaiser to
understand because each device queried starts on a new line and is followed by any neighbors.
# plclist 00:B0:52:BE:EF:04 00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:B0:52:BA:BE:01 -n
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
00:B0:52:BA:BE:01
This example invokes plclist which returns a list of local devices. That list is inserted into another plclist command
line. This demontrates how program output can be used in scripts.
# plclist $(plclist) -n
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
00:B0:52:BA:BE:01
This next example accomplishes the same thing since all local device respond with a list of powerline neighbors.
# plclist local
00:B0:52:BE:EF:04
00:B0:52:BA:BE:02 00:0F:33:F2:01:21 00:0F:00:F2:01:13
00:B0:52:BA:BE:01
SEE ALSO
plc(1), plcrate(1), plcstat(1), plctool(1), plctone(1)
CREDITS
Charles Maier <cmaier@qca.qualcomm.com>
open-plc-utils-0.0.3 Mar 2014 plclist(1)