Udhcpc

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

udhcpc is a very small DHCP client geared towards embedded systems. The letters are an acronym for Micro - DHCP - Client (uDHCPc). Tries to be fully functional, and RFC compliant. It is usually distributed as one of the utilities in BusyBox.

Other Linux DHCP servers out there (such as the ISC DHCP server) are targeted at larger systems such as PCs (with more RAM/disk space/etc.). As a result, the udhcp package does not have as large a feature set as some of these DHCP packages.

Compiled against uClibc, both the server and client binaries are around 18k and when compiled as one combined binary, has a size of 28k. udhcp is a perfect fit for embedded systems requiring DHCP capabilities.

The udhcp server lease file is in binary format making the additional storage space required for IP and MAC addresses minimal. It also has the option of storing lease times in absolute form, or relative form, for systems without a clock. The lease file can also be saved periodically or by using a signal for systems with flash memory.

The client accepts all options on the command line, and calls external scripts to handle the configuration of interfaces to allow for the ultimate flexibility.

[edit] External links