richiett/bird repository overview

⁠BIRD Internet Routing Daemon

⁠Overview

BIRD (BIRD Internet Routing Daemon) is an open-source routing daemon designed for UNIX-like systems. It provides dynamic routing capabilities for both IPv4 and IPv6 networks.

⁠Key Features

• Support for both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols
• Multiple routing tables
• Implements major routing protocols:
  • Border Gateway Protocol (BGPv4)
  • Routing Information Protocol (RIPv2, RIPng)
  • Open Shortest Path First protocol (OSPFv2, OSPFv3)
  • Babel Routing Protocol
• Router Advertisements for IPv6 hosts
• Command-line interface for daemon control
• Soft reconfiguration capability
• Powerful route filtering language

⁠System Requirements

• UNIX-like operating system
• For BIRD 2.x:
  • Linux 3.16+
  • FreeBSD 10+
  • NetBSD 7.0+
  • OpenBSD 5.8+

⁠Installation

Basic installation steps:

git clone https://github.com/CZ-NIC/bird.git
cd bird
./configure
make
make install

⁠Command Line Options

• -c : Specify config file
• -d : Enable debug messages
• -D : Debug log file
• -f : Run in foreground
• -g : Specify group ID
• -u : Specify user ID
• -P : Create PID file
• -s : Specify communication socket
• -R : Apply graceful restart
• -p : Parse config and exit
• --version : Display version
• --help : Show help

⁠Security

• Can run with root privileges
• Recommended to use privilege restriction (-u, -g options)
• Supports Linux capabilities for required privileges
• Privilege restriction not available in BSD port
• Consider using dedicated user/group (e.g., 'bird') instead of 'nobody'

⁠Development

• Developed at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
• Available under GNU General Public License
• Highly modular architecture for easy porting to other systems

⁠Documentation

For more detailed information, visit BIRD documentation⁠