Dhcpcd

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Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client Daemon (net-misc/dhcpcd) is a popular DHCP client. It is capable of handling both IPv4 and IPv6 configurations.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for net-misc/dhcpcd A fully featured, yet light weight RFC2131 compliant DHCP client

+embedded	Embed the definitions of dhcp options in the dhcpcd executable
+udev	Enable virtual/udev integration (device discovery, power and storage device support, etc)
debug	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
ipv6	Add support for IP version 6
privsep	Enable support for privilege separation

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2025-04-19 00:15 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Use the following command to install dhcpcd:

root #emerge --ask net-misc/dhcpcd

Configuration

Files

All dhcpcd configuration can be set in the /etc/dhcpcd.conf file, but for most installations dhcpcd will work out of the box presuming most computers nowadays are behind a router or access point running a DHCP server. Though man 5 dhcpcd.conf will be helpful in case advanced configuration is required.

Static IP addresses

In case the network interface card should be configured with a static IP address, add their data to /etc/dhcpcd.conf. The following is an example of manually adding a static address, routes, and DNS by editing DHCPCD's configuration file using a text editor of choice:

FILE /etc/dhcpcd.conf

static ip_address=192.168.0.10/24
static routers=192.168.0.1
static domain_name_servers=192.168.0.1

Usage

Invocation

root #dhcpcd --help

Expand

usage: dhcpcd   [-46ABbDdEGgHJKkLnpqTVw]                                                                             
                [-C, --nohook hook] [-c, --script script]                                                            
                [-e, --env value] [-F, --fqdn FQDN] [-f, --config file]                                              
                [-h, --hostname hostname] [-I, --clientid clientid]                                                  
                [-i, --vendorclassid vendorclassid] [-l, --leasetime seconds]                                        
                [-m, --metric metric] [-O, --nooption option]                                                        
                [-o, --option option] [-Q, --require option]                                                         
                [-r, --request address] [-S, --static value]                                                         
                [-s, --inform address[/cidr]] [-t, --timeout seconds]                                                
                [-u, --userclass class] [-v, --vendor code, value]                                                   
                [-W, --whitelist address[/cidr]] [-y, --reboot seconds]                                              
                [-X, --blacklist address[/cidr]] [-Z, --denyinterfaces pattern]                                      
                [-z, --allowinterfaces pattern] [interface] [...]                                                    
       dhcpcd   -k, --release [interface]                                                                            
       dhcpcd   -U, --dumplease interface                                                                            
       dhcpcd   --version                                                                                            
       dhcpcd   -x, --exit [interface]  

Run it as a service

See Network management using DHCPCD.

One-time DHCP

To configure a network interface for one-time DHCP use issue the following command:

root #dhcpcd eth0

Be sure to replace eth0 in the command above with the appropriate network interface name.

Troubleshooting

• dhcpcd not working for IPv6 (#CONFIG_PACKET is not set)

See also

• Gentoo Handbook - Network configuration - The Handbook's recommendations on handling network interfaces.
• Netifrc - Gentoo's own network configuration scripts, split from OpenRC
• Network management using DHCPCD — explains how to use dhcpcd for complete network stack management
• Complete Handbook/Configuring the system#Networking information

External resources

• Dhcpcd on the Arch Wiki
• Forums post: No Internet access when update to dhcpcd 6.10.0
• DHCP on Wikipedia
• RFC 2131