troglobit/man
SMCROUTECTL(8) System Manager's Manual (smm) SMCROUTECTL(8)

smcroutectl —
Control and status tool for smcrouted(8)

smcroutectl [
-bdptv
] [
-i NAME
] [
-u FILE
] [
COMMAND
]

smcroutectl ⟨help | flush | kill | reload | version⟩

smcroutectl ⟨show⟩ [
groups | routes
]

smcroutectl ⟨add  |   rem⟩ IIF [
SOURCE
] GROUP[/LEN] OIF [
OIF ...
]

smcroutectl ⟨join | leave⟩ IIF [
SOURCE
] GROUP[/LEN]

smcroutectl is the control tool for smcrouted(8). It can be used to query status, debug, modify the kernel multicast forwarding cache (MFC), manage group interface memberships, reload smcroute.conf, and kill a running smcrouted.

The following smcroutectl options are available:
Batch mode, read commands from stdin. 
$ sudo smcroutectl -b <<-EOF 
	join eth0 225.1.2.3 
	add eth0 192.168.1.42 225.1.2.3 eth1 eth2 
	rem eth1 225.3.4.5 eth3 
	leave eth1 225.3.4.5 
	EOF
Enable detailed output in show commands.
NAME
Connect to an smcrouted instance that runs with another identity, NAME.
This option is required for both smcrouted and smcroutectl when running multiple smcrouted instances, e.g., when using multiple routing tables, on Linux.
Use plain table headings in show command output. No ANSI control characters are used, not even for probing screen width.
Skip table headings entirely in show command output.
FILE
UNIX domain socket path, used for the IPC between smcrouted and smcroutectl. Use this to override the default socket path, otherwise derived from the identity, -i NAME. This option can be useful when overriding the identity is not sufficient, e.g. for testing. The default depends on how smcroutectl is configured at build time, see FILES.

The IIF and OIF arguments in the below smcroutectl commands are the interface names, or interface wildcards of the form eth+, which matches eth0, eth10, etc. Wildcards are available for both inbound and outbound interfaces.
A multicast route is defined by an input interface IIF, the sender's unicast IP address SOURCE, which is optional, the multicast group GROUP and a list of, at least one, output interface OIF [OIF ...].
Please refer to smcrouted(8) for more details on the operation and how ASM/SSM multicast works.

Commands can be abbreviated to the minimum unambiguous prefix; for example, s g for show groups. The following commands are available:
add IIF [SOURCE[/LEN]] GROUP[/LEN] OIF [OIF ...]
Add a new multicast route the the kernel MFC, or modify the outbound interfaces (OIF) an existing route.
The arguments are, in order: IIF the inbound interface, SOURCE originating IP address (may need to be reachable in the unicast routing table to be allowed by the kernel reverse-path check), GROUP the multicast group address, and OIF [
OIF ...
] the outbound network interface(s).
The interfaces provided as IIF and OIF can be any multicast capable network interface as listed by ‘ifconfig’ or ‘ip link list’, including tunnel interfaces and loopback. smcrouted enumerates them on demand, so no smcroute.conf(5) ‘phyint’ directive is required up front; see smcrouted(8) for details.
To add a (*,G) route, either omit the SOURCE argument completely, or set it to 0.0.0.0 for IPv4, and if you want to specify a range of groups, use the ‘GROUP/LEN’ modifier, e.g. ‘225.0.0.0/24’.
remove IIF [SOURCE[/LEN]] GROUP[/LEN] [OIF [OIF ...]]
Remove or modify the outbound interfaces of a multicast route in the kernel MFC.
When no OIF argument is given, this command removes the entire route. With one or more OIF arguments, each outbound interface listed is removed. Skipping any unmatched or invalid interface names. When no more outbound interfaces exist, the route will have been transformed into a "stop filter". To remove the route entirely, the command must be given with no OIF arguments.
flush
Flush dynamic (*,G) multicast routes now. Similar to how -c SEC works in smcrouted, this command initiates an immediate flush of all dynamically installed (*,G) multicast routes. Useful when a topology change has been detected and need to be propagated to smcrouted.
join IIF [SOURCE[/LEN]] GROUP[/LEN]
Join a multicast group, with an optional prefix length, on the given (inbound) interface. The source address is optional, but if given a source specific (SSM) join is performed. Note, joining groups is only ever necessary on the inbound interface, never on the outbound. Unless, two-way routing the same group.
Note, as mentioned in smcrouted(8), joining a group to open up traffic in layer-2 network switches is only a workaround to direct multicast towards SMCRoute. When routing lots of traffic it is advised to avoid this mechanism. Instead, use multicast router ports, or similar settings on the switches, or if they support multicast router discovery (MRDISC), see RFC4286.
leave IIF [SOURCE[/LEN]] GROUP[/LEN]
Leave a multicast group, with optional prefix length, on a given (inbound) interface. As with the join command, above, the source address is optional, but if the group was subscribed to with source it must be unsubscribed with source as well.
help [cmd]
Print a usage information message.
kill
Tell a running smcrouted to exit gracefully, same as SIGTERM.
reload
Tell smcrouted to reload its configuration and activate the changes. Same as SIGHUP. Note, any routes or groups added or removed with smcroutectl will be lost. Only the configuration set in the file smcroute.conf is activated.
show [groups|interfaces|pending|routes]
Show joined multicast groups, configured interfaces, pending routes and groups, or multicast routes — defaults to routes. pending lists mroute and mgroup directives whose inbound interface is not yet present on the system. On Linux they are activated automatically as soon as the interface arrives (kernel netlink link events). On other systems they are activated on the next configuration reload. Can be combined with the -d option to get details for each multicast route.
version
Show program version and support information.

smcrouted(8), smcroute.conf(5)

SMCRoute was originally created by Carsten Schill <carsten@cschill.de>. Initial IPv6 support by Todd Hayton <todd.hayton@gmail.com>. Initial FreeBSD support by Micha Lenk <micha@debian.org>.
SMCRoute is currently maintained by Joachim Wiberg <troglobit@gmail.com>, and Micha Lenk <micha@debian.org> at GitHub.
June 9, 2026 Debian

Maintained in troglobit/smcroute as man/smcroutectl.8. Send corrections there, or read it on the mirror.