FreeBSD The Power to Serve

IPv6 in FreeBSD

Introduction

FreeBSD has shipped tightly integrated IPv6 support for over a decade, with the FreeBSD 4.0 in 2000 the first release to include "out-of-the-box" IPv6 support. These web pages document on-going IPv6 development in the FreeBSD community, including participation in IPv6 World Day 2011.

Latest news

  • January 12, 2012: 9.0-RELEASE no-IPv4 support (IPv6-only) snapshots available. For more details and download links see IPv6Only wiki page.

  • December 15, 2011: 9.0-RC3 no-IPv4 support (IPv6-only) snapshots available. For more details and download links see IPv6Only wiki page.

  • August 3, 2011: 9.0-BETA1 IPv6-only snapshots available. For more details and download links see IPv6Only wiki page.

  • June 9, 2011: Thanks to everyone having joined us for World IPv6 Day. We have some (unspectacular) statistics of www.freebsd.org starting 12 hours before and running until 12 hours after the event for you.

  • June 7, 2011: New set of IPv6-only snapshots uploaded. Now with RFC 6106 DNS search list and nameserver support in rtsol(8) and rtsold(8), also when installing. Read more about the snapshots here and find download links and netinstall documentation on the wiki.

  • June 6, 2011: The FreeBSD Foundation and iXsystems announced today their commitment to support the efforts of World IPv6 Day to accelerate global IPv6 deployment. Read the entire press release and find more information on FreeBSD and World IPv6 Day here.

  • June 6, 2011: New set of IPv6-only snapshots uploaded. Read more about the snapshots here and find download links here.

  • June 6, 2011: Hiroki Sato commits RFC 6106 "IPv6 Router Advertisement Options for DNS Configuration" (RDNSS and DNSSL) support.

IPv6 in FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a widely used, open source operating system whose network stack has been the foundation for decades of research, as well as a reference implementation of IPv6 (developed by the KAME project). FreeBSD first shipped IPv6 support in March 2000 as part of FreeBSD 4.0-Release.

IPv6 and the FreeBSD Project

The FreeBSD Project has been an early adopter and active participant in the IPv6 community. With the help of the community, we have been serving releases from IPv6-enabled servers since May 2003 and FreeBSD’s website, mailing lists, and developer infrastructure have been IPv6 enabled since 2007.

FreeBSD is used by critical Internet infrastructure such as root name servers, routers, firewalls and some of the world’s busiest and most reliable web sites as well as embedded into many products all in the need for the best IPv6 support. To read more about some companies using the FreeBSD operating system in their products, see the FreeBSD Foundation Testimonials page.