How To Install batctl on CentOS 8

batctl is B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced control and management tool

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install batctl on CentOS 8.

What is batctl

batctl offers a convenient way to configure the batman-adv kernel module as well as displaying debug information such as originator tables, translation tables and the debug log. In combination with a bat-hosts file batctl allows the use of host names instead of MAC addresses. B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced operates on layer 2. Thus all hosts participating in the virtual switched network are transparently connected together for all protocols above layer 2. Therefore the common diagnosis tools do not work as expected. To overcome these problems batctl contains the commands ping, traceroute, tcpdump which provide similar functionality to the normal ping(1), traceroute(1), tcpdump(1) commands, but modified to layer 2 behavior or using the B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced protocol.

We can use yum or dnf to install batctl on CentOS 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install batctl.

Install batctl on CentOS 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install batctl using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install batctl

Install batctl on CentOS 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

The output should look something like this:

CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream                                       43 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - BaseOS                                          65 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - ContinuousRelease                               43 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Extras                                          23 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - FastTrack                                       40 kB/s | 3.0 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - HighAvailability                                36 kB/s | 3.9 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - Plus                                            24 kB/s | 1.5 kB     00:00    
CentOS Linux 8 - PowerTools                                      50 kB/s | 4.3 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64           13 kB/s | 9.2 kB     00:00    
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64                   24 kB/s | 8.5 kB     00:00    
Metadata cache created.

After updating yum database, We can install batctl using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install batctl

How To Uninstall batctl on CentOS 8

To uninstall only the batctl package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove batctl

batctl Package Contents on CentOS 8

/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/11
/usr/lib/.build-id/11/7c6b99faf5760bc595208035e773aa8674833e
/usr/sbin/batctl
/usr/share/doc/batctl
/usr/share/doc/batctl/CHANGELOG.rst
/usr/share/doc/batctl/README.rst
/usr/share/doc/batctl/bat-hosts.sample
/usr/share/man/man8/batctl.8.gz

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install batctl on CentOS 8 using yum and dnf.