Relation between iptables and /etc/config/firewall

[manywrt]

What is the relation between firewall configurations in /etc/config/firewall and the firewall settings you do using the iptables command?

I am trying to ask a question analogous to that which one may ask about LuCI and /etc/config/firewall or any other config file. I came to see LuCI as a means of entering lines into config files. On this view, the config files are 'real,' and LuCI 'represents' them. But I may be wrong and should rather think both LuCI and the config files as a means for manipulating/representing a third substrate, which is 'real.'

Going back to the actual question of the post, is /etc/config/firewall a way to manipulate/represent the iptables settings? Or are they related in some other way?

I may not even have the right terminology to phrase the question, but hope something of it was conveyed.

[krazeh]

OpenWRT uses fw3 which converts the entries in /etc/config/firewall into appropriate iptables rules. LuCI writes entries that can be parsed by fw3.

You might want to take a look at [OpenWrt Wiki] Firewall overview for more details about how the firewall operates in a standard install.

[Amitofo]

Hello,

agree with above. Essentially fw3 is an user interface to iptables, which itself is an interface to netfilter tables in the Linux kernel. You may view this as an hierarchy:

Luci Firewall Interface

fw3 (unique to Openwrt, "wrapper" to iptables)

iptables (general to Linux)

kernel's netfilter tables (general to Linux)

With Metta