link

- network device.

address

- protocol (IP or IPv6) address on a device.

neighbour

- ARP or NDISC cache entry.

route

- routing table entry.

rule

- rule in routing policy database.

maddress

- multicast address.

mroute

- multicast routing cache entry.

tunnel

- tunnel over IP.

The names of all objects may be written in full or abbreviated form, f.e. address is abbreviated as addr or just a.

Specifies the action to perform on the object. The set of possible actions depends on the object type. As a rule, it is possible to add, delete and show (or list ) objects, but some objects do not allow all of these operations or have some additional commands. The help command is available for all objects. It prints out a list of available commands and argument syntax conventions. If no command is given, some default command is assumed. Usually it is list or, if the objects of this class cannot be listed, help.

dev NAME (default)

NAME specifies network device to operate on.

up and down

change the state of the device to UP or DOWN.

arp on or arp off

change the NOARP flag on the device.

multicast on or multicast off

change the MULTICAST flag on the device.

dynamic on or dynamic off

change the DYNAMIC flag on the device.

name NAME

change the name of the device. This operation is not recommended if the device is running or has some addresses already configured.

txqueuelen NUMBER

txqlen NUMBER

change the transmit queue length of the device.

mtu NUMBER

change the MTU of the device.

address LLADDRESS

change the station address of the interface.

broadcast LLADDRESS

brd LLADDRESS

peer LLADDRESS

change the link layer broadcast address or the peer address when the interface is POINTOPOINT.

Warning: If multiple parameter changes are requested, ip aborts immediately after any of the changes have failed. This is the only case when ip can move the system to an unpredictable state. The solution is to avoid changing several parameters with one ip link set call.

dev NAME (default)

NAME specifies the network device to show. If this argument is omitted all devices are listed.

up

only display running interfaces.

dev NAME

the name of the device to add the address to.

local ADDRESS (default)

the address of the interface. The format of the address depends on the protocol. It is a dotted quad for IP and a sequence of hexadecimal halfwords separated by colons for IPv6. The ADDRESS may be followed by a slash and a decimal number which encodes the network prefix length.

peer ADDRESS

the address of the remote endpoint for pointopoint interfaces. Again, the ADDRESS may be followed by a slash and a decimal number, encoding the network prefix length. If a peer address is specified, the local address cannot have a prefix length. The network prefix is associated with the peer rather than with the local address.

broadcast ADDRESS

the broadcast address on the interface. It is possible to use the special symbols '+' and '-' instead of the broadcast address. In this case, the broadcast address is derived by setting/resetting the host bits of the interface prefix.

label NAME

Each address may be tagged with a label string. In order to preserve compatibility with Linux-2.0 net aliases, this string must coincide with the name of the device or must be prefixed with the device name followed by colon.

scope SCOPE_VALUE

the scope of the area where this address is valid. The available scopes are listed in file /etc/iproute2/rt_scopes. Predefined scope values are:

global - the address is globally valid. site - (IPv6 only) the address is site local, i.e. it is valid inside this site. link - the address is link local, i.e. it is valid only on this device. host - the address is valid only inside this host.

Arguments: coincide with the arguments of ip addr add. The device name is a required argument. The rest are optional. If no arguments are given, the first address is deleted.

dev NAME (default)

name of device.

scope SCOPE_VAL

only list addresses with this scope.

to PREFIX

only list addresses matching this prefix.

label PATTERN

only list addresses with labels matching the PATTERN. PATTERN is a usual shell style pattern.

dynamic and permanent

(IPv6 only) only list addresses installed due to stateless address configuration or only list permanent (not dynamic) addresses.

tentative

(IPv6 only) only list addresses which did not pass duplicate address detection.

deprecated

(IPv6 only) only list deprecated addresses.

primary and secondary

only list primary (or secondary) addresses.

This command flushes the protocol addresses selected by some criteria.

This command has the same arguments as show. The difference is that it does not run when no arguments are given.

Warning: This command (and other flush commands described below) is pretty dangerous. If you make a mistake, it will not forgive it, but will cruelly purge all the addresses.

With the -statistics option, the command becomes verbose. It prints out the number of deleted addresses and the number of rounds made to flush the address list. If this option is given twice, ip addr flush also dumps all the deleted addresses in the format described in the previous subsection.

These commands create new neighbour records or update existing ones.

to ADDRESS (default)

the protocol address of the neighbour. It is either an IPv4 or IPv6 address.

dev NAME

the interface to which this neighbour is attached.

lladdr LLADDRESS

the link layer address of the neighbour. LLADDRESS can also be null.

nud NUD_STATE

the state of the neighbour entry. nud is an abbreviation for 'Neigh bour Unreachability Detection'. The state can take one of the following values:

permanent - the neighbour entry is valid forever and can be only be removed administratively.

noarp - the neighbour entry is valid. No attempts to validate this entry will be made but it can be removed when its lifetime expires.

reachable - the neighbour entry is valid until the reachability timeout expires.

stale - the neighbour entry is valid but suspicious. This option to ip neigh does not change the neighbour state if it was valid and the address is not changed by this command.

This command invalidates a neighbour entry.

The arguments are the same as with ip neigh add, except that lladdr and nud are ignored.

Warning: Attempts to delete or manually change a noarp entry created by the kernel may result in unpredictable behaviour. Particularly, the kernel may try to resolve this address even on a NOARP interface or if the address is multicast or broadcast.

This commands displays neighbour tables.

to ADDRESS (default)

the prefix selecting the neighbours to list.

dev NAME

only list the neighbours attached to this device.

unused

only list neighbours which are not currently in use.

nud NUD_STATE

only list neighbour entries in this state. NUD_STATE takes values listed below or the special value all which means all states. This option may occur more than once. If this option is absent, ip lists all entries except for none and noarp.

This command flushes neighbour tables, selecting entries to flush by some criteria.

This command has the same arguments as show. The differences are that it does not run when no arguments are given, and that the default neighbour states to be flushed do not include permanent and noarp.

With the -statistics option, the command becomes verbose. It prints out the number of deleted neighbours and the number of rounds made to flush the neighbour table. If the option is given twice, ip neigh flush also dumps all the deleted neighbours.

to TYPE PREFIX (default)

the destination prefix of the route. If TYPE is omitted, ip assumes type unicast. Other values of TYPE are listed above. PREFIX is an IP or IPv6 address optionally followed by a slash and the prefix length. If the length of the prefix is missing, ip assumes a full-length host route. There is also a special PREFIX default - which is equivalent to IP 0/0 or to IPv6 ::/0.

tos TOS

dsfield TOS

the Type Of Service (TOS) key. This key has no associated mask and the longest match is understood as: First, compare the TOS of the route and of the packet. If they are not equal, then the packet may still match a route with a zero TOS. TOS is either an 8 bit hexadecimal number or an identifier from /etc/iproute2/rt_dsfield.

metric NUMBER

preference NUMBER

the preference value of the route. NUMBER is an arbitrary 32bit number.

table TABLEID

the table to add this route to. TABLEID may be a number or a string from the file /etc/iproute2/rt_tables. If this parameter is omitted, ip assumes the main table, with the exception of local , broadcast and nat routes, which are put into the local table by default.

dev NAME

the output device name.

via ADDRESS

the address of the nexthop router. Actually, the sense of this field depends on the route type. For normal unicast routes it is either the true next hop router or, if it is a direct route installed in BSD compatibility mode, it can be a local address of the interface. For NAT routes it is the first address of the block of translated IP destinations.

src ADDRESS

the source address to prefer when sending to the destinations covered by the route prefix.

realm REALMID

the realm to which this route is assigned. REALMID may be a number or a string from the file /etc/iproute2/rt_realms.

mtu MTU

mtu lock MTU

the MTU along the path to the destination. If the modifier lock is not used, the MTU may be updated by the kernel due to Path MTU Discovery. If the modifier lock is used, no path MTU discovery will be tried, all packets will be sent without the DF bit in IPv4 case or fragmented to MTU for IPv6.

window NUMBER

the maximal window for TCP to advertise to these destinations, measured in bytes. It limits maximal data bursts that our TCP peers are allowed to send to us.

rtt NUMBER

the initial RTT ('Round Trip Time') estimate.

rttvar NUMBER (2.3.15+ only)

the initial RTT variance estimate.

ssthresh NUMBER (2.3.15+ only)

an estimate for the initial slow start threshold.

cwnd NUMBER (2.3.15+ only)

the clamp for congestion window. It is ignored if the lock flag is not used.

advmss NUMBER (2.3.15+ only)

the MSS ('Maximal Segment Size') to advertise to these destinations when establishing TCP connections. If it is not given, Linux uses a default value calculated from the first hop device MTU. (If the path to these destination is asymmetric, this guess may be wrong.)

reordering NUMBER (2.3.15+ only)

Maximal reordering on the path to this destination. If it is not given, Linux uses the value selected with sysctl variable net/ipv4/tcp_reordering.

nexthop NEXTHOP

the nexthop of a multipath route. NEXTHOP is a complex value with its own syntax similar to the top level argument lists:

via ADDRESS - is the nexthop router.

dev NAME - is the output device.

weight NUMBER - is a weight for this element of a multipath route reflecting its relative bandwidth or quality.

scope SCOPE_VAL

the scope of the destinations covered by the route prefix. SCOPE_VAL may be a number or a string from the file /etc/iproute2/rt_scopes. If this parameter is omitted, ip assumes scope global for all gatewayed unicast routes, scope link for direct unicast and broadcast routes and scope host for local routes.

protocol RTPROTO

the routing protocol identifier of this route. RTPROTO may be a number or a string from the file /etc/iproute2/rt_protos. If the routing protocol ID is not given, ip assumes protocol boot (i.e. it assumes the route was added by someone who doesn't understand what they are doing). Several protocol values have a fixed interpretation. Namely:

redirect - the route was installed due to an ICMP redirect.

kernel - the route was installed by the kernel during autoconfiguration.

boot - the route was installed during the bootup sequence. If a routing daemon starts, it will purge all of them.

static - the route was installed by the administrator to override dynamic routing. Routing daemon will respect them and, probably, even advertise them to its peers.

ra - the route was installed by Router Discovery protocol.

The rest of the values are not reserved and the administrator is free to assign (or not to assign) protocol tags.

onlink

pretend that the nexthop is directly attached to this link, even if it does not match any interface prefix.

equalize

allow packet by packet randomization on multipath routes. Without this modifier, the route will be frozen to one selected nexthop, so that load splitting will only occur on per-flow base. equalize only works if the kernel is patched.

ip route del has the same arguments as ip route add, but their semantics are a bit different.

Key values (to, tos, preference and table) select the route to delete. If optional attributes are present, ip verifies that they coincide with the attributes of the route to delete. If no route with the given key and attributes was found, ip route del fails.

the command displays the contents of the routing tables or the route(s) selected by some criteria.

to SELECTOR (default)

only select routes from the given range of destinations. SELECTOR consists of an optional modifier (root, match or exact) and a prefix. root PREFIX selects routes with prefixes not shorter than PREFIX. F.e. root 0/0 selects the entire routing table. match PREFIX selects routes with prefixes not longer than PREFIX. F.e. match 10.0/16 selects 10.0/16, 10/8 and 0/0, but it does not select 10.1/16 and 10.0.0/24. And exact PREFIX (or just PREFIX) selects routes with this exact prefix. If neither of these options are present, ip assumes root 0/0 i.e. it lists the entire table.

tos TOS

dsfield TOS only select routes with the given TOS.

table TABLEID

show the routes from this table(s). The default setting is to show tablemain. TABLEID may either be the ID of a real table or one of the special values: all - list all of the tables. cache - dump the routing cache.

cloned

cached

list cloned routes i.e. routes which were dynamically forked from other routes because some route attribute (f.e. MTU) was updated. Actually, it is equivalent to table cache.

from SELECTOR

the same syntax as for to, but it binds the source address range rather than destinations. Note that the from option only works with cloned routes.

protocol RTPROTO

only list routes of this protocol.

scope SCOPE_VAL

only list routes with this scope.

type TYPE

only list routes of this type.

dev NAME

only list routes going via this device.

via PREFIX

only list routes going via the nexthop routers selected by PREFIX.

src PREFIX

only list routes with preferred source addresses selected by PREFIX.

realm REALMID

realms FROMREALM/TOREALM

only list routes with these realms.

this command flushes routes selected by some criteria.

The arguments have the same syntax and semantics as the arguments of ip route show, but routing tables are not listed but purged. The only difference is the default action: show dumps all the IP main routing table but flush prints the helper page.

With the -statistics option, the command becomes verbose. It prints out the number of deleted routes and the number of rounds made to flush the routing table. If the option is given twice, ip route flush also dumps all the deleted routes in the format described in the previous subsection.

this command gets a single route to a destination and prints its contents exactly as the kernel sees it.

to ADDRESS (default)

the destination address.

from ADDRESS

the source address.

tos TOS

dsfield TOS

the Type Of Service.

iif NAME

the device from which this packet is expected to arrive.

oif NAME

force the output device on which this packet will be routed.

connected

if no source address (option from) was given, relookup the route with the source set to the preferred address received from the first lookup. If policy routing is used, it may be a different route.

Note that this operation is not equivalent to ip route show. show shows existing routes. get resolves them and creates new clones if necessary. Essentially, get is equivalent to sending a packet along this path. If the iif argument is not given, the kernel creates a route to output packets towards the requested destination. This is equivalent to pinging the destination with a subsequent ip route ls cache, however, no packets are actually sent. With the iif argument, the kernel pretends that a packet arrived from this interface and searches for a path to forward the packet.

type TYPE (default)

the type of this rule. The list of valid types was given in the previous subsection.

from PREFIX

select the source prefix to match.

to PREFIX

select the destination prefix to match.

iif NAME

select the incoming device to match. If the interface is loopback, the rule only matches packets originating from this host. This means that you may create separate routing tables for forwarded and local packets and, hence, completely segregate them.

tos TOS

dsfield TOS

select the TOS value to match.

fwmark MARK

select the fwmark value to match.

priority PREFERENCE

the priority of this rule. Each rule should have an explicitly set unique priority value.

table TABLEID

the routing table identifier to lookup if the rule selector matches.

realms FROM/TO

Realms to select if the rule matched and the routing table lookup succeeded. Realm TO is only used if the route did not select any realm.

nat ADDRESS

The base of the IP address block to translate (for source addresses). The ADDRESS may be either the start of the block of NAT addresses (selected by NAT routes) or a local host address (or even zero). In the last case the router does not translate the packets, but masquerades them to this address.

Warning: Changes to the RPDB made with these commands do not become active immediately. It is assumed that after a script finishes a batch of updates, it flushes the routing cache with ip route flush cache.

This command has no arguments.

dev NAME (default)

the device name.

these commands attach/detach a static link layer multicast address to listen on the interface. Note that it is impossible to join protocol multicast groups statically. This command only manages link layer addresses.

address LLADDRESS (default)

the link layer multicast address.

dev NAME

the device to join/leave this multicast address.

to PREFIX (default)

the prefix selecting the destination multicast addresses to list.

iif NAME

the interface on which multicast packets are received.

from PREFIX

the prefix selecting the IP source addresses of the multicast route.

name NAME (default)

select the tunnel device name.

mode MODE

set the tunnel mode. Three modes are currently available: ipip, sit and gre.

remote ADDRESS

set the remote endpoint of the tunnel.

local ADDRESS

set the fixed local address for tunneled packets. It must be an address on another interface of this host.

ttl N

set a fixed TTL N on tunneled packets. N is a number in the range 1--255. 0 is a special value meaning that packets inherit the TTL value. The default value is: inherit.

tos T

dsfield T

set a fixed TOS T on tunneled packets. The default value is: inherit.

dev NAME

bind the tunnel to the device NAME so that tunneled packets will only be routed via this device and will not be able to escape to another device when the route to endpoint changes.

nopmtudisc

disable Path MTU Discovery on this tunnel. It is enabled by default. Note that a fixed ttl is incompatible with this option: tunnelling with a fixed ttl always makes pmtu discovery.

key K

ikey K

okey K

( only GRE tunnels ) use keyed GRE with key K. K is either a number or an IP address-like dotted quad. The key parameter sets the key to use in both directions. The ikey and okey parameters set different keys for input and output.

csum, icsum, ocsum

( only GRE tunnels ) generate/require checksums for tunneled packets. The ocsum flag calculates checksums for outgoing packets. The icsum flag requires that all input packets have the correct checksum. The csum flag is equivalent to the combination icsum ocsum.

seq, iseq, oseq

( only GRE tunnels ) serialize packets. The oseq flag enables sequencing of outgoing packets. The iseq flag requires that all input packets are serialized. The seq flag is equivalent to the combination iseq oseq. It isn't work. Don't use it.

This command has no arguments.