IP(8) Linux IP(8)

NAME
ip − show / manipulate routing, network devices, interfaces and tunnels
SYNOPSIS
ip [ OPTIONS ] OBJECT { COMMAND | help }

ip [ -force ] -batch filename

OBJECT := { link | address | addrlabel | route | rule | neigh | ntable | tunnel | tuntap | maddress |
mroute | mrule | monitor | xfrm | netns | l2tp | tcp_metrics | token | macsec | vrf |
mptcp }

OPTIONS := { −V[ersion] | −h[uman-readable] | −s[tatistics] | −d[etails] | −r[esolve] | −iec | −f[amily] {

inet | inet6 | link } | -4 | -6 | -I | -D | -B | -0 | -l[oops] { maximum-addr-flush-attempts
} | −o[neline] | −rc[vbuf] [size] | −t[imestamp] | −ts[hort] | −n[etns] name | −N[umeric] |
−a[ll] | −c[olor] | −br[ief] | −j[son] | −p[retty] }

OPTIONS
−V, -Version
Print the version of the ip utility and exit.

−h, −human, −human-readable

output statistics with human readable values followed by suffix.

−b, −batch <FILENAME>

Read commands from provided file or standard input and invoke them. First failure will cause ter-
mination of ip.

−force Don’t terminate ip on errors in batch mode. If there were any errors during execution of the com-
mands, the application return code will be non zero.

−s, −stats, −statistics

Output more information. If the option appears twice or more, the amount of information
increases. As a rule, the information is statistics or some time values.

−d, −details
Output more detailed information.

−l, −loops <COUNT>

Specify maximum number of loops the ’ip address flush’ logic will attempt before giving up. The
default is 10. Zero (0) means loop until all addresses are removed.

−f, −family <FAMILY>

Specifies the protocol family to use. The protocol family identifier can be one of inet, inet6,
bridge, mpls or link. If this option is not present, the protocol family is guessed from other argu-
ments. If the rest of the command line does not give enough information to guess the family, ip
falls back to the default one, usually inet or any. link is a special family identifier meaning that
no networking protocol is involved.

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−4 shortcut for -family inet.

−6 shortcut for −family inet6.

−B shortcut for −family bridge.

−M shortcut for −family mpls.

−0 shortcut for −family link.

−o, −oneline
output each record on a single line, replacing line feeds with the ’\’ character. This is convenient
when you want to count records with wc(1) or to grep(1) the output.

−r, −resolve
use the system’s name resolver to print DNS names instead of host addresses.

−n, −netns <NETNS>

switches ip to the specified network namespace NETNS. Actually it just simplifies executing of:

ip netns exec NETNS ip [ OPTIONS ] OBJECT { COMMAND | help }

to

ip -n[etns] NETNS [ OPTIONS ] OBJECT { COMMAND | help }

−N, −Numeric
Print the number of protocol, scope, dsfield, etc directly instead of converting it to human readable
name.

−a, −all
executes specified command over all objects, it depends if command supports this option.

−c[color][={always|auto|never}
Configure color output. If parameter is omitted or always, color output is enabled regardless of
stdout state. If parameter is auto, stdout is checked to be a terminal before enabling color output.
If parameter is never, color output is disabled. If specified multiple times, the last one takes prece-
dence. This flag is ignored if −json is also given.

Used color palette can be influenced by COLORFGBG environment variable (see ENVIRON-
MENT).

−t, −timestamp
display current time when using monitor option.

−ts, −tshort
Like −timestamp, but use shorter format.

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−rc, −rcvbuf<SIZE>
Set the netlink socket receive buffer size, defaults to 1MB.

−iec print human readable rates in IEC units (e.g. 1Ki = 1024).

−br, −brief
Print only basic information in a tabular format for better readability. This option is currently only
supported by ip addr show and ip link show commands.

−j, −json
Output results in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

−p, −pretty
The default JSON format is compact and more efficient to parse but hard for most users to read.
This flag adds indentation for readability.

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

addrlabel
- label configuration for protocol address selection.

l2tp - tunnel ethernet over IP (L2TPv3).

link - network device.

maddress
- multicast address.

monitor
- watch for netlink messages.

mptcp - manage MPTCP path manager.

mroute - multicast routing cache entry.

mrule - rule in multicast routing policy database.

neighbour
- manage ARP or NDISC cache entries.

netns - manage network namespaces.

ntable - manage the neighbor cache’s operation.

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route - routing table entry.

rule - rule in routing policy database.

tcp_metrics/tcpmetrics
- manage TCP Metrics

token - manage tokenized interface identifiers.

tunnel - tunnel over IP.

tuntap - manage TUN/TAP devices.

vrf - manage virtual routing and forwarding devices.

xfrm - manage IPSec policies.

The names of all objects may be written in full or abbreviated form, for example address can be abbrevi-
ated as addr or just a.

COMMAND
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 oper-
ations 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.

ENVIRONMENT
COLORFGBG
If set, it’s value is used for detection whether background is dark or light and use contrast colors
for it.

COLORFGBG environment variable usually contains either two or three values separated by
semicolons; we want the last value in either case. If this value is 0-6 or 8, chose colors suitable for
dark background:

COLORFGBG=";0" ip -c a

EXIT STATUS
Exit status is 0 if command was successful, and 1 if there is a syntax error. If an error was reported by the
kernel exit status is 2.

EXAMPLES
ip addr
Shows addresses assigned to all network interfaces.
ip neigh
Shows the current neighbour table in kernel.

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ip link set x up
Bring up interface x.
ip link set x down
Bring down interface x.
ip route
Show table routes.

HISTORY
ip was written by Alexey N. Kuznetsov and added in Linux 2.2.
SEE ALSO
ip-address(8), ip-addrlabel(8), ip-l2tp(8), ip-link(8), ip-maddress(8), ip-monitor(8), ip-mptcp(8), ip-
mroute(8), ip-neighbour(8), ip-netns(8), ip-ntable(8), ip-route(8), ip-rule(8), ip-tcp_metrics(8), ip-
token(8), ip-tunnel(8), ip-vrf(8), ip-xfrm(8)
IP Command reference ip-cref.ps
REPORTING BUGS
Report any bugs to the Network Developers mailing list <[email protected]> where the develop-
ment and maintenance is primarily done. You do not have to be subscribed to the list to send a message
there.

AUTHOR
Original Manpage by Michail Litvak <[email protected]>

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