Sample output of iproute2 commands
A Brief History of ifconfig (net-tools)
Most system administrators who are tasked with maintaining UNIX and Linux systems have the syntax for the ifconfig burned in to their skulls. The combination of `ifconfig`, `route`, `arp`, and `netstat` have been the pillar used to configure networks and troubleshoot issues on UNIX-like operating systems for over 25 years.
The ifconfig command was originally released as part of the BSD TCP/IP toolkit in 4.2 BSD back in August of 1983. The use of ifconfig in BSD paved the way for it to be considered one of the utilities in the original toolkit of the internet.
The freely available BSD UNIX operating systems (e.g., FreeBSD, NetBSD, etc.) still continue active development of the ifconfig utility. The core features of the utility of been extended to configure WLAN interfaces and controlling advanced features such as bridging and tunneling. However, ifconfig on the Linux side has seen no major updates in over 10 years. The latest release is 1.60 from April 15, 2001.
Enter iproute2!
This collection of utilities was first released in April of 1999 and replaced the functions of net-tools. Iproute2 brings additional features, some of which have been implemented in the BSD ifconfig, such as multicast support, traffic control (shaping), tunnel management, as well as others. Most modern distributions have this installed by default and are working to fully replace ifconfig (and the net-tools package) with iproute2. Arch Linux having done so back in June of 2011.
While the toolkit does bring new features, it also requires some muscle memory be broken when it comes to networking. The commands do provide the same features, however the syntax is a bit different.
Why iproute2?
If you are reading an article online, an excerpt from a book, or some tutorial you will see the net-tools package used in most cases. But why is a package considered deprecated still being used? This is most likely due to the majority of users being familiar, or at least having been exposed to, the net-tools suite. Additionally, for some system administrators the familiarity of the command if comforting.
The comfort, however, is no replacement for the power of the iproute2 toolset. The iproute2 package usages the `ip` command. Under this command the functionality of `route`, `ifconfig`, `ipmaddr`, and `iptunnel` are implemented. This provides you with one command to handle your networking tasks. While it will take a bit of habit breaking, learning the syntax will make network management an easier endeavor.
Part of the iproute2 toolkit the ability for network traffic control. This is something that cannot be done with the net-tools suite. With the `tc` command a knowledgable system administrator can implement traffic shaping as well as a policy for queueing packets.
The next feature that is not implemented in net-tools is the ability to have multiple routing tables. There are quite a few uses for having multiple routing tables such as implementing a routing policy based on the source IP address. You may be asking yourself where this is useful, cases such as having different networks on a single system can benefit from such a policy.
Still not sold?
Iproute2 provides you with a modern suite of utilities that makes the experience of maintaining the network on your Linux system easier and more intuitive. The toolset is actively developed and maintained and is the future of how you will be handling your network configurations on Linux operating systems. The toolset also gives you the ability to perform more advanced networking administration duties.
By making the permanent change to iproute2 in all of your scripts and daily management tasks you will help move away from the net-tools package.
The Syntax
In the coming days I will be writing a quick blog post “iproute2 by example”. I’ll be going over some of the key pieces of the utility to provide a quick-start guide.
More Information
You can read more about the iproute2 suite on these following sites:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iproute2
- http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/networking/
Well-written and very informational! I’ll keep my eye out for your quickstart guide.
iproute2 desperately needs better command-line help and man pages. There’s no examples and it is unclear how to perform basic operations like setting and charging interface IP addresses.
” But why is a package considered deprecated still being used?”
It’s simple. There are a lot of scripts, installation, maintenance, etc. and even some binary programs that still use many of these-they expect ifconfig etc. to be there. I tripped over the lack of ifconfig in the default install of Fedora 18 (beta) when VMware Tools failed since, you guessed it, the installation routine used the output of ifconfig to gather info. I maintain a ton of shell, perl, python, etc. scripts from many distros and several versions of UNIX. Removing a command completely, without providing a way for backward compatibility (like allowing for alias or ln to the new command) is simply irresponsible and bad form.
Forgive the rant, but why these new commands are necessary is beyond me, why not just extend the older commands?