Task-centered iproute2 user guide
This article provides a task-centered guide for using the Linux iproute2 networking toolkit, which replaces legacy tools like ifconfig. It serves as a practical resource for system administrators to manage network interfaces and traffic policies.
Why it matters
It addresses a long-standing documentation gap for a critical piece of Linux infrastructure used by developers and sysadmins worldwide.
iproute2 is the Linux networking toolkit that replaced legacy tools ( ifconfig , vconfig , brctl , route , arp etc.). Those tools are only kept for compatibility with old scripts and do not provide access to a lot of newer networking features of the Linux kernel.
It originally written by Alex Kuznetsov and is now maintained by Stephen Hemminger.
Most of the networking functionality is unified in the ip command. There’s also tc for managing traffic policies (QoS), bridge for managing software bridge interfaces, and ss (a netstat replacement).
Those commands are usually shipped in a package called iproute2 or iproute . Most Linux distributions install it by default these days. The ip command is sometimes installed in /sbin and thus may not be in the $PATH of unprivileged users by default.
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