Syntax

ip OBJECT COMMAND
ip [options] OBJECT COMMAND
ip OBJECT help

Understanding ip command OBJECTS syntax

OBJECTS can be any one of the following and may be written in full or abbreviated form:

Object Abbreviated form Purpose

link l Network device.
a Protocol (IP or IPv6) address on a device.
address
addr
addrlabel addrl Label configuration for protocol address selection.
n
neighbour ARP or NDISC cache entry.
neigh
route r Routing table entry.
rule ru Rule in routing policy database.
m
maddress Multicast address.
maddr
mroute mr Multicast routing cache entry.
tunnel t Tunnel over IP.
xfrm x Framework for IPsec protocol.

To get information about each object use help command as follows:

ip OBJECT help

ip OBJECT h

ip a help

ip r help

Warning: The commands described below must be executed with care. If you make a mistake, you will lose connectivity to the server. You must
take special care while working over the ssh based remote session.

ip command examples
Don’t be intimidated by ip command syntax. Let us get started quickly with examples.

Displays info about all network interfaces

Type the following command to list and show all ip address associated on on all network interfaces:

ip a

OR

ip addr

Sample outputs:

Fig.01 Showing IP address assigned to eth0, eth1, lo using ip command

You can select between IPv4 and IPv6 using the following syntax:

### Only show TCP/IP IPv4 ##

ip -4 a

### Only show TCP/IP IPv6 ###

ip -6 a

It is also possible to specify and list particular interface TCP/IP details:

### Only show eth0 interface ###

ip a show eth0

ip a list eth0

ip a show dev eth0

### Only show running interfaces ###

ip link ls up

Assigns the IP address to the interface

The syntax is as follows to add an IPv4/IPv6 address:

ip a add {ip_addr/mask} dev {interface}

To assign 192.168.1.200/255.255.255.0 to eth0, enter:

ip a add 192.168.1.200/255.255.255.0 dev eth0

OR

ip a add 192.168.1.200/24 dev eth0

Adding the broadcast address on the interface

By default, the ip command does not set any broadcast address unless explicitly requested. So syntax is as follows to set broadcast ADDRESS:

ip addr add brd {ADDDRESS-HERE} dev {interface}

ip addr add broadcast {ADDDRESS-HERE} dev {interface}
ip addr add broadcast 172.20.10.255 dev dummy0

It is possible to use the special symbols such as  +  and  -  instead of the broadcast address by setting/resetting the host bits of the interface prex.
In this example, add the address 192.168.1.50 with netmask 255.255.255.0 (/24) with standard broadcast and label “eth0Home” to the interface
eth0:
 ip addr add 192.168.1.50/24 brd + dev eth0 label eth0Home

You can set loopback address to the loopback device lo as follows:

ip addr add 127.0.0.1/8 dev lo brd + scope host

Remove / Delete the IP address from the interface

The syntax is as follows to remove an IPv4/IPv6 address:

ip a del {ipv6_addr_OR_ipv4_addr} dev {interface}

To delete 192.168.1.200/24 from eth0, enter:

ip a del 192.168.1.200/24 dev eth0

Flush the IP address from the interface

You can delete or remote an IPv4/IPv6 address one-by-one as described above. However, the flush command can remove as flush the IP address
as per given condition. For example, you can delete all the IP addresses from the private network 192.168.2.0/24 using the following command:

ip -s -s a f to 192.168.2.0/24

Sample outputs:

2: eth0 inet 192.168.2.201/24 scope global secondary eth0

2: eth0 inet 192.168.2.200/24 scope global eth0

*** Round 1, deleting 2 addresses ***

*** Flush is complete after 1 round ***

You can disable IP address on all the ppp (Point-to-Point) interfaces:

ip -4 addr flush label "ppp*"

Here is another example for all the Ethernet interfaces:

ip -4 addr flush label "eth*"

How do I change the state of the device to UP or DOWN?

The syntax is as follows:

ip link set dev {DEVICE} {up|down}

To make the state of the device eth1 down, enter:

ip link set dev eth1 down

To make the state of the device eth1 up, enter:

ip link set dev eth1 up

How do I change the txqueuelen of the device?
You can set the length of the transmit queue of the device using ifconfig command or ip command as follows:

ip link set txqueuelen {NUMBER} dev {DEVICE}

In this example, change the default txqueuelen from 1000 to 10000 for the eth0:

ip link set txqueuelen 10000 dev eth0

ip a list eth0

How do I change the MTU of the device?

For gigabit networks you can set maximum transmission units (MTU) sizes (JumboFrames) for better network performance. The syntax is:

ip link set mtu {NUMBER} dev {DEVICE}

To change the MTU of the device eth0 to 9000, enter:

ip link set mtu 9000 dev eth0

ip a list eth0

Sample outputs:

2: eth0: mtu 9000 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000

link/ether 00:08:9b:c4:30:30 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

inet 192.168.1.10/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global eth1

inet6 fe80::208:9bff:fec4:3030/64 scope link

valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Display neighbour/arp cache

The syntax is:

ip n show
ip neigh show

Sample outputs (note: I masked out some data with alphabets):

74.xx.yy.zz dev eth1 lladdr 00:30:48:yy:zz:ww REACHABLE

10.10.29.66 dev eth0 lladdr 00:30:48:c6:0a:d8 REACHABLE

74.ww.yyy.xxx dev eth1 lladdr 00:1a:30:yy:zz:ww REACHABLE

10.10.29.68 dev eth0 lladdr 00:30:48:33:bc:32 REACHABLE

74.fff.uu.cc dev eth1 lladdr 00:30:48:yy:zz:ww STALE

74.rr.ww.fff dev eth1 lladdr 00:30:48:yy:zz:ww DELAY

10.10.29.65 dev eth0 lladdr 00:1a:30:38:a8:00 REACHABLE

10.10.29.74 dev eth0 lladdr 00:30:48:8e:31:ac REACHABLE

The last field show the the state of the “neighbour unreachability detection” machine for this entry:

1. STALE – The neighbour is valid, but is probably already unreachable, so the kernel will try to check it at the first transmission.
2. DELAY – A packet has been sent to the stale neighbour and the kernel is waiting for confirmation.
3. REACHABLE – The neighbour is valid and apparently reachable.

Add a new ARP entry

The syntax is:

ip neigh add {IP-HERE} lladdr {MAC/LLADDRESS} dev {DEVICE} nud {STATE}

In this example, add a permanent ARP entry for the neighbour 192.168.1.5 on the device eth0:

ip neigh add 192.168.1.5 lladdr 00:1a:30:38:a8:00 dev eth0 nud perm

Where,
neighbou meaning
r state
(nud)
permane The neighbour entry is valid forever and can be only be removed
nt administratively
The neighbour entry is valid. No attempts to validate this entry will be made
noarp
but it can be removed when its lifetime expires.
The neighbour entry is valid but suspicious. This option to ip neigh does
stale not change the neighbour state if it was valid and the address is not
changed by this command.
reachab
The neighbour entry is valid until the reachability timeout expires.
le

Delete a ARP entry

The syntax to invalidate or delete an ARP entry for the neighbour 192.168.1.5 on the device eth1 is as follows.

ip neigh del {IPAddress} dev {DEVICE}

ip neigh del 192.168.1.5 dev eth1

Change are state to reachable for the neighbour 192.168.1.100 on the device eth1

ip neigh chg 192.168.1.100 dev eth1 nud reachable

Flush ARP entry

This flush or f command flushes neighbour/arp tables, by specifying some condition. The syntax is:

ip -s -s n f {IPAddress}

In this example, flush neighbour/arp table

ip -s -s n f 192.168.1.5

OR

ip -s -s n flush 192.168.1.5

ip route: Routing table management commands

Use the following command to manage or manipulate the kernel routing table.

Show routing table

To display the contents of the routing tables:

ip r

ip r list

ip route list

ip r list [options] ip route

Sample outputs:

default via 192.168.1.254 dev eth1

192.168.1.0/24 dev eth1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.10

Display routing for 192.168.1.0/24:

ip r list 192.168.1.0/24

Sample outputs:

192.168.1.0/24 dev eth1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.10

Add a new route

The syntax is:

ip route add {NETWORK/MASK} via {GATEWAYIP}

ip route add {NETWORK/MASK} dev {DEVICE}
## Add default route using ip ##
ip route add default {NETWORK/MASK} dev {DEVICE}
ip route add default {NETWORK/MASK} via {GATEWAYIP}

Add a plain route to network 192.168.1.0/24 via gateway 192.168.1.254:

ip route add 192.168.1.0/24 via 192.168.1.254

To route all traffic via 192.168.1.254 gateway connected via eth0 network interface:

ip route add 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0

Delete a route
The syntax is as follows to delete default gateway:

ip route del default

In this example, delete the route created in previous subsection:

ip route del 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0

How to change MAC address on Linux

The MAC address of a Linux network interface card (NIC) can be changed as follows:

NIC="eno1" ## <-- My NIC name ##

ip link show $NIC
ip link set dev $NIC down
## set new MAC address ##
ip link set dev $NIC address XX:YY:ZZ:AA:BB:CC
ip link set dev $NIC up

Configure color output

We can make ip command output pretty by passing the  -c  option:

ip -c route

ip -c link

# The 'always' is default and color output is enabled regardless of stdout state

 ip -c=always command1

# If parameter is 'auto', stdout is checked to be a terminal before enabling color output

ip -c=auto command2

# If parameter is 'never', color output is disabled

ip -c=never command3

Please note that this flag is ignored if  -json  option passsed to the ip command. We can create a permanent Bash alias on Linux using the alias
command:

alias ip='ip -c'

alias ipc='ip -c'

# run it #
ipc route

ip link

We can ignore bash aliases and functions when running ip as follows:

\ip route

command ip link

Displaying all Linux IP address

Want to find out the IP address assigned to all interfaces and display IP only? Try:

$ sudo ip -br -c addr show

$ sudo ip -br -c link show

Old vs. new tool

Deprecated Linux command and their replacement cheat sheet:

Old command (Deprecated) New command

ifconfig -a ip a
ifconfig enp6s0 down ip link set enp6s0 down
ifconfig enp6s0 up ip link set enp6s0 up
ip addr add 192.168.2.24/24 dev
ifconfig enp6s0 192.168.2.24
enp6s0
ifconfig enp6s0 netmask 255.255.255.0 ip addr add 192.168.1.1/24 dev enp6s0
ifconfig enp6s0 mtu 9000 ip link set enp6s0 mtu 9000
ip addr add 192.168.2.25/24 dev
ifconfig enp6s0:0 192.168.2.25
enp6s0
 netstat ss
netstat -tulpn ss -tulpn
netstat -neopa ss -neopa
netstat -g ip maddr
route ip r
route add -net 192.168.2.0 netmask ip route add 192.168.2.0/24 dev
255.255.255.0 dev enp6s0 enp6s0
ip route add default via
route add default gw 192.168.2.254
192.168.2.254
arp -a ip neigh
arp -v ip -s neigh
ip neigh add 192.168.3.33 lladdr
arp -s 192.168.2.33 1:2:3:4:5:6
1:2:3:4:5:6 dev enp6s0
arp -i enp6s0 -d 192.168.2.254 ip neigh del 192.168.2.254 dev wlp7s0