Iproute2
iproute2 is a collection of userspace utilities for controlling and monitoring various aspects of networking in the Linux kernel, including routing, network interfaces, tunnels, traffic control, and network-related device drivers.
iproute2 is an open-source project released under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License. Its development is closely tied to the development of networking components of the Linux kernel. , iproute2 is maintained by Stephen Hemminger. The original author, Alexey Kuznetsov, was responsible for the quality of service implementation in the Linux kernel.
iproute2 collection contains the following command-line utilities: ip, ss, bridge, rtacct, rtmon, tc, ctstat, lnstat, nstat, routef, routel, rtstat, tipc, arpd and devlink. tc is used for traffic control. iproute2 utilities communicate with the Linux kernel using the netlink protocol. Some of the iproute2 utilities are often recommended over now-obsolete net-tools utilities that provide the same functionality. Below is a table of obsolete utilities and their iproute2 replacements.
| Legacy utility | Replacement command | Note |
| ifconfig | ip addr, ip link, ip -s | Address and link configuration |
| route | ip route | Routing tables |
| arp | ip neigh | Neighbors |
| iptunnel | ip tunnel | Tunnels |
| nameif | ifrename, ip link set name | Rename network interfaces |
| ipmaddr | ip maddr | Multicast |
| netstat | ip -s, ss, ip route | Show various networking statistics |
| brctl | bridge | Handle bridge addresses and devices |