IP(8)
Show and manipulate routes, network devices, interfaces and tunnels. Static snapshot from Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS.
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 | tun‐
nel | tuntap | maddress | mroute | mrule | monitor | xfrm | netns |
l2tp | tcp_metrics | token | macsec | vrf | mptcp | ioam | stats }
OPTIONS := { -V[ersion] | -h[uman-readable] | -s[tatistics] | -d[etails] |
-r[esolve] | -iec | -f[amily] { inet | inet6 | link } | -4 | -6 | -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 termination of ip.
-force Don't terminate ip on errors in batch mode. If there were any errors
during execution of the commands, 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 statis‐
tics or some time values.
-d, -details
Output more detailed information.
-l, -loops <COUNT>
Specify maximum number of loops the 'ip address flush' logic will at‐
tempt 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 arguments. 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 in‐
volved.
-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 ad‐
dresses.
-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 sup‐
ports 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 precedence. This flag is ignored if -json is also given.
Used color palette can be influenced by COLORFGBG environment variable
(see ENVIRONMENT).
-t, -timestamp
display current time when using monitor option.
-ts, -tshort
Like -timestamp, but use shorter format.
-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 readabil‐
ity. This option is currently only supported by ip addr show , ip link
show & ip neigh 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.
-echo Request the kernel to send the applied configuration back.
IP - COMMAND SYNTAX
OBJECT
address
- protocol (IP or IPv6) address on a device.
addrlabel
- label configuration for protocol address selection.
ioam - manage IOAM namespaces and IOAM schemas.
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.
route - routing table entry.
rule - rule in routing policy database.
stats - manage and show interface statistics.
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 exam‐
ple address can be abbreviated 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 operations 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.
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-ioam(8), ip-l2tp(8), ip-link(8), ip-mad‐
dress(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-stats(8) ip-tcp_met‐
rics(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 <netdev@vger.ker‐
nel.org> where the development 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 <mci@owl.openwall.com>
iproute2 20 Dec 2011 IP(8)
Generated 2026-11-02 from the manual installed on node.spa-dev-dh.xyz. Original copyright and license terms apply.