--- name: "ip" section: "8" platform: "linux" package: "iproute2" version: "7.3.0-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/ip" --- # ip(8) show / manipulate routing, network devices, interfaces and tunnels ## NAME ip - show / manipulate routing, network devices, interfaces and tunnels ## SYNOPSIS **ip** \[ *OPTIONS* \] *OBJECT* { *COMMAND* \| **help** } **ip** \[ **-force** \] **-batch** *filename* *OBJECT* := { **address** \| **addrlabel** \| **fou** \| **help** \| **ila** \| **ioam** \| **l2tp** \| **link** \| **macsec** \| **maddress** \| **monitor** \| **mptcp** \| **mroute** \| **mrule** \| **neighbor** \| **neighbour** \| **netconf** \| **netns** \| **nexthop** \| **ntable** \| **ntbl** \| **route** \| **rule** \| **sr** \| **tap** \| **tcpmetrics** \| **token** \| **tunnel** \| **tuntap** \| **vrf** \| **xfrm** } *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** \ 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 statistics or some time values. - **-d**, **-details** Output more detailed information. - **-l**, **-loops** \ Specify maximum number of loops the 'ip address flush' logic will attempt before giving up. The default is 10. Zero (0) means loop until all addresses are removed. - **-f**, **-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 involved. - **-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)](/wc/1.md) or to [**grep**(1)](/grep/1.md) the output. - **-r**, **-resolve** use the system's name resolver to print DNS names instead of host addresses. - **-n**, **-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 supports 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**\ 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 readability. 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. - **fou** \- Foo-over-UDP receive port configuration. - **ila** \- manage identifier locator addresses (ILA). - **ioam** \- manage IOAM namespaces and IOAM schemas. - **l2tp** \- tunnel ethernet over IP (L2TPv3). - **link** \- network device. - **macsec** \- MACsec device configuration. - **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. - **netconf** \- network configuration monitoring. - **netns** \- manage network namespaces. - **nexthop** \- manage nexthop objects. - **ntable** \- manage the neighbor cache's operation. - **route** \- routing table entry. - **rule** \- rule in routing policy database. - **sr** \- manage IPv6 segment routing. - **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 example **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-address/8.md), [**ip-addrlabel**(8)](/ip-addrlabel/8.md), [**ip-fou**(8)](/ip-fou/8.md), [**ip-ioam**(8)](/ip-ioam/8.md), [**ip-l2tp**(8)](/ip-l2tp/8.md), [**ip-link**(8)](/ip-link/8.md), [**ip-macsec**(8)](/ip-macsec/8.md), [**ip-maddress**(8)](/ip-maddress/8.md), [**ip-monitor**(8)](/ip-monitor/8.md), [**ip-mptcp**(8)](/ip-mptcp/8.md), [**ip-mroute**(8)](/ip-mroute/8.md), [**ip-neighbour**(8)](/ip-neighbour/8.md), [**ip-netconf**(8)](/ip-netconf/8.md), [**ip-netns**(8)](/ip-netns/8.md), [**ip-nexthop**(8)](/ip-nexthop/8.md), [**ip-ntable**(8)](/ip-ntable/8.md), [**ip-route**(8)](/ip-route/8.md), [**ip-rule**(8)](/ip-rule/8.md), [**ip-sr**(8)](/ip-sr/8.md), [**ip-stats**(8)](/ip-stats/8.md), [**ip-tcp\_metrics**(8)](/ip-tcp_metrics/8.md), [**ip-token**(8)](/ip-token/8.md), [**ip-tunnel**(8)](/ip-tunnel/8.md), [**ip-vrf**(8)](/ip-vrf/8.md), [**ip-xfrm**(8)](/ip-xfrm/8.md)\ IP Command reference **ip-cref.ps** ## REPORTING BUGS Report any bugs to the Network Developers mailing list **\** 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 \