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Perrin Ifconfig Linux101
Perrin Ifconfig Linux101
0
to configure your network February 17, 2006
By Chad Perrin
Takeaway
The ifconfig command line utility is used to get information about a Linux network interface configuration and to
make changes to it.
ifconfig
Many Windows administrators are familiar with the ipconfig command line utility, which is used to get information
about network interface configuration and make changes to it. Linux systems have a similar utility, ifconfig, which is
a common part of the daytoday tool belt of most Linux sysadmins. There are some distinct differences between
ipconfig and ifconfig, however, such as the fact that the DOS/Windows ipconfig does not allow you to make
changes to network configuration.
In general, you must be logged in as root or use sudo to make use of the ifconfig utility on a Linux machine. The
ifconfig utility can be used either to simply get information about network interface configuration or to change
configuration, depending on what options are used with the ifconfig command.
Basic functionality
Entering ifconfig at the command line interface without specifying any options will provide a fairly complete
description of the current state of all active network interfaces. For instance, on a machine with hostname erebus,
entering ifconfig at the command line might return the following output:
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:C0:F0:77:FD:AD
inet addr:192.168.2.103 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:f0ff:fe77:fdad/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:913240 errors:230 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:230
TX packets:663990 errors:7 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:12
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:179148797 (170.8 MiB) TX bytes:53220450 (50.7 MiB)
Interrupt:9 Base address:0xb000
Shortcuts
The ifconfig eth0 up command on most Linux systems can be abbreviated to ifup eth0. The same holds
true for deactivating an interface, so that ifconfig eth0 down can be abbreviated as ifdown eth0. Some
Linux systems will even have a further abbreviated command for cycling an interface's status called ifupdown,
which quickly deactivates then reactivates an interface, though this is less common than the individual ifup and
ifdown abbreviated commands.
More information
The "if" in ifconfig, and also in ifup, ifdown, and ifstatus, is an abbreviation of "interface". It is not related to the
programming conditional "if". You can get more information about this utility by accessing its manpage, by
entering man ifconfig at the command line.
Other networking utilities of note include:
• arp This gives information about the address mapping cache, and allows you to manipulate it
in various ways, such as clearing entries and adding them.
• iptables The iptables utility is actually a firewall configuration interface for the kernel's packet
filtering capabilities.
• Netstat This utility returns information about network connections, routing tables, interface
statistics, and more.
• Route The route utility can be used to get information from the IP routing table on your machine,
or to make changes to the routing table.
See the manpages for any of these utilities to get more information by entering "man utilityname" at the command
line. For instance, the manpage for the arp utility is accessed by entering man arp. You can get more information
about the man utility by entering man man.
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