2

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=route

Route is a utility used to manually manipulate the network routing tables. It normally is not needed, as a system routing table management daemon such as routed(8), should tend to this task.

...

BUGS

The first paragraph may have slightly exaggerated routed(8)'s abilities.

Is this really a "bug", or some developer's attempt at humour?

Mark Henderson
  • 68,316
  • 31
  • 175
  • 255
  • 1
    Do you really have to ask? – squircle Apr 17 '10 at 21:39
  • 2
    Yes, that's why I asked. – Mark Henderson Apr 17 '10 at 21:44
  • 1
    Reasonable question. Note to documenters: Don't assume everyone will know your inside jokes or innuendos. – Wesley Apr 17 '10 at 23:26
  • 2
    FreeBSD is known for it's humorous comments in source code and man pages. It's obviously not readable for everyone :) – pauska Sep 07 '10 at 06:37
  • From other FreeBSD man pages: - [chat(8)](http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=chat&format=html) `COPYRIGHT The chat program is in public domain. This is not the GNU public license. If it breaks then you get to keep both pieces.` [tunefs(8)](http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tunefs&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.0-RELEASE&format=html) `BUGS This utility should work on active file systems. To change the root file system, the system must be rebooted after the file system is tuned.` and of course `You can tune a file system, but you cannot tune a fish` – Dennis Williamson Apr 18 '10 at 06:23
  • How dare you forget to mention `asr-manpages`! – user1686 Apr 18 '10 at 08:11
  • 1
    That 'tune a filesystem' remark is also in the HP-UX man page. – Grahamux Jul 21 '11 at 23:43
  • @Grahamux That `tune a filesystem` remark is in nearly every `tunefs(8)` manpage I've ever encountered. It's one of the oldest *nix manpage jokes known to man. :) – voretaq7 Apr 19 '12 at 02:01
  • @voretaq7 The `tune a fish` line was added to 4.2BSD sometime in 1983; they didn't keep good versioning back then, so the exact date and author is lost to history. It is however, the source. The line was copied to HP-UX and SunOS 4.x (and likely others) from BSD. – Chris S Apr 19 '12 at 18:41

1 Answers1

4

routed is a RIP daemon, which as any network administrator knows, is not very effective at creating efficient routing tables. It works great for simple environments with only a few routers.

For anything more complicated than that I'd recommend Quagga or Xorp, which both support a variety of routing protocols like OSPF, ISIS (experimental to a degree), BGP and more.

Chris S
  • 77,337
  • 11
  • 120
  • 212