What is the difference between "route" and "ip route"?

Question

I tried to understand the networking tools on Linux. I am confused now about what I should use to manipulate the static routing: route or ip route?:

route - show / manipulate the IP routing table

ip - show / manipulate routing, devices, policy routing and tunnels

What is the difference between these two tools?

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '13 at 14:26

21

The iproute2 suite is set to replace the net-tools suite of network configuration tools. There are "synonym" commands that perform similar function in each.

While most documentation will refer you to the route command, you'll be ahead of the game to learn ip route since distributions should stop including net-tools at some point.

Deprecated Linux networking commands and their replacements

answered Jul 15 '13 at 14:26

Aaron Copley

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thank you for the link clarifying all the mess with this zoo of networking tools! – static Jul 15 '13 at 14:36

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 14 '18 at 12:35

6

route is a fairly simple tool, perfect for creating static routes. It's still present in many distributions for compatibility. ip route is much more powerful, it has much more functionality, and can create more specialized rules.

ip route isn't needed to create a static route, but as it's a much more useful tool, the effort expended in learning it and its syntax is definitely time well spent.

edited Dec 14 '18 at 12:35

Matthias Braun

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answered Jul 15 '13 at 14:23

NickW

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thank you! I hope, I don't need now the "ip route" (i.e. that simple "route" will be enough)! – static Jul 15 '13 at 14:38

What is the difference between "route" and "ip route"?

2 Answers2