=====Introduction=====

Iproute2 is a collection of utilities for controlling [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission Control Protocol|TCP]] / [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet Protocol|IP]] networking and traffic control in Linux. It is currently maintained by Stephen Hemminger [[mailto:stephen@networkplumber.org|<stephen@networkplumber.org>]]. The original author, Alexey Kuznetsov, is well known for the QoS implementation in the Linux kernel.

Most network configuration manuals still refer to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ifconfig|ifconfig]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/route (command)|route]] as the primary network configuration tools, but ifconfig is known to behave inadequately in modern network environments. They should be deprecated, but most [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distributions|distros]] still include them. Most network configuration systems make use of ifconfig and thus provide a limited feature set. The [[:networking:etcnet|/etc/net]] project aims to support most modern network technologies, as it doesn't use ifconfig and allows a system administrator to make use of all iproute2 features, including traffic control.

iproute2 is usually shipped in a package called iproute or iproute2 and consists of several tools, of which the most important are //ip// and //tc//. ip controls [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4|IPv4]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6|IPv6]] configuration and tc stands for traffic control. Both tools print detailed usage messages and are accompanied by a set of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_page_%28Unix%29|manpages]].
=====Download=====

The current version is in the [[https://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/net/iproute2|download]] directory on kernel.org.

New versions will be announced on the [[http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#netdev|netdev]] mailing list.

The current iproute2 source is maintained in the [[http://git-scm.com/|GIT]] repository. To get the current source use:
<code> $ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/iproute2/iproute2.git</code> or
<code> $ git clone https://github.com/iproute2/iproute2.git</code>

You can also browse the source online via [[https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/network/iproute2/iproute2.git|kernel.org gitweb]] or [[https://github.com/iproute2/iproute2|github]]
=====Documentation=====

There are many sources of documentation on the web, and it is mostly up to date.

  * [[http://lartc.org/howto|LARTC HOWTO]]
  * [[http://www.policyrouting.org/iproute2.doc.html|IPROUTE2 Utility Suite HOWTO]]
  * [[:networking:iproute2_examples| Iproute2_examples ]]