Networking / Beginners

The route command

The route command displays or modifies the computer's routing table. To display the routing table, use route without any parameters. To add an entry to the routing table, use this syntax:

route add [ -net | -host ] address [options]

To delete an entry, use this syntax:

route del [ -net | -host ] address [options]

The available options are as follows:

  • netmask mask: Specifies the subnet mask for this entry.
  • gw address: Specifies the Gateway Address for this entry.
  • dev if: Specifies an interface (such as eth0 or eth1) for this entry.

If you enter route by itself, with no parameters, you'll see the routing table, as in this example:

$ route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway 	Genmask 	Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 * 		255.255.255.0 	U 	0    0 	  0  eth1
192.168.1.0 * 		255.255.255.0 	U 	0    0 	  0  eth1
169.254.0.0 * 		255.255.0.0 	U 	0    0 	  0  eth1
127.0.0.0   * 		255.0.0.0 	U 	0    0 	  0  lo
default     192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 	UG 	0    0 	  0  eth1

Suppose that your network has a second router that serves as a link to another private subnet, 192.168.2.0 (subnet mask 255.255.255.0). The interface on the local side of this router is at 192.168.1.200. To add a static route entry that sends packets intended for the 192.168.2.0 subnet to this router, use a command like this:

$ route add 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw
192.168.1.200
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In this tutorial:

  1. Linux Commands
  2. Command Shell Basics
  3. Editing commands
  4. Wildcards
  5. Redirection and piping
  6. Environment variables
  7. Shell scripts
  8. Directory and File Handling Commands
  9. The cd command
  10. The mkdir command
  11. The rmdir command
  12. The ls command
  13. The cp command
  14. The rm command
  15. The mv command
  16. The touch command
  17. The cat command
  18. Commands for Working with Packages and Services
  19. The rpm command
  20. Commands for Administering Users
  21. The usermod command
  22. The chage command
  23. The passwd command
  24. The newusers command
  25. The groupadd command
  26. The groupdel command
  27. Commands for Managing Ownership and Permissions
  28. The chgrp command
  29. The chmod command
  30. Networking Commands
  31. The ipconfig command
  32. The netstat command
  33. The ping command
  34. The route command
  35. The traceroute command