ROUTE(8)						     Linux Programmer's Manual							  ROUTE(8)

NAME

       route - show / manipulate the IP routing table

SYNOPSIS

       route [-CFvnee]

       route  [-v]  [-A  family]  add  [-net|-host] target [netmask Nm] [gw Gw] [metric N] [mss M] [window W] [irtt I] [reject] [mod] [dyn] [rein-
	      state] [[dev] If]

       route  [-v] [-A family] del [-net|-host] target [gw Gw] [netmask Nm] [metric N] [[dev] If]

       route  [-V] [--version] [-h] [--help]

DESCRIPTION

       Route manipulates the kernel's IP routing tables.  Its primary use is to set up static routes to specific hosts or networks via	an  inter-
       face after it has been configured with the ifconfig(8) program.

       When the add or del options are used, route modifies the routing tables.  Without these options, route displays the current contents of the
       routing tables.

OPTIONS

       -A family
	      use the specified address family (eg `inet'; use `route --help' for a full list).

       -F     operate on the kernel's FIB (Forwarding Information Base) routing table.	This is the default.

       -C     operate on the kernel's routing cache.

       -v     select verbose operation.

       -n     show numerical addresses instead of trying to determine symbolic host names. This is useful if you are trying to determine  why  the
	      route to your nameserver has vanished.

       -e     use netstat(8)-format for displaying the routing table.  -ee will generate a very long line with all parameters from the routing ta-
	      ble.

       del    delete a route.

       add    add a new route.

       target the destination network or host. You can provide IP addresses in dotted decimal or host/network names.

       -net   the target is a network.

       -host  the target is a host.

       netmask NM
	      when adding a network route, the netmask to be used.

       gw GW  route packets via a gateway.  NOTE: The specified gateway must be reachable first. This usually means that you  have  to	set  up  a
	      static  route to the gateway beforehand. If you specify the address of one of your local interfaces, it will be used to decide about
	      the interface to which the packets should be routed to. This is a BSDism compatibility hack.

       metric M
	      set the metric field in the routing table (used by routing daemons) to M.

       mss M  set the TCP Maximum Segment Size (MSS) for connections over this route to M bytes.  The default is the device MTU minus headers,	or
	      a  lower	MTU when path mtu discovery occurred. This setting can be used to force smaller TCP packets on the other end when path mtu
	      discovery does not work (usually because of misconfigured firewalls that block ICMP Fragmentation Needed)

       window W
	      set the TCP window size for connections over this route to W bytes. This is typically only used on AX.25 networks and  with  drivers
	      unable to handle back to back frames.

       irtt I set  the initial round trip time (irtt) for TCP connections over this route to I milliseconds (1-12000). This is typically only used
	      on AX.25 networks. If omitted the RFC 1122 default of 300ms is used.

       reject install a blocking route, which will force a route lookup to fail.  This is for example used to mask out networks before	using  the
	      default route.  This is NOT for firewalling.

       mod, dyn, reinstate
	      install a dynamic or modified route. These flags are for diagnostic purposes, and are generally only set by routing daemons.

       dev If force  the route to be associated with the specified device, as the kernel will otherwise try to determine the device on its own (by
	      checking already existing routes and device specifications, and where the route is added to). In most normal networks you won't need
	      this.

	      If dev If is the last option on the command line, the word dev may be omitted, as it's the default. Otherwise the order of the route
	      modifiers (metric - netmask - gw - dev) doesn't matter.

EXAMPLES

       route add -net 127.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 dev lo
	      adds the normal loopback entry, using netmask 255.0.0.0 and associated with the "lo" device (assuming this device was previously set
	      up correctly with ifconfig(8)).

       route add -net 192.56.76.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev eth0
	      adds a route to the local network 192.56.76.x via "eth0".  The word "dev" can be omitted here.

       route del default
	      deletes the current default route, which is labeled "default" or 0.0.0.0 in the destination field of the current routing table.

       route add default gw mango-gw
	      adds  a  default	route  (which  will  be  used  if no other route matches).  All packets using this route will be gatewayed through
	      "mango-gw". The device which will actually be used for that route depends on how we can reach  "mango-gw"  -  the  static  route	to
	      "mango-gw" will have to be set up before.

       route add ipx4 sl0
	      Adds the route to the "ipx4" host via the SLIP interface (assuming that "ipx4" is the SLIP host).

       route add -net 192.57.66.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw ipx4
	      This command adds the net "192.57.66.x" to be gatewayed through the former route to the SLIP interface.

       route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0
	      This  is an obscure one documented so people know how to do it. This sets all of the class D (multicast) IP routes to go via "eth0".
	      This is the correct normal configuration line with a multicasting kernel.

       route add -net 10.0.0.0 netmask 255.0.0.0 reject
	      This installs a rejecting route for the private network "10.x.x.x."

OUTPUT

       The output of the kernel routing table is organized in the following columns

       Destination
	      The destination network or destination host.

       Gateway
	      The gateway address or '*' if none set.

       Genmask
	      The netmask for the destination net; '255.255.255.255' for a host destination and '0.0.0.0' for the default route.

       Flags  Possible flags include
	      U (route is up)
	      H (target is a host)
	      G (use gateway)
	      R (reinstate route for dynamic routing)
	      D (dynamically installed by daemon or redirect)
	      M (modified from routing daemon or redirect)
	      A (installed by addrconf)
	      C (cache entry)
	      !  (reject route)

       Metric The 'distance' to the target (usually counted in hops). It is not used by recent kernels, but may be needed by routing daemons.

       Ref    Number of references to this route. (Not used in the Linux kernel.)

       Use    Count of lookups for the route.  Depending on the use of -F and -C this will be either route cache misses (-F) or hits (-C).

       Iface  Interface to which packets for this route will be sent.

       MSS    Default maximum segment size for TCP connections over this route.

       Window Default window size for TCP connections over this route.

       irtt   Initial RTT (Round Trip Time). The kernel uses this to guess about the best TCP protocol parameters  without  waiting  on  (possibly
	      slow) answers.

       HH (cached only)
	      The number of ARP entries and cached routes that refer to the hardware header cache for the cached route. This will be -1 if a hard-
	      ware address is not needed for the interface of the cached route (e.g. lo).

       Arp (cached only)
	      Whether or not the hardware address for the cached route is up to date.

FILES

       /proc/net/ipv6_route
       /proc/net/route
       /proc/net/rt_cache

SEE ALSO

       ifconfig(8), netstat(8), arp(8), rarp(8)

HISTORY

       Route for Linux was originally written by Fred N.  van Kempen, <waltje@uwalt.nl.mugnet.org> and then modified by Johannes Stille and  Linus
       Torvalds for pl15. Alan Cox added the mss and window options for Linux 1.1.22. irtt support and merged with netstat from Bernd Eckenfels.

AUTHOR

       Currently maintained by Phil Blundell <Philip.Blundell@pobox.com> and Bernd Eckenfels <net-tools@lina.inka.de>.

net-tools							    2007-12-02								  ROUTE(8)