ROUTE(8) BSD System Manager's Manual ROUTE(8)
route - manually manipulate the routing tables
route [-dnqtv] command [[modifiers] args]
route is a utility used to manually view and manipulate the network rout-
ing tables. Except for setting up the default route, it normally is not
needed to manipulate routes, as a system routing table management daemon,
such as routed(8), ospfd(8), or bgpd(8), should tend to this task.
route can be used to modify nearly any aspect of the routing policy, ex-
cept packet forwarding, which can be manipulated through the sysctl(8)
command.
The route utility supports a limited number of general options, but a
rich command language enables the user to specify any arbitrary request
that could be delivered via the programmatic interface discussed in
route(4).
The options are as follows:
-d Run in debug-only mode, i.e., don't actually modify the routing
table.
-n Bypass attempts to print host and network names symbolically when
reporting actions. (The process of translating between symbolic
names and numerical equivalents can be quite time consuming, and
may require correct operation of the network; thus it may be ex-
pedient to forgo this, especially when attempting to repair net-
working operations.)
-q Suppress all output.
-t Write routing messages to a fake device (/dev/null) instead of a
real routing socket to test route manipulation.
-v (verbose) Print additional details.
The route utility provides several commands:
add Add a route.
change Change aspects of a route (such as its gateway).
delete Delete a specific route.
flush Remove all routes.
get Lookup and display the route for a destination.
monitor Continuously report any changes to the routing information
base, routing lookup misses, or suspected network partition-
ings.
show Print out the route table similar to "netstat -r" (see
netstat(1)).
The get command has the syntax:
route [-nv] get [modifiers] address
The flush command has the syntax:
route [-dnqtv] flush [family]
If the flush command is specified, route will "flush" the routing tables
of all gateway entries. When the address family is specified by any one
of the family modifiers (listed below), only routes having destinations
with addresses in the delineated family will be deleted.
The monitor command has the syntax:
route [-dn] monitor
The show command has the syntax:
route [-n] show [family]
The other commands have the syntax:
route [-dnqtv] command [modifiers] destination gateway [netmask]
destination is the destination host or network, gateway is the next-hop
intermediary via which packets should be routed, and netmask behaves the
same as the argument to the -netmask modifier and is described below.
Routes to a particular host may be distinguished from those to a network
by interpreting the Internet address specified as the destination argu-
ment. The optional modifiers -net and -host cause the destination to be
interpreted as a network or a host, respectively. Otherwise, type is
chosen based on the following rules:
The route is assumed to be to a network if any of the following apply to
destination:
• it is the word "default", equivalent to 0/0
• it is an IPv4 address with less than 3 dots
• it is an IPv4 address with a "/XX" suffix (where XX is the number of
bits in the network portion of the address and is less than 32)
• it is the symbolic name of a network.
If destination is a valid IP address or host name, it is presumed to be a
route to a host.
If none of the above apply, route prints an error message and exits.
For example, 192.168.1.1 is interpreted as -host 192.168.1.1 and
192.168.1 is interpreted as -net 192.168.1. Note, however, that
192.168.2.0 will be interpreted as -host 192.168.2.0 since it is a com-
plete IP address with 3 dots. In this case the number of bits in the net-
work portion of the address must be explicitly listed, for example
192.168.2.0/24, 192.168.2/24, or alternately 192.168.2.
If the destination is directly reachable via an interface requiring no
intermediary system to act as a gateway, the -interface modifier should
be specified; the gateway given is the address of this host on the common
network, indicating the interface to be used for transmission.
To allow addresses to be interpreted as belonging to a particular address
family (as well as for use in the family arguments to some commands), the
following modifiers may be used:
-inet Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses (see ip(4))
-inet6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) addresses (see ip6(4))
-ipx Novell's Internet Packet Exchange (IPX) addresses
-link Hardware (link-level) addresses
-sa Actual sockaddr data, in hexadecimal format
The optional modifier -link specifies that all subsequent addresses are
specified as link-level addresses, and the names must be numeric specifi-
cations rather than symbolic names.
The optional -netmask qualifier is intended to manually add subnet routes
with netmasks different from that of the implied network interface (as
would otherwise be communicated using a routing protocol). One specifies
an additional ensuing address parameter (to be interpreted as a network
mask). The implicit network mask generated in the AF_INET case can be
overridden by making sure this option follows the destination parameter.
-prefixlen is also available for a similar purpose, for IPv6/v4.
The optional -mpath modifier needs to be specified with the add command
to be able to enter multiple gateways for the same destination address
(multipath).
Routes have associated flags which influence operation of the protocols
when sending to destinations matched by the routes. These flags may be
set (or sometimes cleared) by indicating the following corresponding
modifiers:
-blackhole RTF_BLACKHOLE silently discard pkts (during updates)
-cloning RTF_CLONING generates a new route on use
-iface ~RTF_GATEWAY destination is directly reachable
-llinfo RTF_LLINFO validly translates proto addr to link addr
-mpath RTF_MPATH multiple gateways for a destination exist
-nostatic ~RTF_STATIC pretend route added by kernel or daemon
-proto1 RTF_PROTO1 set protocol specific routing flag #1
-proto2 RTF_PROTO2 set protocol specific routing flag #2
-reject RTF_REJECT emit an ICMP unreachable when matched
-static RTF_STATIC manually added route
-xresolve RTF_XRESOLVE emit mesg on use (for external lookup)
The optional modifiers -mtu and -expire provide initial values to quanti-
ties maintained in the routing entry by transport level protocols, such
as TCP (see tcp(4)). They have the following meanings:
-expire n Lifetime for route (e.g., if generated by a redirect).
-mtu n Maximum transmission unit (MTU) size for this path.
These may be individually locked by preceding each such modifier to be
locked by the -lock meta-modifier, or one can specify that all ensuing
metrics may be locked by the -lockrest meta-modifier.
In a change or add command where the destination and gateway are not suf-
ficient to specify the route, the -ifp or -ifa modifiers may be used to
determine the interface or interface address.
The optional -genmask modifier specifies that a cloning mask is present.
This specifies the mask applied when determining if a child route should
be created. It is only applicable to network routes with the RTF_CLONING
flag set.
The optional -label modifier specifies on route addition or modification
that the route should have the given label associated with it. Route la-
bels can be used to attach arbitrary information to a route.
All symbolic names specified for a destination or gateway are looked up
first as a network name using getnetbyname(3). If this lookup fails,
gethostbyname(3) is then used to interpret the name as a valid host name.
route uses a routing socket (see route(4)) and the message types RTM_ADD,
RTM_DELETE, RTM_GET, and RTM_CHANGE. As such, only the superuser may
modify the routing tables.
/etc/hosts host name database
/etc/mygate default gateway address
/etc/networks network name database
%s: gateway %s flags %x The specified route is being added to or deleted
from the tables. The values printed are from the routing table entry sup-
plied in the ioctl(2) call. If the gateway address used was not the pri-
mary address of the gateway (the first one returned by gethostbyname(3)),
the gateway address is printed numerically as well as symbolically.
%s %s done When the flush command is specified, each routing table entry
deleted is indicated with a message of this form.
Network is unreachable An attempt to add a route failed because the
gateway listed was not on a directly connected network. The next-hop
gateway must be given.
not in table A delete operation was attempted for an entry which wasn't
present in the tables.
routing table overflow An add operation was attempted, but the system
was low on resources and was unable to allocate memory to create the new
entry.
netstat(1), gethostbyname(3), getnetbyname(3), netintro(4), route(4),
tcp(4), hosts(5), mygate(5), networks(5), bgpd(8), ospfd(8), routed(8),
sysctl(8)
The route command appeared in 4.2BSD. IPv6 support was added by WIDE/KAME
project.
The -recvpipe, -hopcount, -sendpipe, -ssthres, -rtt, and -rttvar modif-
iers used to be used to initialize various quantities in routing table
entries. The routing system no longer uses these values and the modifiers
exist now only for compatibility with other operating systems.
The first paragraph may have slightly exaggerated routed(8)'s abilities.
Some uses of the -ifa or -ifp modifiers with the add command will in-
correctly fail with a "Network is unreachable" message if there is no de-
fault route. See case RTM_ADD in route_output() from sys/net/rtsock.c for
details.
MirBSD #10-current March 19, 1994 3