route(1M) route(1M)
NAME
route - manually manipulate the routing tables
SYNOPSIS
route [-fn] { add | delete } { destination | default } [host | net]
[gateway [metric]]
DESCRIPTION
The route command manually manipulates the network routing
tables normally maintained by the system routing daemon,
routed(1M), or through default routes and redirect messages
from routers.
Files
/etc/hosts
/etc/networks
Diagnostics
add [host | net] destination:gateway
The specified route is being added to the tables. The
values printed are from the routing table entry supplied
in the ioctl(2) call.
delete [host | net] destination:gateway
The specified route is being deleted.
destination done
When the -f flag 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. Give
the next-hop gateway instead.
not in table
A delete operation was attempted for an entry that is
not in the table.
routing table overflow
An add operation was attempted, but the system was
unable to allocate memory to create the new entry.
USAGE
route allows a privileged user to operate directly on the
routing table for the specific host or network indicated by
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
route(1M) route(1M)
destination. default is available for gateways to use after
all other routes have been attempted.
The gateway argument, if present, indicates the network
gateway to which packets should be addressed. The metric
argument indicates the number of hops to the destination. The
metric is required for add commands; it must be zero if the
destination is on a directly-attached network, and non-zero if
the route utilizes one or more gateways.
The add command instructs route to add a route to destination.
delete deletes a route.
Routes to a particular host must be distinguished from those
to a network. The optional keywords net and host force the
destination to be interpreted as a network or a host,
respectively. Otherwise, if the destination has a local
address part of INADDR_ANY, then the route is assumed to be to
a network; otherwise, it is presumed to be a route to a host.
If the route is to a destination connected by a gateway, the
metric parameter should be greater than 0. If adding a route
with metric 0, the gateway given is the address of this host
on the common network, indicating the interface to be used
directly for transmission. All symbolic names specified for a
destination (except default) or gateway are looked up in the
hosts database using gethostbyname [see gethostent(3N)]. If
this lookup fails, then the name is looked up in the networks
database using getnetbyname [see getnetent(3N)].
netstat(1M) can be used to display available routes and the
status each route in the routing table.
Options
route takes the following options:
-f Flush the routing tables of all gateway entries. If
this is used in conjunction with one of the commands
described above, route flushes the gateways before
performing the command.
-n Prevents attempts to print host and network names
symbolically when reporting actions. This is useful,
for example, when all name servers are down on your
local net, so you need a route before you can contact
the name server.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2
route(1M) route(1M)
REFERENCES
gethostent(3N), getnetent(3N), ioctl(2), netstat(1M),
routed(1M), routing(4)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 3