{ "id": "49d6dbce-2542-422c-bde2-59b3c873a732", "created_at": "2026-04-06T01:29:41.501432Z", "updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:42.462013Z", "deleted_at": null, "sha1_hash": "b2cf7eaab92fa2803c931478d9f32248dfc78232", "title": "Ifconfig", "llm_title": "", "authors": "", "file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "file_size": 119765, "plain_text": "Ifconfig\r\nBy Contributors to Wikimedia projects\r\nPublished: 2004-10-23 · Archived: 2026-04-06 00:27:47 UTC\r\nFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\r\nNot to be confused with ipconfig.\r\nifconfig\r\nScreenshot of ifconfig output in Linux\r\nInitial release August 1983; 42 years ago\r\nOperating system Unix and Unix-like\r\nType Command\r\nifconfig (short for interface config) is a system administration utility in Unix-like operating systems for network\r\ninterface configuration.\r\nThe utility is a command-line interface tool and is also used in the system startup scripts of many operating\r\nsystems. It has features for configuring, controlling, and querying TCP/IP network interface parameters. Ifconfig\r\noriginally appeared in 4.2BSD as part of the BSD TCP/IP suite.\r\nMany Linux distributions have deprecated ifconfig in favor of tools from iproute2.\r\nCommon uses for ifconfig include setting the IP address and subnet mask of a network interface and disabling or\r\nenabling an interface.[1] At boot time, many Unix-like operating systems initialize their network interfaces with\r\nshell scripts that call ifconfig. As an interactive tool, system administrators routinely use the utility to display and\r\nanalyze network interface parameters. The following two examples show the output of the tool when querying the\r\nstate of a single active interface each on a Linux-based host (interface eth0) and the ural0 interface on an\r\nOpenBSD installation.\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\neth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0F:20:CF:8B:42\r\n inet addr:192.168.1.128 Bcast: Mask:255.255.255.192\r\n UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1\r\n RX packets:2472694671 errors:1 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0\r\n TX packets:44641779 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0\r\n collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000\r\n RX bytes:1761467179 (1679.7 Mb) TX bytes:2870928587 (2737.9 Mb)\r\n Interrupt:28\r\n ural0: flags=8843\u003cUP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST\u003e mtu 1500\r\n lladdr 00:0d:0b:ed:84:fb\r\n media: IEEE802.11 DS2 mode 11b hostap (autoselect mode 11b hostap)\r\n status: active\r\n ieee80211: nwid ARK chan 11 bssid 00:0d:0b:ed:84:fb 100dBm\r\n inet 172.30.50.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 172.30.50.255\r\n inet6 fe80::20d:bff:feed:84fb%ural0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0xa\r\nHWaddr: hardware address, MAC address.\r\nThe parameter txqueuelen is measured in number of Ethernet frames and is the size of the buffer that is\r\nbeing managed by the network scheduler.\r\nMedium access control functions\r\n[edit]\r\nifconfig is also commonly used to change the medium access control (MAC) address of an interface. In this\r\nprocess, the network interface is first disabled (set down) with the ifconfig command, followed by a MAC change\r\ncommand:\r\nifconfig wlan0 down\r\nifconfig wlan0 hw ether 13:11:20:33:49:66\r\nifconfig wlan0 up\r\nThe Berkeley Software Distribution UNIX operating systems (e.g., NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD) continue\r\nactive development of ifconfig and extension of its functionality to cover the configuration of wireless networking\r\ninterfaces, VLAN trunking, controlling hardware features such as TSO or hardware checksumming or setting up\r\nbridge and tunnel interfaces. Solaris has historically used ifconfig for all network interface configuration, but as of\r\nSolaris 10 introduced dladm to perform data-link (OSI model layer 2) configuration, reducing ifconfig's purview\r\nto IP configuration.\r\nIn older Linux distributions, ifconfig, in conjunction with the utility route, was used to connect a computer to a\r\nnetwork, and to define routes between networks. ifconfig for Linux is part of the package net-tools, released as the\r\nlatest version 2.10 on 7 January 2021.[2]\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nMany Linux distributions have deprecated the use of ifconfig and route in favor of the software suite iproute2,\r\nsuch as ArchLinux[3] or RHEL since version 7,[4] which has been available since 1999 for Linux 2.2.[5] iproute2\r\nincludes support for all common functions of ifconfig(8), route(8), arp(8) and netstat(1). It also includes multicast\r\nconfiguration support, tunnel and virtual link management, traffic control, and low-level IPsec configuration,\r\namong other features.\r\nAnother higher-level Linux command line tool is ifup (including ifdown and ifquery). In addition to controlling\r\nthe interfaces, it also provides control of other aspects of the network such as specifying the DNS servers to use.\r\nThe command is configured using the file /etc/network/interfaces, which contains \"stanzas\" for each interface.\r\nNetworkManager is a Linux daemon that automatically reconfigures the network in dynamic environments, such\r\nas moving between WiFi hotspots. It is usually used in conjunction with a graphical front-end such as GNOME\r\nShell.\r\nVersions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 95 to Windows Me used winipcfg to give a graphical display of\r\ncurrent IP information. ipconfig, a command similar to ifconfig, comes with Microsoft operating-systems based on\r\nthe Windows NT kernel. ipconfig also controls the Windows DHCP client.\r\nIn macOS, the ifconfig command functions as a wrapper to the IPConfiguration agent, and can control the BootP\r\nand DHCP clients from the command-line. Use of ifconfig to modify network settings in Mac OS X is\r\ndiscouraged, because ifconfig operates below the level of the system frameworks which help manage network\r\nconfiguration.\r\niwconfig, a component of Wireless tools for Linux, which took its name from ifconfig, manages wireless network\r\ninterfaces outside the original scope of Linux's ifconfig. iwconfig sets such specialized settings as a wireless\r\nnetwork's SSID and WEP keys, and functions in tandem with iwlist. Linux also features iwspy, to read the signal,\r\nnoise and quality of a wireless connection.\r\nOther related tools for configuring Ethernet adapters are: ethtool, mii-tool, and mii-diag in Linux and the\r\ncommand dladm show-link in Solaris.\r\nThe ip suite has a similar purpose and is meant to replace the deprecated ifconfig.[6]\r\nConsistent Network Device Naming\r\nIpconfig\r\nIproute2\r\n1. ^ \"Interface Configuration for IP\". Linux Network Administrators Guide. June 2000. Retrieved 12 March\r\n2024.\r\n2. ^ net-tools on SourceForge\r\n3. ^ Gundersen, Tom (8 June 2011). \"News: Deprecation of net-tools\". Retrieved 28 March 2019.\r\n4. ^ Jonathan Corbet (4 January 2017). \"Moving on from net-tools\". LWN.net. Retrieved 23 September 2019.\r\n5. ^ Litvak, Michail (6 March 2019). \"ip(8) manual page\". Retrieved 28 March 2019.\r\n6. ^ Carrigan, Tyler (6 May 2020). \"Linux networking: ifconfig versus ip | Enable Sysadmin\". Red Hat.\r\nRetrieved 2 November 2022.\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nifconfig(8), official manpage for Linux net-tools ifconfig\r\nifconfig(8), manpage for the FreeBSD ifconfig\r\nifconfig(8), manpage for the Solaris ifconfig\r\nSource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig\r\nPage 4 of 4", "extraction_quality": 1, "language": "EN", "sources": [ "MITRE" ], "references": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig" ], "report_names": [ "Ifconfig" ], "threat_actors": [], "ts_created_at": 1775438981, "ts_updated_at": 1775791242, "ts_creation_date": 0, "ts_modification_date": 0, "files": { "pdf": "https://archive.orkl.eu/b2cf7eaab92fa2803c931478d9f32248dfc78232.pdf", "text": "https://archive.orkl.eu/b2cf7eaab92fa2803c931478d9f32248dfc78232.txt", "img": "https://archive.orkl.eu/b2cf7eaab92fa2803c931478d9f32248dfc78232.jpg" } }