NAME

ifconfig — configure network interface

SYNOPSIS

ifconfig

[interface]

ifconfig

interface [protocol [configuration new-value ...] ...]

ifconfig

-l [interface [protocol [configuration]]]

ifconfig

-l interface protocol [configuration ...] ...

DESCRIPTION

ifconfig can both write the current configuration of if(4) network interface devices as well as update the configuration of a network interface. By default the configuration of every network interface is written. If the interface argument is given, only the configuration of that network interface is written. If an interface is specified along with further operands, the configuration of the network interface is updated by iterating over the remaining operands: Naming a protocol makes it the current protocol, naming a configuration sets it within the current protocol to the subsequent new-value operand. The options are as follows:

-l

Write the current value of each specified configuration rather than setting a new value. The new-value argument is no longer passed.

If only an interface and a protocol is specified, list the names of each configuration of that protocol on the network interface.

If only an interface is specified, list the names of each protocol on the network interface.

If no interface is specified, list the names of each network interface.

The interface argument can be the name or the path of an interface, or a specifier uniquely matching an interface:

ether:mac

Local ether(4) address.

etherhw:mac

Hardware ether(4) address.

inet:ip

Local inet(4) address.

id:num

Network interface integer index.

The link protocol provides information about the network interface. The following configurations are supported:

up

yes if the link is up and no otherwise. (read-only)

type

The type of the network interface, either ether or loopback. (read-only)

id

The network interface integer index. (read-only)

name

The name of the network interface. (read-only)

The loopback protocol (lo(4)) has no configuration. The ether protocol (Ethernet, ether(4)) has the following configurations:

address

The local address in ether(4) address notation, or default to use the hardware address.

hwaddress

The hardware address in ether(4) address notation. (read-only)

The inet protocol (Internet Protocol version 4, inet(4)) has the following configurations:

address

The local address in inet(4) address notation.

router

The default route in inet(4) address notation.

subnet

The subnet mask in inet(4) address notation.

EXIT STATUS

ifconfig will exit 0 on success and non-zero otherwise.

EXAMPLES

$ ifconfig 
if0: 
	link up yes type ether id 2 
	ether address 00:00:5e:00:53:ff hwaddress 00:00:5e:00:53:ff 
	inet address 192.0.2.2 router 192.0.2.1 subnet 255.255.255.0 
lo0: 
	link up yes type loopback id 1 
	loopback 
	inet address 127.0.0.1 router 0.0.0.0 subnet 255.0.0.0 
$ ifconfig if0 
if0: 
	link up yes type ether id 2 
	ether address 00:00:5e:00:53:ff hwaddress 00:00:5e:00:53:ff 
	inet address 192.0.2.2 router 192.0.2.1 subnet 255.255.255.0 
$ ifconfig if0 inet address 198.51.100.2 router 198.51.100.1 
$ ifconfig if0 ether address 00:00:5e:00:53:42 inet address 198.51.100.3 
$ ifconfig -l 
if0 
lo0 
$ ifconfig -l if0 
link 
ether 
inet 
$ ifconfig -l if0 inet 
address 
router 
subnet 
$ ifconfig -l if0 inet address 
198.51.100.3 
$ ifconfig -l if0 inet address subnet ether address link id 
198.51.100.3 
255.255.255.0 
00:00:5e:00:53:42 
42 
$ ifconfig -l etherhw:00:00:5e:00:53:ff link name 
if0

SEE ALSO

ether(4), if(4), inet(4), lo(4), dhclient(8), dnsconfig(8)

CAVEATS

ether(4) network interfaces with the inet(4) protocol are commonly automatically configured by dhclient(8). Disable dhclient(8) before manually configuring inet(4) on such interfaces to avoid the manual configuration being overwritten, or configure dhclient(8) to set your desired network interface configuration in the first place.