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Deprecated Linux Networking Commands and Their Replacements

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In this article, let us have a close look at some networking commands that are deprecated. That means they are not provided by default and replaced by other commands that serve the same purpose.

But please note that these commands can still be executed by first downloading the net-tools package onto the machine.

sudo apt-get install net-tools
  • These commands(except iwconfig) are included in the net-tools package and that is the reason why you can see the output of these commands in this article, as we installed the net-tools package on our Linux machine, but if you try these commands on your machine without executing the above-mentioned, command you will receive “Command: not found” error.
  • We will show outputs of both depreciated and their respective replacements in order to get you better insights about their use.
  • So let us understand for what purpose each depreciated command is used and also see what their existing versions are, we can use on behalf of these depreciated commands.

Depreciated Commands and their replaced commands

Depreciated Command  Replaced Command
arp ip n
ipconfig ip a, ip link, 
iwconfig iw
nameif ip link
netstat  ss
route ip r 
iptunnel ip tunnel 

Let’s have a brief description of the deprecated commands and their replacements.

1. arp: arp command is used mainly for altering the system’s ARP cache. The full-form for ARP is Address Resolution Protocol and its job is to resolve the IP address of a system to its mac address.

Command:

$ arp

Output:

Replacement command for arp

ip n (ip neighbour): This Command is the depreciated version of arp command. Here, generally, IP stands for internet protocol. This command is mainly used for routing devices and tunnels.

Command :

$ ip n

Output :

2. ifconfig: The main job of this command is to check the configuration of kernel-resident network interfaces. At boot time, its main use is to set up interfaces as required.

Command :

$ ifconfig  

Output : 

Replacement Commands for ifconfig

  • ip a(ip addr): This command is used for looking at the IP configuration of the machine.

Command:

$ ip a 

Output:

  • ip link: This command assists users in viewing and modifying network interfaces.

Command :

$ip link

Output :

3. iwconfig: This command functions similarly to ifconfig but is solely dedicated to wireless interfaces and is used to configure parameters for network interfaces that work specifically for wireless operations.

Command :

$ iwconfig 

Output :

Replacement Command for iwconfig

iw: This is a newer command which performs the same operations executed by iwconfig.

Command:

$ iw 

Output:

4. nameif: This command is used for renaming interfaces based on mac addresses when no arguments given, /etc/mactab is read.

Command:

$ nameif 

Output:

Replaced Command for nameif

ip link: This Command has replaced the version of nameif which is used to display and modify network interfaces.

Command:

$ ip link  

Output:

5. netstat: This Command is used for printing out the Linux networking subsystem. By default, it prints out the list of open sockets.

Command :

$ netstat 

Output:

Replaced Command for netstat

ss: This command is used to dump socket statistics, it allows showing information similar to netstat command.

Command:

$ ss 

Output: 

6. route: The main job of this command is to match packets based on routing table entries. This filter centers around the possibility of assigning a realm around routing table entries.  

Command:

$ route 

Output:

Replaced Command for route

ip r: This command is a replaced version of the route command which shows table routes.

Command :

$ ip r 

Output:

7. iptunnel: This command is used for the creation of configured tunnels for transmission of IPV6 or IPV4 packets (both sending and receiving), which are encapsulated in the form of a payload for an IPV4 diagram. 

Command:

$ iptunnel 

Output:

Replaced Command for iptunnel 

ip tunnel: This command is the replaced version of the iptunnel command, which performs the same operations i.e configuring tunnels to allow seamless transportation of IPV6 or IPV4 packets. 

Command : 

$ip tunnel add  

Output:


Last Updated : 09 May, 2022
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