ip command is used to show / manipulate routing, devices, policy routing and tunnels. Below are simple usage of ip command to viewing basic details.

Q: To see your packet routes from your machine ?
A: Use command : ip route list

Below are few different kind of lines, that you will see as output

192.168.1.0/24 dev en0  scope link
192.168.1.1/32 dev en0  scope link
192.168.1.6/32 dev en0  scope link
192.168.2.0/24 dev wlan0  proto kernel  scope link  src 192.168.1.100
192.168.196.0/23 via 192.168.196.200 dev utun2
192.168.196.200/32 via 192.168.196.200 dev utun2
224.0.0.0/4 dev en0  scope link
255.255.255.255/32 dev en0  scope link

What does it mean:

• 192.168.1.0/24 dev en0 scope link: Any packet with ip address within range 192.168.1.0/24 with do via device en0. Scope means the area where this address is valid.

  Different scope values in route list

  Scope	Description
  global	valid everywhere
  site	valid only within this site (IPv6)
  link	valid only on this device
  host	valid only inside this host (machine)

• Similar is for 2 and 3rd line.

• 192.168.2.0/24 dev wlan0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.100: Any packet with ip range within 192.168.2.0/24, should go via device wlan0 with scope of link i.e. valid for this device only with 192.168.1.100 as the source IP address, which in this case is the IP address assigned to wlan0 via DHCP.

• 192.168.196.0/23 via 192.168.196.200 dev utun2: Any packet with ip range within 192.168.196.0/23 should do via device utun2 with source address as 192.168.196.200.

Q: How can we see all networking devices like en0, utun2, wlan0, eth0?
A: To see each interface: ip link show [ DEVICE ]. E.g ip link show utun2

Q: How can we see address for the networking device ?
A: Use command: Usage: ip addr show [ dev STRING ]. E.g. ip addr show dev utun2

To see all network interfaces: ip link show To view all network interfaces: ip addr show

Ref: http://linux-ip.net/html/tools-ip-address.html