Kernel Routing Table - Interface specific routes

joetech20

I have a question on kernel routing table. It will be great if any of you can throw some light on this topic

In general, whenever an inteface is brought to 'up' state, an interface route comes up. for ex. If eth0 with Ip address 192.168.10.0 is brought up, the following route is created by default

"192.168.10.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0"

After this route is created, if i try to add the same route manually, with the following command, the same route gets added again.

"route add -net 192.168.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev eth0"

I do not see any difference in both of these routes when i verified with 'route -n' or 'netstat -r' or 'cat /proc/net/route'. How is this possible?

In general, at any point of time, you cannot have two same entries in the kernel routing table. Can any of the linux expert help me with this question??

Regards,

Joe

Set_Killer

with route you can and should add gateway.

joetech20

In the case of network specifc routes, gateway address will be 0.0.0.0. try route -n on any linux Box/PC and verify.

My question is how can there be two identical routes in the routing table at a point of time.

-Joe

Set_Killer

== newbiesh
0.0.0.0 is your IP of the interface. if your IP is 192.168.1.100, then 0.0.0.0 is equal to this. 0.0.0.0 is something like localhost, but uses the ethX interface and its IP.

this is my route -n

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.1.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     202    0        0 eth0
0.0.0.0         192.168.1.1     0.0.0.0         UG    202    0        0 eth0

as you see they are not identical. the first line is for incoming trafic and the second for the outgoing (or vice versa).

in my case to add gateway i should use:

route add -host 192.168.1.1

i hope you know the diffrence betwen -host and -net.
== end-newbiesh (LoL)

So maybe is wrong with the init script. but be sure that if you still have net then everythink is okey. it does not matter wich one of the 2 equal lines the kernel is using, becaouse they are pointing at same thing. the solution is to write a patch wich makes (unnesessery) checking for existance of the route before adding it.

so dont worry about it. i hope i've helped you in some or other way.

joetech20

The situation which you have explained is the difference between default route (route to 0.0.0.0 destination) and the interface specifc route (destination 192.168.1.0).
My question is different. Probably, i did not explain it clearly enough. Let me try to explain the situation with an example.

Consider the scenario where you have eth1 interface with IP address as 192.168.1.1. In such a case when the interface comes up (assuming that there is no other route configured) , the following is the entry in the kernel route table

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1

Now, if i try to add the same entry again into the kernel routing table using the following command, the entry gets added and route entry shows two similar entries
route add -net 192.168.1.0 dev eth1
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
192.168.1.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1

I understand that there will not be any problem because of this duplicate rule. But, Can someone clarify the following questions based on the scenario which i explained above?

1. Are these two entries (the entry which got added by default and the entry which i added manually) different by any means??
2. why should there be two similar routes in the kernel routing table?
3. Is there a patch available to solve this?
4. In general, there should not be identical entries in the kernel routing table. 5. Is this not applicable to all routing entries (be it host specific, default route or interface specific route)?

Regards
Joe