Which command shows the system's current routing table?

Which command shows the system's current routing table?

• A. ip route
• B. ip addr
• C. netstat -r
• D. route

Answer: (A)

To see how the system forwards packets, you inspect the routing table. On modern Linux systems, the command ip route (often written as ip route show) queries the kernel’s routing table and prints each route with its destination, next hop, and the interface to use. This uses the iproute2 toolset, which is the current standard for networking tasks and reliably reflects the actual routes the kernel will use. The other commands have different purposes or are outdated: ip addr shows interface IP addresses, not routes; netstat -r can display a routing table but relies on the older net-tools suite and may not be available or fully up-to-date on newer systems; route is an older command that has largely been superseded by ip route.

To see how the system forwards packets, you inspect the routing table. On modern Linux systems, the command ip route (often written as ip route show) queries the kernel’s routing table and prints each route with its destination, next hop, and the interface to use. This uses the iproute2 toolset, which is the current standard for networking tasks and reliably reflects the actual routes the kernel will use.

The other commands have different purposes or are outdated: ip addr shows interface IP addresses, not routes; netstat -r can display a routing table but relies on the older net-tools suite and may not be available or fully up-to-date on newer systems; route is an older command that has largely been superseded by ip route.