4 ms·

TIL: iproute2 has a color, a brief/human mode, and a one-line mode. I think I am going to be aliasing ip -color to ip from now on. $ ip -br -c a # ip -brief -c

by iod 8y ago

TIL: iproute2 has a color, a brief/human mode, and a one-line mode. I think I am going to be aliasing ip -color to ip from now on. $ ip -br -c a # ip -brief -color address lo UNKNOWN 127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128 eth0 DOWN wlan0 UP 192.0.2.1/24 2001:db8::1/64 fe80::1/64 $ ip -br -c l # ip -brief -color link lo UNKNOWN 00:00:00:00:00:00 <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> eth0 DOWN 00:12:34:56:78:9a <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> wlan0 UP 12:34:56:78:9a:bc <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP>

berti 8y ago
Thanks! Just aliased that in my .zshrc. The route object doesn't seem to do colouring sadly.
- amyjess 8y ago
  You may want to consider installing cope, which colorizes the output of a number of common commands, including 'ip route'.
agumonkey 8y ago
TLDRRTFM of the day
- majewsky 8y ago
  "read read"?
dak1 8y ago
This is a good reminder that defaults should be simple and human readable. Advanced options should be behind flags for power users, not the other way around.
- piotrkubisa 8y ago
  Indeed. I don't get it why `ip` has -brief which is not a default behavior and why -verbose flag does not exist. Also there could be a -no-color instead of -color flag.
  - digi_owl 8y ago
    Or simply detect when piped and leave the color out, as just about every sane cli tool does it.
    - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
      Spot on. A good pattern is to autodetect what to do by default and yet allow forcing on/off (e.g. --color and --no-color)
      - kchr 8y ago
        Agreed. It could be as simple as checking if there is a tty and whether or not we're inside a pipe.
- wyldfire 8y ago
  AFAICT these options are new(er) and making them the default would likely be a backwards-incompatible change. I can see how it would be an uphill battle to convince the maintainers to introduce what appears to be a breaking change. That said, a new alias that does trigger these new behaviors as defaults would be a sane compromise.
  - petre 8y ago
    Just update ip to emulate ifconfig and netstat when called as such, like busybox does. Or all of those MTAs that ship with a sendmail command.
linsomniac 8y ago
I'm one of those "grumpy old admins" they mention in the post, but I've switched to using ip for 5+ years now and have been happy. But, -brief -color is a new one on me, and I'm gonna add that to my toolbox.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
m3adow 8y ago
The "-brief" switch is not mentioned in the default manpage, at least on my Ubuntu 16.04 installation. Why? This should be mentioned prominently, as it's so useful.
- 8_hours_ago 8y ago
  "-brief" is also missing from the ip manpage on my 16.04 desktop, however it is listed in the output from "ip help". Looks like someone needs to update the man page...
zantana 8y ago
$ ip -br -c a # ip -brief -color address Option "-br" is unknown, try "ip -help". Friggin' RHEL I guess I'll have to check back in a couple of years.
apple4ever 8y ago
WHOA That's crazy helpful. I'm aliasing it as well. (FYI --color works too)

by iod 8y ago

berti 8y ago

Thanks! Just aliased that in my .zshrc. The route object doesn't seem to do colouring sadly.

amyjess 8y ago
You may want to consider installing cope, which colorizes the output of a number of common commands, including 'ip route'.

agumonkey 8y ago

TLDRRTFM of the day

majewsky 8y ago
"read read"?

dak1 8y ago

This is a good reminder that defaults should be simple and human readable. Advanced options should be behind flags for power users, not the other way around.

piotrkubisa 8y ago
Indeed. I don't get it why `ip` has -brief which is not a default behavior and why -verbose flag does not exist. Also there could be a -no-color instead of -color flag.
- digi_owl 8y ago
  Or simply detect when piped and leave the color out, as just about every sane cli tool does it.
  - eeZah7Ux 8y ago
    Spot on. A good pattern is to autodetect what to do by default and yet allow forcing on/off (e.g. --color and --no-color)
    - kchr 8y ago
      Agreed. It could be as simple as checking if there is a tty and whether or not we're inside a pipe.
wyldfire 8y ago
AFAICT these options are new(er) and making them the default would likely be a backwards-incompatible change. I can see how it would be an uphill battle to convince the maintainers to introduce what appears to be a breaking change. That said, a new alias that does trigger these new behaviors as defaults would be a sane compromise.
- petre 8y ago
  Just update ip to emulate ifconfig and netstat when called as such, like busybox does. Or all of those MTAs that ship with a sendmail command.

linsomniac 8y ago

I'm one of those "grumpy old admins" they mention in the post, but I've switched to using ip for 5+ years now and have been happy. But, -brief -color is a new one on me, and I'm gonna add that to my toolbox.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

m3adow 8y ago

The "-brief" switch is not mentioned in the default manpage, at least on my Ubuntu 16.04 installation. Why? This should be mentioned prominently, as it's so useful.

8_hours_ago 8y ago
"-brief" is also missing from the ip manpage on my 16.04 desktop, however it is listed in the output from "ip help". Looks like someone needs to update the man page...

zantana 8y ago

$ ip -br -c a # ip -brief -color address Option "-br" is unknown, try "ip -help". Friggin' RHEL I guess I'll have to check back in a couple of years.

apple4ever 8y ago

WHOA That's crazy helpful. I'm aliasing it as well. (FYI --color works too)