Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

ifconfig

Synopsis

ifconfig [options] [interface address_family address  parameters]

Assigns an address to a network interface and/or configure network interface parameters. ifconfig is typically used at boot time to define the network address of each interface on a machine. It may be used at a later time to redefine an interface’s address or other parameters. Without arguments, ifconfig displays the current configuration for a network interface. Used with a single interface argument, ifconfig displays that particular interface’s current configuration.

Display Options

-a

Display information about all configured interfaces. This is the default when no options and arguments are specified.

-d

Display information about interfaces that are down.

-L

Display address lifetime for IPv6 addresses.

-l

Display all configured interfaces names only.

-m

Display all supported media for specified interface.

-u

Display information about interfaces that are up.

Arguments

interface

String of the form name unit—for example, en0.

address

Hostname or address in “dotted-octet” notation—for example, 172.24.30.12.

address_family

Since an interface may receive transmissions in differing protocols, each of which may require separate naming schemes, you can specify the address_family to change the interpretation of the remaining parameters. You may specify inet (the default; for TCP/IP) or inet6.

dest_address

Specify the address of the correspondent on the other end of a point-to-point link.

The following ...