When I type ifconfig on my Mac terminal, several information is printed. But I can't understand what they are. Can anyone briefly tell me what they are? What are lo0, gif0, en0, and so on?
Here is the results of my terminal.
Last login: Wed Apr 29 21:22:21 on ttys000
gim-yeongdeog-ui-MacBook-Air:~ KimYoungDirk$ ifconfig
lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 64:76:ba:ae:a3:02
inet6 fe80::6676:baff:feae:a302%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
inet 172.30.7.47 netmask 0xffff0000 broadcast 172.30.255.255
nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
media: autoselect
status: active
en1: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
options=60<TSO4,TSO6>
ether 32:00:1b:3e:80:00
media: autoselect <full-duplex>
status: inactive
p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
ether 06:76:ba:ae:a3:02
media: autoselect
status: inactive
awdl0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1452
ether 0e:f1:59:ca:a5:30
inet6 fe80::cf1:59ff:feca:a530%awdl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x7
nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
media: autoselect
status: active
bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6>
ether 66:76:ba:ea:38:00
Configuration:
id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0
maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200
root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0
ipfilter disabled flags 0x2
member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER>
ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 0 path cost 0
nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
media: <unknown type>
status: inactive
gim-yeongdeog-ui-MacBook-Air:~ KimYoungDirk$
In arbitrary order of my familarity / widespread relevance:
lo0 is loopback.
en0 at one point "ethernet", now is WiFi (and I have no idea what extra en1 or en2 are used for).
fw0 is the FireWire network interface.
stf0 is an IPv6 to IPv4 tunnel interface to support the transition from IPv4 to the IPv6 standard.
gif0 is a more generic tunneling interface [46]-to-[46].
awdl0 is Apple Wireless Direct Link
p2p0 is related to AWDL features. Either as an old version, or virtual interface with different semantics than awdl.
Note also,
netstat -nr to see how traffic is currently routed via network devices according to destination.These are your network interfaces. Some are physical interfaces, and others are logical (virtual) interfaces.
en0..X refer to your physical network interfaces. Most new Mac devices will just have en0 - your WiFi. en0 is the first device to start, en1 the second, etc.
lo0 is the 'loopback' interface. Otherwise known as localhost, or 127.0.0.1. The others are virtual interfaces.
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