 iproute-mac

A native Go implementation of Linux iproute2 (ip, bridge, ss) for macOS.

Linux-compatible command syntax backed by native macOS system calls — PF_ROUTE socket, ioctl, sysctl, CoreWLAN. No shelling out, no fake behavior.

Features

ip — network configuration

Command	Description
ip link show/set	Interfaces — flags, MTU, MAC, up/down, stats
ip addr show/add/del	IPv4 and IPv6 addresses
ip route show/add/del/get/replace	Routing table
ip neigh show/add/del/flush	ARP/NDP neighbor table
ip tunnel show	Tunnel interfaces — utun, gif, stf
ip maddr show	Multicast group memberships
ip monitor	Real-time network events (link, addr, route)
ip wifi show	Wi-Fi details — channel, RSSI, noise, tx-rate, security

bridge — bridge configuration

Command	Description
bridge link show	Bridge member ports with STP state
bridge fdb show	Forwarding database entries

ss — socket statistics

Command	Description
ss -t/-u/-x	TCP, UDP, Unix sockets
ss -l/-a	Listening / all sockets
ss -p	Show process info
ss -s	Summary statistics
ss -n	Numeric (don't resolve service names)

Output modes

• Linux-compatible text (default) — matches ip output format
• macOS native (--native) — ifconfig/netstat -nr style
• JSON (-j) — structured output for scripting
• Color (-c) — Linux iproute2 color palette
• Resolve (-r) — reverse DNS on IPs

Requirements

• macOS (darwin/arm64 or darwin/amd64)
• Go 1.24+
• Root privileges for mutating operations (link set, addr add/del, route add/del, neigh add/del/flush)
• Location Services for Wi-Fi SSID/BSSID (channel, RSSI, tx-rate work without it)

Install

From source

git clone https://github.com/rgcr/iproute-mac.git
cd iproute-mac
make build     # → bin/ip, bin/bridge, bin/ss
make install   # go install to $GOPATH/bin

Homebrew

brew install rgcr/formulae/iproute-mac

Usage

Commands follow Linux iproute2 syntax. Subcommands can be abbreviated: ip l = ip link, ip r = ip route, ip a = ip addr.

ip link show                       # list interfaces
ip -s link show en0                # with statistics
ip addr show dev en0               # addresses on en0
ip route show                      # routing table
ip route get 8.8.8.8              # lookup route
ip neigh show                      # ARP/NDP table
ip tunnel show                     # utun, gif, stf
ip maddr show dev en0              # multicast groups
ip monitor route                   # real-time route events
ip wifi show                       # Wi-Fi details

bridge link show                   # bridge member ports
bridge fdb show                    # forwarding database

ss -tl                             # TCP listening sockets
ss -u                              # UDP sockets
ss -p                              # with process info
ss -s                              # summary

Output formats

ip -j -p link show                 # pretty JSON
ip -c link show                    # colorized
ip --native route show             # macOS netstat -nr style
ip -r route get 127.0.0.1          # reverse DNS

Mutating operations (require sudo)

sudo ip link set en0 down
sudo ip addr add 10.0.0.1/24 dev en0
sudo ip route add 10.0.0.0/24 via 192.168.1.1 dev en0
sudo ip neigh add 10.0.0.1 lladdr aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff dev en0

Shell completions

# Completions are installed automatically via homebrew

ip completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/ip
ip completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_ip"
ip completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/ip.fish

Go Library

Use pkg/net as a Go library — the CLI is a thin wrapper around it.

import pkgnet "github.com/rgcr/iproute-mac/pkg/net"

client, _ := pkgnet.New()

// Interfaces
links, _ := client.LinkList()
link, _ := client.LinkGet("en0")

// Addresses
addrs, _ := client.AddrList(pkgnet.AddrFilterOptions{
    Interface: "en0",
    Family:    pkgnet.FamilyIPv4,
})

// Routes
routes, _ := client.RouteList(pkgnet.RouteFilterOptions{DefaultOnly: true})
route, _ := client.RouteGet(net.ParseIP("8.8.8.8"))

// Neighbors
neighs, _ := client.NeighList(pkgnet.NeighFilterOptions{Interface: "en0"})

// Sockets
sockets, _ := client.SocketList(pkgnet.SocketFilterOptions{
    TCP:       true,
    Listening: true,
})

// Bridge
ports, _ := client.BridgeLinkList("bridge0")
fdb, _ := client.BridgeFDBList("bridge0")

// Multicast
maddrs, _ := client.McastList("en0")

// Tunnels
tunnels, _ := client.TunnelList()

// Wi-Fi
wifi, _ := client.WiFiStatus("en0")

// Monitor (blocks until stopCh closed)
stopCh := make(chan struct{})
client.Monitor(pkgnet.MonitorAll, func(ev pkgnet.Event) {
    fmt.Println(ev.Message)
}, stopCh)

Linux Compatibility

Command	Status	Notes
ip link show/set	✅
ip addr show/add/del	✅
ip route show/add/del/get/replace	✅
ip neigh show/add/del/flush	✅
ip tunnel show	✅	utun, gif, stf
ip maddr show	✅
ip monitor	✅	link, addr, route
ip wifi show	✅	macOS extension
ip rule	⛔	macOS uses scoped routing (RTF_IFSCOPE)
ip netns	⛔	No network namespaces on macOS
ip xfrm/vrf/mptcp/l2tp	⛔	Not supported on macOS
ss -t/-u/-x/-l/-a/-p/-s/-n	✅
bridge link show	✅
bridge fdb show	✅

Contributing

We ❤️ contributions!

1. Fork the repo
2. Create your feature branch:

   git checkout -b my-new-feature

3. Commit your changes:

   git commit -m 'Add some feature'

4. Push the branch:

   git push origin my-new-feature

5. Open a Pull Request 🚀

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© Rogelio Cedillo – Licensed under the MIT License