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Getting back to managing our interfaces, another command worth discussion is 
ifconfig
.
The 
ifconfig
 command is part of the 
net-tools
 suite of utilities, which has been 
deprecated (for the most part). Its replacement is the 
iproute2
 suite of utilities, which 
includes the 
ip
 command we've already discussed. In summary, this basically means 
you should be using commands from the 
iproute2
 suite, instead of commands such 
as 
ifconfig
. The problem, though, is that most administrators nowadays still use 
ifconfig
, with no sign of it slowing down. In fact, the 
net-tools
 suite has been 
recommended for deprecation for years now, and just about every Linux distribution 
shipping today still has this suite installed by default. Those that don't have it 
installed offer it as an additional package that you can install. In the case of Ubuntu 
Server 20.04, the 
net-tools
 package is no longer installed by default, but it's still 
available if you want to manually install it. I don't recommend installing it though, 
since it's deprecated and shouldn't be used anymore.
The reason commands such as 
ifconfig
 have a tendency to stick around so long 
after they've been deprecated usually comes down to the 
change is hard
 mentality, but 
quite a few scripts and programs out there are still using 
ifconfig
, and therefore it's 
worth discussing here. Even if you immediately stop using 
ifconfig
, and move to 
ip
 from now on, you'll still encounter this command on your travels, so you may as 
well know a few examples. Knowing the older commands will also help you if you 
find yourself on an older server.
First, when executed by itself with no options, 
ifconfig
 will print information 
regarding your interfaces like we did with 
ip addr show
 earlier. That seems pretty 
simple.
If you are unable to use 
ifconfig
 to view interface information using a normal user, 
try using the fully qualified command (include the full path):
/usr/sbin/ifconfig

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