ip / iproute obeleted? Secondary IPs vs. IP Aliases

[Jonathan Wilson <jw@mailsw.com>]

I'm trying to install some software that is able to add secondary IP addresses 
to the computer.

I've alway used to useing ip aliases, with ifconfig, for example.: eth0:1

The docs I'm reading recommend using "secondary ips" instead of aliases. It 
says that IP Aliases are deprecated in favor of "secondary ips", for example: 
ip addr add <ip>/<netmask> broadcast <broadcast> dev eth0

My base minimal net install of Etch for not have the "ip" binary at all. A 
search in Debian packages shows that it belongs to "iproute".

iproute is (obviously) not a default package, and it's last changelog was in 
2006.

Is iproute considered obsolete now, also? 
Or is it just that so few people use it it's not part of the base system?

Are secondary IPs using "ip add add . . ." still the way to go or is there 
some other way to add multiple IPs to 1 NIC device now?

Thanks,

	JW


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System Administrator - Cedar Creek Software
http://www.cedarcreeksoftware.com