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In Linux system networking, the arp command, which facilitates the Address Resolution Protocol, is a vital utility for linking IP addresses to their corresponding MAC addresses. For those in DevOps, adeptness in using the ARP command is indispensable for effective network diagnostics and upkeep.
What is arp Comamnd
To understand arp command, first we need to understand ARP protocol. ARP is a protocol used to find the hardware address, also known as the Media Access Control (MAC) address, associated with a given IP address within a local network segment. It’s a bridge between the physical and the logical, between a device’s MAC address and its IP address.
The arpcommand in Linux can be used to display and modify the ARP table, which contains a series of mappings between IP addresses and MAC addresses.
The history of arp command
The arp command’s lineage in Linux is linked to the inception of the Address Resolution Protocol in 1982, a key component for network communications in IPv4. This protocol connects IP addresses to MAC addresses and uses a cache to store these associations, which the arp command manipulates.
Originally part of Linux’s Net-tools package, arp has been largely replaced by the more modern ip neighbour command from the ip…
