netdev - [BUG] ip-route(8) man page: incorrect "ip route delete" documentation

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20250613120711.GA237002@qaa.vinc17.org>
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2025 14:07:11 +0200
From: Vincent Lefevre <vincent@...c17.net>
To: netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [BUG] ip-route(8) man page: incorrect "ip route delete" documentation

Hi,

The documentation of "ip route delete" in the ip-route(8) man page is
incorrect. The man page says:

  ip route delete
    delete route
    ip  route  del  has the same arguments as ip route add, but their
    semantics are a bit different.

    Key values (to, tos, preference and table) select  the  route  to
    delete. If optional attributes are present, ip verifies that they
    coincide with the attributes of the route to delete.  If no route
    with the given key and attributes was found, ip route del fails.

But the behavior is unclear when several routes match the argument.
Above, the singular is used, so I assume that a single route will
be deleted (this is what I can observe). However, in such a case,
it should say "a route", not "the route", because the route is not
completely identified. Or better, say which route will be deleted
(it seems to be the first one in the list).

I'm also wondering whether the current behavior is actually the
expected one.

Note that the vpnc-script script of vpnc-scripts for VPNC and
OpenConnect assumes that "ip route del ..." will delete all the
matching routes:

  https://gitlab.com/openconnect/vpnc-scripts/-/issues/65

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@...c17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)