Manipulates network routing tables.

ROUTE [-f] [-p] [command [destination] [MASK netmask] [gateway] [METRIC metric] [IF interface]

-f
Clears the routing tables of all gateway entries. If this is used in conjunction with one of the commands, the tables are cleared prior to running the command.

-p
When used with the ADD command, makes a route persistent across boots of the system. By default, routes are not preserved when the system is restarted. Ignored for all other commands, which always affect the appropriate persistent routes. This option is not supported in Windows 95.

command
One of these:
PRINT Prints a route
ADD Adds a route
DELETE Deletes a route
CHANGE Modifies an existing route

destination Specifies the host.

MASK
Specifies that the next parameter is the ‘netmask’ value.

netmask
Specifies a subnet mask value for this route entry.
If not specified, it defaults to 255.255.255.255.

gateway
Specifies gateway.

interface
the interface number for the specified route.

METRIC
specifies the metric, ie. cost for the destination.

All symbolic names used for destination are looked up in the network database file NETWORKS. The symbolic names for gateway are looked up in the host name database file HOSTS.

If the command is PRINT or DELETE. Destination or gateway can be a wildcard, (wildcard is specified as a star ‘*’), or the gateway argument may be omitted.

If Dest contains a * or ?, it is treated as a shell pattern, and only
matching destination routes are printed. The ‘*’ matches any string,
and ‘?’ matches any one char. Examples: 157.*.1, 157.*, 127.*, *224*.
Diagnostic Notes:
Invalid MASK generates an error, that is when (DEST & MASK) != DEST.
Example> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 155.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 IF 1
The route addition failed: The specified mask parameter is invalid.
(Destination & Mask) != Destination.

Examples:

> route PRINT
> route ADD 157.0.0.0 MASK 255.0.0.0 157.55.80.1 METRIC 3 IF 2
destination^ ^mask ^gateway metric^ ^
Interface^
If IF is not given, it tries to find the best interface for a given
gateway.
> route PRINT
> route PRINT 157* …. Only prints those matching 157*
> route CHANGE 157.0.0.0 MASK 255.0.0.0 157.55.80.5 METRIC 2 IF 2

CHANGE is used to modify gateway and/or metric only.
> route PRINT
> route DELETE 157.0.0.0
> route PRINT