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I'm wondering what is the purpose of a routing table entry named 'link-local'.

root# route

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.178.0   *               255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth0
link-local      *               255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth0
default         fritz.box       0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0

when I print the routing table with -n I get:

root# route -n

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
192.168.178.0   0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U     1      0        0 eth0
169.254.0.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.0.0     U     1000   0        0 eth0
0.0.0.0         192.168.178.1   0.0.0.0         UG    0      0        0 eth0

So it seems that link-local refers to 169.254.0.0. What's the purpose of it? I have never configured such a route, and I cannot find an entry for that in my fritz.box router.

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up vote 3 down vote accepted

It's perfectly normal as I see it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-local%5Faddress

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Thanks a lot! I think it would be better to name it "zeroconf.local" or similar. – Vokuhila-Oliba Dec 18 '09 at 13:49
Glad to be of assistance. – joeqwerty Dec 18 '09 at 14:20
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