Static routes

Netifd supports static IP route declarations which are required to implement basic routing.

Static IPv4 routes can be defined on specific interfaces using route sections. As for aliases, multiple sections can be attached to an interface. The route sections are stored in the uci file /etc/config/network.

A minimal example looks like this:

config route 'route_example_1'
        option interface 'lan'
        option target '172.16.123.0'
        option netmask '255.255.255.0'
        option gateway '172.16.123.100'

• lan is the logical interface name of the parent interface
• 172.16.123.0 is the network address of the route
• 255.255.255.0 specifies the route netmask

Another example, creating a default route for table 100 with the gateway 10.72.197.110:

config route 'route_example_2'
        option interface 'vpn'
        option target '0.0.0.0/0'
        option table '100'
        option gateway '10.72.197.110'

• vpn is the logical interface name of the parent interface
• 0.0.0.0/0 is the subnet address all includes all IPs, because we use a subnet we don't need to use netmask
• 100 is the specific table number, if you want it to be shown as a name, add it to /etc/iproute2/rt_tables

This is a persistent equivalent to the runtime command:

ip route add default via 10.72.197.110 table 100

You can disable the route by renaming its config section from route to _route and it will be ignored by netifd, only needed for OpenWrt < 21.02:

config _route 'route_name'

IPv6 routes can be specified as well by defining one or more route6 sections.

A minimal example looks like this:

config route6
        option interface 'lan'
        option target '2001:0DB8:100:F00:BA3::1/64'
        option gateway '2001:0DB8:99::1'

• lan is the logical interface name of the parent interface
• 2001:0DB8:100:F00:BA3::1/64 is the routed IPv6 subnet in CIDR notation
• 2001:0DB8:99::1 specifies the IPv6 gateway for this route