On Linux, which command can be used to view the neighboring hardware address table (ARP cache)?

On Linux, which command can be used to view the neighboring hardware address table (ARP cache)?

• A. ip neighbour
• B. arp -a
• C. ifconfig
• D. ip addr

Answer: (A)

Viewing the ARP cache on Linux is done with the ip command's neighbor subcommand. The kernel keeps a neighbor table that maps IP addresses to MAC addresses for devices the host has recently communicated with. The modern, recommended way to inspect this table is ip neigh (also shown as ip neighbor on some systems). It lists each entry with the IP, the corresponding MAC (lladdr), the interface, and the entry state (such as REACHABLE or STALE). This approach is preferred because iproute2 consolidates networking tasks in one toolset and is kept up to date. The older arp -a option can show the ARP cache, but it relies on the legacy net-tools package, which is less commonly installed and not as actively maintained, while ifconfig or ip addr focus on interface configuration rather than the ARP cache.

Viewing the ARP cache on Linux is done with the ip command's neighbor subcommand. The kernel keeps a neighbor table that maps IP addresses to MAC addresses for devices the host has recently communicated with. The modern, recommended way to inspect this table is ip neigh (also shown as ip neighbor on some systems). It lists each entry with the IP, the corresponding MAC (lladdr), the interface, and the entry state (such as REACHABLE or STALE). This approach is preferred because iproute2 consolidates networking tasks in one toolset and is kept up to date. The older arp -a option can show the ARP cache, but it relies on the legacy net-tools package, which is less commonly installed and not as actively maintained, while ifconfig or ip addr focus on interface configuration rather than the ARP cache.