Seven Linux commands ZDNET says are deprecated and what to use instead

ZDNET says seven common Linux commands have been deprecated and recommends using newer tools as replacements.

The outlet lists ifconfig (use ip) and route (use ip route) as victims of the deprecated net-tools package, and arp (use ip neighbor or ip neigh) as another net-tools replacement. It names netstat (use ss) as replaced by the iproute2 suite, and iwconfig (use iw) as superseded when the nl80211 kernel interface replaced the older Wireless Extensions. ZDNET also highlights scp as deprecated because of age and security issues, suggesting rsync (and noting SFTP is widely used), and says egrep/fgrep are redundant since grep gained their functionality.

ZDNET warns these deprecated commands may still be present on distributions but are no longer maintained, and advises checking for—and installing—the newer replacements rather than continuing to use the older tools.

Key Topics

Tech, Linux, Net-tools, Ifconfig, Scp, Grep