[389-devel] Route Metric

[Alexander Bahoor]

Greetings,


Route metric is a variable  that a router uses to choose the best route to a destination.
Depending on the routing protocol, the metric definition is different. What I'm trying
to understand is how Linux defines the metric in the route output command.

For example when a Fedora laptop has two active interfaces, Ethernet and wifi, the metric
in route output, is set to 1 for Ethernet and 2 for WiFi. Reading the man page on the
route command, it says the metric is defined as hop counts to a destination. Based on the
above observation,  this is incorrect or incomplete. It definitely include the hop count,
but how fedora came up with 1 and 2. Could it be just used these number arbitrarily to
indicate to IP, that the Ethernet interface is the preferred path  to use to send traffic,
because it's speed is faster and more reliable?

Basically what I'm looking for is the definition of the metric defintion in Linux or
Fedora. And if someone shed light on the windows definition that would be great.

Rgrds,

Alex