iproute2 (ss)
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Summary
iproute2 (ss) is an open-source command-line utility, part of the iproute2 suite, that dumps socket statistics on Linux systems, showing established and listening TCPTCPA network protocol that delivers a reliable, ordered stream of bytes between two endpoints. It detects lost data and retransmits it., UDPUDPA network protocol that sends individual messages without guaranteeing delivery or order. Applications trade built-in reliability for less overhead and can add their own recovery., and UNIX sockets along with state, timer, memory, and process detail. It is free to use. You run it directly from a terminal with filter expressions and flags controlling which sockets and fields appear, rather than through a GUIGUIA graphical user interface, controls such as windows, buttons and menus. It lets people use software visually rather than entering commands. or daemon. It's aimed at Linux system administrators and network engineers troubleshooting connections, rather than at security teams doing broader traffic analysis. Its own manual page describes it as displaying information similar to netstat, but with more TCP and state detail, positioning it as netstat's modern replacement. Our records show 62 releases tracked and a last release 68 days ago, indicating active, ongoing maintenance.
How iproute2 (ss) helps
What is actually using a network connection on this machine right now?
lists every established socket with its local and remote address and port, so a connection can be tied back to the process and user behind it
Which services are listening on this host and on what ports?
shows listening sockets separately from active connections, revealing what is open for others to connect to even before any traffic arrives
Is a stalled connection ever going to recover or is it stuck?
reports the retransmit, keepalive, timewait or zero-window timer attached to each socket along with how long until it fires and how many retransmissions have already happened
Which user or process owns this suspicious socket?
resolves the socket's owning user id and its inode number, so it can be traced back to the exact process holding it open
Is a service exhausting memory on its network buffers?
breaks down each socket's memory into received, sent, forward-allocated and backlog components, exposing which side of a connection is piling up unread or unsent data
Are these hostnames or ports actually reachable, or does something upstream disagree with the address book?
tries to resolve numeric addresses and ports back to names on request, letting a raw connection list be checked against what DNS or services think those endpoints should be
Languages
Release-note detail over time
See how much detail iproute2 (ss) puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.
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Releases
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