Ipcalc actually does a lot more – it takes an IP address and netmask and provides the resulting broadcast, network, Cisco wildcard mask, and host range. You can also use it as a teaching tool to present subnetting results in an easy to understand binary values.

 

Some of the uses of ipcalc are:

  • Validate IP address
  • Show calculated broadcast address
  • Display hostname determined via DNS
  • Display network address or prefix

 

How to install ipcalc in Linux

 

To install ipcalc, simply run one of the commands below, based on the Linux distribution you are using.

$ sudo apt install ipcalc

  

The ipcalc package should be installed automatically under CentOS/RHEL/Fedora and it is part of the initscripts package, but if for some reason it is missing, you can install it by using:

# yum install initscripts     #RHEL/CentOS
# dnf install initscripts     #Fedora

 

How to Use ipcalc in Linux

Below you can see some examples of using ipcalc.

 

Get information about the network address:

# ipcalc 192.168.20.0

 

Sample Output

Address:   192.168.20.0         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
Netmask:   255.255.255.0 = 24   11111111.11111111.11111111. 00000000
Wildcard:  0.0.0.255            00000000.00000000.00000000. 11111111
=>
Network:   192.168.20.0/24      11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
HostMin:   192.168.20.1         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000001
HostMax:   192.168.20.254       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111110
Broadcast: 192.168.20.255       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111111
Hosts/Net: 254                   Class C, Private Internet

 

Calculate a subnet for 192.168.20.0/24.

# ipcalc 192.168.20.0/24

 

Sample Output

Address:   192.168.20.0         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
Netmask:   255.255.255.0 = 24   11111111.11111111.11111111. 00000000
Wildcard:  0.0.0.255            00000000.00000000.00000000. 11111111
=>
Network:   192.168.20.0/24      11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
HostMin:   192.168.20.1         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000001
HostMax:   192.168.20.254       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111110
Broadcast: 192.168.20.255       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111111
Hosts/Net: 254                   Class C, Private Internet

 

Calculate a single subnet with 10 hosts:

# ipcalc  192.168.20.0 -s 10

 

Sample Output

Address:   192.168.20.0         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
Netmask:   255.255.255.0 = 24   11111111.11111111.11111111. 00000000
Wildcard:  0.0.0.255            00000000.00000000.00000000. 11111111
=>
Network:   192.168.20.0/24      11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
HostMin:   192.168.20.1         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000001
HostMax:   192.168.20.254       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111110
Broadcast: 192.168.20.255       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111111
Hosts/Net: 254                   Class C, Private Internet

Calculate a single subnet with 10 hosts:
# ipcalc  192.168.20.0 -s 10

Sample Output
Address:   192.168.20.0         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
Netmask:   255.255.255.0 = 24   11111111.11111111.11111111. 00000000
Wildcard:  0.0.0.255            00000000.00000000.00000000. 11111111
=>
Network:   192.168.20.0/24      11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000000
HostMin:   192.168.20.1         11000000.10101000.00010100. 00000001
HostMax:   192.168.20.254       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111110
Broadcast: 192.168.20.255       11000000.10101000.00010100. 11111111
Hosts/Net: 254                   Class C, Private Internet

1. Requested size: 10 hosts
Netmask:   255.255.255.240 = 28 11111111.11111111.11111111.1111 0000
Network:   192.168.20.0/28      11000000.10101000.00010100.0000 0000
HostMin:   192.168.20.1         11000000.10101000.00010100.0000 0001
HostMax:   192.168.20.14        11000000.10101000.00010100.0000 1110
Broadcast: 192.168.20.15        11000000.10101000.00010100.0000 1111
Hosts/Net: 14                    Class C, Private Internet

Needed size:  16 addresses.
Used network: 192.168.20.0/28
Unused:
192.168.20.16/28
192.168.20.32/27
192.168.20.64/26
192.168.20.128/25

 

If you want to suppress the binary output, you can use the -b option as shown.

# ipcalc -b 192.168.20.100

 

Sample Output

Address:   192.168.20.100
Netmask:   255.255.255.0 = 24
Wildcard:  0.0.0.255
=>
Network:   192.168.20.0/24
HostMin:   192.168.20.1
HostMax:   192.168.20.254
Broadcast: 192.168.20.255
Hosts/Net: 254                   Class C, Private Internet

 

To find more about the ipcalc usage, you can use:

# ipcalc --help
# man ipcalc
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