What command can be used to delete an existing IP address from an interface?

The command that effectively deletes an existing IP address from a network interface is "ip addr del". This command is part of the ip suite, which is used for managing networking in Linux. The "addr" option specifies that you are dealing with IP addresses, and "del" indicates that you want to delete the specified IP address from a given interface.

To use this command correctly, you typically specify the IP address you wish to remove along with the interface it is associated with, like so:

ip addr del <IP_ADDRESS> dev <INTERFACE>

This syntax clearly indicates the action being taken: to remove an address from a specific network device.

Using commands like "ip addr remove," while seemingly intuitive, is incorrect because the proper syntax for deleting an address does not include "remove" as a valid modifier in the ip command set. Similarly, options that mention "ip delete" or "ip remove" do not align with the established command structure used in the ip tool for deleting addresses, further reinforcing why "ip addr del" is the correct choice for this operation.