How does iproute2 select the source IP address for an outgoing connection when there are multiple interfaces, and there is a routing policy with a "from" rule?
Here is what I understand to happen without policy based routing:
- An application initiates a connection to address A.B.C.D.
- The system looks at the routing table to find the route to A.B.C.D.
- When A.B.C.D is part of a connected network, the source address will be the address of the interface to that network.
- When there is a route to the destination, the source address will be the address of the interface identified by the route.
- When there is no specific route, the source address will be the address of the interface identified in the default route.
But what happens if I have a policy rule that specifies a specific routing table based on the source IP address (eg: ip rule add from M.N.O.P lookup mnop_table)?
There is no source IP address for a new connection. Thus the default routing table has to be used. Therefore,
- the source IP address will be from the interface specified in the default route of the default routing table.
- alas, the "from" rule has no impact on new connections.
Is this correct?
