Recipe 2.18 Inserting Firewall Rules
2.18.1 Problem
Rather
than appending a rule to a chain, you want to insert or replace one
elsewhere in the chain.
2.18.2 Solution
Instead of the
-A option, use -I to insert or
-R to replace. You'll need to
know the numeric position, within the existing rules, of the new
rule. For instance, to insert a new rule in the fourth position in
the chain:
# iptables -I chain 4 ...specification...
# ipchains -I chain 4 ...specification...
To replace the second rule in a chain:
# iptables -R chain 2 ...specification...
# ipchains -R chain 2 ...specification...
2.18.3 Discussion
When you insert a rule at position N in a chain, the old rule N
becomes rule N+1, rule N+1 becomes rule N+2, and so on. To see the
rules in a chain in order, so you can determine the right numeric
offset, list the chain with -L. [Recipe 2.16]
2.18.4 See Also
iptables(8), ipchains(8).