This read-only object identifies the routing mechanism, such as local configuration or network management, through which a given route entry was learned. An admin uses this to distinguish statically configured routes from those learned dynamically via a routing protocol, and the fields in clnpRouteMetric1 through clnpRouteMetric5 only make sense once this protocol is known. For example, a route showing netmgmt(3) here tells the admin it was configured directly through network management rather than discovered automatically by a routing protocol.