NMCLI(1) General Commands Manual NMCLI(1)
NAME
nmcli - command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager
SYNOPSIS
nmcli [OPTIONS...] {help | general | networking | radio | connection | device | agent | monitor} [COMMAND]
[ARGUMENTS...]
DESCRIPTION
nmcli is a command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager and reporting network status. It can be utilized
as a replacement for nm-applet or other graphical clients. nmcli is used to create, display, edit, delete,
activate, and deactivate network connections, as well as control and display network device status.
Typical uses include:
· Scripts: Utilize NetworkManager via nmcli instead of managing network connections manually. nmcli
supports a terse output format which is better suited for script processing. Note that NetworkManager can
also execute scripts, called "dispatcher scripts", in response to network events. See NetworkManager(8)
for details about these dispatcher scripts.
· Servers, headless machines, and terminals: nmcli can be used to control NetworkManager without a GUI,
including creating, editing, starting and stopping network connections and viewing network status.
OPTIONS
-t | --terse
Output is terse. This mode is designed and suitable for computer (script) processing.
-p | --pretty
Output is pretty. This causes nmcli to produce easily readable outputs for humans, i.e. values are
aligned, headers are printed, etc.
-m | --mode {tabular | multiline}
Switch between tabular and multiline output:
tabular
Output is a table where each line describes a single entry. Columns define particular properties of
the entry.
multiline
Each entry comprises multiple lines, each property on its own line. The values are prefixed with the
property name.
If omitted, default is tabular for most commands. For the commands producing more structured information,
that cannot be displayed on a single line, default is multiline. Currently, they are:
· nmcli connection show ID
· nmcli device show
-c | --colors {yes | no | auto}
This option controls color output (using terminal escape sequences). yes enables colors, no disables
them, auto only produces colors when standard output is directed to a terminal. The default value is auto.
-f | --fields {field1,field2... | all | common}
This option is used to specify what fields (column names) should be printed. Valid field names differ for
specific commands. List available fields by providing an invalid value to the --fields option. all is
used to print all valid field values of the command. common is used to print common field values of the
option for non-interactive purposes like scripts. This option controls, for example, whether you will be
prompted for a password if it is required for connecting to a network.
-s | --show-secrets
When using this option nmcli will display passwords and secrets that might be present in an output of an
operation. This option also influences echoing passwords typed by user as an input.
-w | --wait seconds
This option sets a timeout period for which nmcli will wait for NetworkManager to finish operations. It is
especially useful for commands that may take a longer time to complete, e.g. connection activation.
Specifying a value of 0 instructs nmcli not to wait but to exit immediately with a status of success. The
default value depends on the executed command.
--complete-args
Instead of conducting the desired action, nmcli will list possible completions for the last argument. This
is useful to implement argument completion in shell.
The exit status will indicate success or return a code 65 to indicate the last argument is a file name.
NetworkManager ships with command completion support for GNU Bash.
-v | --version
Show nmcli version.
-h | --help
Print help information.
GENERAL COMMANDS
nmcli general {status | hostname | permissions | logging} [ARGUMENTS...]
Use this command to show NetworkManager status and permissions. You can also get and change system hostname,
as well as NetworkManager logging level and domains.
status
Show overall status of NetworkManager. This is the default action, when no additional command is provided
for nmcli general.
hostname [hostname]
Get and change system hostname. With no arguments, this prints currently configured hostname. When you
pass a hostname, it will be handed over to NetworkManager to be set as a new system hostname.
Note that the term "system" hostname may also be referred to as "persistent" or "static" by other programs
or tools. The hostname is stored in /etc/hostname file in most distributions. For example,
systemd-hostnamed service uses the term "static" hostname and it only reads the /etc/hostname file when it
starts.
permissions
Show the permissions a caller has for various authenticated operations that NetworkManager provides, like
enable and disable networking, changing Wi-Fi and WWAN state, modifying connections, etc.
logging [level level] [domains domains...]
Get and change NetworkManager logging level and domains. Without any argument current logging level and
domains are shown. In order to change logging state, provide level and, or, domain parameters. See
Get network connectivity state. The optional check argument tells NetworkManager to re-check the
connectivity, else the most recent known connectivity state is displayed without re-checking.
Possible states are:
none
the host is not connected to any network.
portal
the host is behind a captive portal and cannot reach the full Internet.
limited
the host is connected to a network, but it has no access to the Internet.
full
the host is connected to a network and has full access to the Internet.
unknown
the connectivity status cannot be found out.
RADIO TRANSMISSION CONTROL COMMANDS
nmcli radio {all | wifi | wwan} [ARGUMENTS...]
Show radio switches status, or enable and disable the switches.
wifi [on | off]
Show or set status of Wi-Fi in NetworkManager. If no arguments are supplied, Wi-Fi status is printed; on
enables Wi-Fi; off disables Wi-Fi.
wwan [on | off]
Show or set status of WWAN (mobile broadband) in NetworkManager. If no arguments are supplied, mobile
broadband status is printed; on enables mobile broadband, off disables it.
all [on | off]
Show or set all previously mentioned radio switches at the same time.
ACTIVITY MONITOR
nmcli monitor
Observe NetworkManager activity. Watches for changes in connectivity state, devices or connection profiles.
See also nmcli connection monitor and nmcli device monitor to watch for changes in certain devices or
connections.
CONNECTION MANAGEMENT COMMANDS
nmcli connection {show | up | down | modify | add | edit | clone | delete | monitor | reload | load | import |
export} [ARGUMENTS...]
NetworkManager stores all network configuration as "connections", which are collections of data (Layer2
details, IP addressing, etc.) that describe how to create or connect to a network. A connection is "active"
when a device uses that connection's configuration to create or connect to a network. There may be multiple
connections that apply to a device, but only one of them can be active on that device at any given time. The
additional connections can be used to allow quick switching between different networks and configurations.
The --order option can be used to get custom ordering of connections. The connections can be ordered by
active status (active), name (name), type (type) or D-Bus path (path). If connections are equal according
to a sort order category, an additional category can be specified. The default sorting order is equivalent
to --order active:name:path. + or no prefix means sorting in ascending order (alphabetically or in
numbers), - means reverse (descending) order. The category names can be abbreviated (e.g. --order -a:na).
show [--active] [id | uuid | path | apath] ID...
Show details for specified connections. By default, both static configuration and active connection data
are displayed. When --active option is specified, only the active profiles are taken into account. Use
global --show-secrets option to display secrets associated with the profile.
id, uuid, path and apath keywords can be used if ID is ambiguous. Optional ID-specifying keywords are:
id
the ID denotes a connection name.
uuid
the ID denotes a connection UUID.
path
the ID denotes a D-Bus static connection path in the format of
/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/Settings/num or just num.
apath
the ID denotes a D-Bus active connection path in the format of
/org/freedesktop/NetworkManager/ActiveConnection/num or just num.
It is possible to filter the output using the global --fields option. Use the following values:
profile
only shows static profile configuration.
active
only shows active connection data (when the profile is active).
You can also specify particular fields. For static configuration, use setting and property names as
described in nm-settings(5) manual page. For active data use GENERAL, IP4, DHCP4, IP6, DHCP6, VPN.
When no command is given to the nmcli connection, the default action is nmcli connection show.
up [id | uuid | path] ID [ifname ifname] [ap BSSID] [passwd-file file]
Activate a connection. The connection is identified by its name, UUID or D-Bus path. If ID is ambiguous, a
keyword id, uuid or path can be used. When requiring a particular device to activate the connection on,
the ifname option with interface name should be given. If the ID is not given an ifname is required, and
NetworkManager will activate the best available connection for the given ifname. In case of a VPN
connection, the ifname option specifies the device of the base connection. The ap option specify what
particular AP should be used in case of a Wi-Fi connection.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 90 seconds.
See connection show above for the description of the ID-specifying keywords.
Available options are:
For example, for WPA Wi-Fi with PSK, the line would be
802-11-wireless-security.psk:secret12345
For 802.1X password, the line would be
802-1x.password:my 1X password
nmcli also accepts wifi-sec and wifi strings instead of 802-11-wireless-security. When NetworkManager
requires a password and it is not given, nmcli will ask for it when run with --ask. If --ask was not
passed, NetworkManager can ask another secret agent that may be running (typically a GUI secret agent,
such as nm-applet or gnome-shell).
down [id | uuid | path | apath] ID...
Deactivate a connection from a device without preventing the device from further auto-activation. Multiple
connections can be passed to the command.
Be aware that this command deactivates the specified active connection, but the device on which the
connection was active, is still ready to connect and will perform auto-activation by looking for a
suitable connection that has the 'autoconnect' flag set. This includes the just deactivated connection. So
if the connection is set to auto-connect, it will be automatically started on the disconnected device
again.
In most cases you may want to use device disconnect command instead.
The connection is identified by its name, UUID or D-Bus path. If ID is ambiguous, a keyword id, uuid, path
or apath can be used.
See connection show above for the description of the ID-specifying keywords.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 10 seconds.
modify [--temporary] [id | uuid | path] ID {option value | [+|-]setting.property value}...
Add, modify or remove properties in the connection profile.
To set the property just specify the property name followed by the value. An empty value ("") removes the
property value.
In addition to the properties, you can also use short names for some of the properties. Consult the
PROPERTY ALIASES section for details.
If you want to append an item to the existing value, use + prefix for the property name. If you want to
remove just one item from container-type property, use - prefix for the property name and specify a value
or an zero-based index of the item to remove (or option name for properties with named options) as value.
The + and - modifies only have a real effect for multi-value (container) properties like ipv4.dns,
ipv4.addresses, bond.options, etc.
See nm-settings(5) for complete reference of setting and property names, their descriptions and default
values. The setting and property can be abbreviated provided they are unique.
The connection is identified by its name, UUID or D-Bus path. If ID is ambiguous, a keyword id, uuid or
path can be used.
add [save {yes | no}] {option value | [+|-]setting.property value}...
· wimax
· pppoe
· gsm
· cdma
· infiniband
· bluetooth
· vlan
· bond
· bond-slave
· team
· team-slave
· bridge
· bridge-slave
· vpn
· olpc-mesh
· adsl
· tun
· ip-tunnel
· macvlan
· vxlan
The most typical uses are described in the EXAMPLES section.
Aside from the properties and values two special options are accepted:
save
Controls whether the connection should be persistent, i.e. NetworkManager should store it on disk
(default: yes).
--
If a single -- argument is encountered it is ignored. This is for compatibility with older versions on
nmcli.
edit {[id | uuid | path] ID | [type type] [con-name name] }
type
type of the new connection; valid types are the same as for connection add command.
con-name
name for the new connection. It can be changed later in the editor.
See also nm-settings(5) for all NetworkManager settings and property names, and their descriptions; and
nmcli-examples(7) for sample editor sessions.
clone [--temporary] [id | uuid | path] ID new_name
Clone a connection. The connection to be cloned is identified by its name, UUID or D-Bus path. If ID is
ambiguous, a keyword id, uuid or path can be used. See connection show above for the description of the
ID-specifying keywords. new_name is the name of the new cloned connection. The new connection will be the
exact copy except the connection.id (new_name) and connection.uuid (generated) properties.
The new connection profile will be saved as persistent unless --temporary option is specified, in which
case the new profile won't exist after NetworkManager restart.
delete [id | uuid | path] ID...
Delete a configured connection. The connection to be deleted is identified by its name, UUID or D-Bus
path. If ID is ambiguous, a keyword id, uuid or path can be used. See connection show above for the
description of the ID-specifying keywords.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 10 seconds.
monitor [id | uuid | path] ID...
Monitor connection profile activity. This command prints a line whenever the specified connection changes.
The connection to be monitored is identified by its name, UUID or D-Bus path. If ID is ambiguous, a
keyword id, uuid or path can be used. See connection show above for the description of the ID-specifying
keywords.
Monitors all connection profiles in case none is specified. The command terminates when all monitored
connections disappear. If you want to monitor connection creation consider using the global monitor with
nmcli monitor command.
reload
Reload all connection files from disk. NetworkManager does not monitor changes to connection files by
default. So you need to use this command in order to tell NetworkManager to re-read the connection
profiles from disk when a change was made to them. However, the auto-loading feature can be enabled and
then NetworkManager will reload connection files any time they change (monitor-connection-files=true in
NetworkManager.conf(5)).
load filename...
Load/reload one or more connection files from disk. Use this after manually editing a connection file to
ensure that NetworkManager is aware of its latest state.
import [--temporary] type type file file
Import an external/foreign configuration as a NetworkManager connection profile. The type of the input
file is specified by type option.
Only VPN configurations are supported at the moment. The configuration is imported by NetworkManager VPN
plugins. type values are the same as for vpn-type option in nmcli connection add. VPN configurations are
imported by VPN plugins. Therefore the proper VPN plugin has to be installed so that nmcli could import
the data.
nmcli device {status | show | set | connect | reapply | modify | disconnect | delete | monitor | wifi | lldp}
[ARGUMENTS...]
Show and manage network interfaces.
status
Print status of devices.
This is the default action if no command is specified to nmcli device.
show [ifname]
Show detailed information about devices. Without an argument, all devices are examined. To get information
for a specific device, the interface name has to be provided.
set [ifname] ifname [autoconnect {yes | no}] [managed {yes | no}]
Set device properties.
connect ifname
Connect the device. NetworkManager will try to find a suitable connection that will be activated. It will
also consider connections that are not set to auto connect.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 90 seconds.
reapply ifname
Attempt to update device with changes to the currently active connection made since it was last applied.
modify ifname {option value | [+|-]setting.property value}...
Modify the settings currently active on the device.
This command lets you do temporary changes to a configuration active on a particular device. The changes
are not preserved in the connection profile.
See nm-settings(5) for the list of available properties. Please note that some properties can't be changed
on an already connected device.
You can also use the aliases described in PROPERTY ALIASES section. The syntax is the same as of the nmcli
connection modify command.
disconnect ifname...
Disconnect a device and prevent the device from automatically activating further connections without
user/manual intervention. Note that disconnecting software devices may mean that the devices will
disappear.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 10 seconds.
delete ifname...
Delete a device. The command removes the interface from the system. Note that this only works for software
devices like bonds, bridges, teams, etc. Hardware devices (like Ethernet) cannot be deleted by the
command.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 10 seconds.
monitor [ifname...]
Monitor device activity. This command prints a line whenever the specified devices change state.
activates it on a device. This is a command-line counterpart of clicking an SSID in a GUI client. The
command always creates a new connection and thus it is mainly useful for connecting to new Wi-Fi networks.
If a connection for the network already exists, it is better to bring up (activate) the existing
connection as follows: nmcli con up id name. Note that only open, WEP and WPA-PSK networks are supported
at the moment. It is also supposed that IP configuration is obtained via DHCP.
If --wait option is not specified, the default timeout will be 90 seconds.
Available options are:
password
password for secured networks (WEP or WPA).
wep-key-type
type of WEP secret, either key for ASCII/HEX key or phrase for passphrase.
ifname
interface that will be used for activation.
bssid
if specified, the created connection will be restricted just for the BSSID.
name
if specified, the connection will use the name (else NM creates a name itself).
private
if set to yes, the connection will only be visible to the user who created it. Otherwise the
connection is system-wide, which is the default.
hidden
set to yes when connecting for the first time to an AP not broadcasting its SSID. Otherwise the SSID
would not be found and the connection attempt would fail.
wifi hotspot [ifname ifname] [con-name name] [ssid SSID] [band {a | bg}] [channel channel] [password password]
Create a Wi-Fi hotspot. The command creates a hotspot connection profile according to Wi-Fi device
capabilities and activates it on the device. The hotspot is secured with WPA if device/driver supports
that, otherwise WEP is used. Use connection down or device disconnect to stop the hotspot.
Parameters of the hotspot can be influenced by the optional parameters:
ifname
what Wi-Fi device is used.
con-name
name of the created hotspot connection profile.
ssid
SSID of the hotspot.
band
Wi-Fi band to use.
channel
Wi-Fi channel to use.
hidden SSIDs. You can provide multiple ssid parameters in order to scan more SSIDs.
This command does not show the APs, use nmcli device wifi list for that.
lldp [list [ifname ifname]]
Display information about neighboring devices learned through the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).
The ifname option can be used to list neighbors only for a given interface. The protocol must be enabled
in the connection settings.
SECRET AGENT
nmcli agent {secret | polkit | all}
Run nmcli as a NetworkManager secret agent, or polkit agent.
secret
Register nmcli as a NetworkManager secret agent and listen for secret requests. You do usually not need
this command, because nmcli can handle secrets when connecting to networks. However, you may find the
command useful when you use another tool for activating connections and you do not have a secret agent
available (like nm-applet).
polkit
Register nmcli as a polkit agent for the user session and listen for authorization requests. You do not
usually need this command, because nmcli can handle polkit actions related to NetworkManager operations
(when run with --ask). However, you may find the command useful when you want to run a simple text based
polkit agent and you do not have an agent of a desktop environment. Note that running this command makes
nmcli handle all polkit requests, not only NetworkManager related ones, because only one polkit agent can
run for the session.
all
Runs nmcli as both NetworkManager secret and a polkit agent.
PROPERTY ALIASES
Apart from the property-value pairs, connection add, connection modify and device modify also accept short
forms of some properties. They exist for convenience and compatiblity with older versions of nmcli that could
not accept the raw properties.
The overview of the aliases is below. An actual connection type is used to disambiguate these options from the
options of the same name that are valid for multiple connection types (such as mtu).
Table 1. Options for all connections
┌────────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │ Note │
├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│type │ connection.type │ This option also accepts │
│ │ │ values of bond-slave, │
│ │ │ team-slave and bridge-slave. │
│ │ │ They create ethernet │
│ │ │ connection profiles. Their │
│ │ │ use is discouraged in favor │
│ │ │ of using a specific type with │
│ │ │ master option. │
├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│con-name │ connection.id │ When not provided a default │
│ │ │ name is generated: │
│ │ │ will be generated if not set. │
├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│master │ connection.master │ Value specified here will be │
│ │ │ canonicalized. It can be │
│ │ │ prefixed with ifname/, uuid/ │
│ │ │ or id/ to disambiguate it. │
├────────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│slave-type │ connection.slave-type │ │
└────────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘
Table 2. PPPoE options
┌─────────┬────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├─────────┼────────────────┤
│username │ pppoe.username │
├─────────┼────────────────┤
│password │ pppoe.password │
├─────────┼────────────────┤
│service │ pppoe.service │
└─────────┴────────────────┘
Table 3. Wired Ethernet options
┌───────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│mtu │ wired.mtu │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│mac │ wired.mac-address │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│cloned-mac │ wired.cloned-mac-address │
└───────────┴──────────────────────────┘
Table 4. Infiniband options
┌───────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│mtu │ infiniband.mtu │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│mac │ infiniband.mac-address │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│transport-mode │ infiniband.transport-mode │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│parent │ infiniband.parent │
├───────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│p-key │ infiniband.p-key │
└───────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
Table 5. Wi-Fi options
┌───────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│ssid │ wireless.ssid │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│mode │ wireless.mode │
│nsp │ wimax.network-name │
├──────┼────────────────────┤
│mac │ wimax.mac-address │
└──────┴────────────────────┘
Table 7. GSM options
┌─────────┬──────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├─────────┼──────────────┤
│apn │ gsm.apn │
├─────────┼──────────────┤
│user │ gsm.username │
├─────────┼──────────────┤
│password │ gsm.password │
└─────────┴──────────────┘
Table 8. CDMA options
┌─────────┬───────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│user │ cdma.username │
├─────────┼───────────────┤
│password │ cdma.password │
└─────────┴───────────────┘
Table 9. Bluetooth options
┌────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │ Note │
├────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│addr │ bluetooth.bdaddr │ │
├────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│bt-type │ bluetooth.type │ Apart from the usual dun and │
│ │ │ panu options, the values of │
│ │ │ dun-gsm and dun-cdma can be │
│ │ │ used for compatibility with │
│ │ │ older versions. They are │
│ │ │ equivalent to using dun and │
│ │ │ setting appropriate gsm.* or │
│ │ │ cdma.* properties. │
└────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
Table 10. VLAN options
┌────────┬───────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│dev │ vlan.parent │
├────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│id │ vlan.id │
├────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│flags │ vlan.flags │
├────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ingress │ vlan.ingress-priority-map │
├────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│egress │ vlan.egress-priority-map │
│downdelay │ │ │
├──────────────┤ bond.options │ │
│updelay │ │ │
├──────────────┤ │ │
│arp-interval │ │ │
├──────────────┤ │ │
│arp-ip-target │ │ │
├──────────────┤ │ │
│lacp-rate │ │ │
└──────────────┴──────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘
Table 12. Team options
┌───────┬─────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────┼─────────────┤
│config │ team.config │
└───────┴─────────────┘
Table 13. Team port options
┌───────┬──────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────┼──────────────────┤
│config │ team-port.config │
└───────┴──────────────────┘
Table 14. Bridge options
┌───────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│stp │ bridge.stp │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│priority │ bridge.priority │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│forward-delay │ bridge.forward-delay │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│hello-time │ bridge.hello-time │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│max-age │ bridge.max-age │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ageing-time │ bridge.ageing-time │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│multicast-snooping │ bridge.multicast-snooping │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│mac │ bridge.mac-address │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│priority │ bridge-port.priority │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│path-cost │ bridge-port.path-cost │
├───────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│hairpin │ bridge-port.hairpin-mode │
└───────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
Table 15. VPN options
┌─────────┬──────────────────┐
├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│channel │ olpc-mesh.channel │
├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────┤
│dhcp-anycast │ olpc-mesh.dhcp-anycast-address │
└─────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘
Table 17. ADSL options
┌──────────────┬────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│username │ adsl.username │
├──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│protocol │ adsl.protocol │
├──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│password │ adsl.password │
├──────────────┼────────────────────┤
│encapsulation │ adsl.encapsulation │
└──────────────┴────────────────────┘
Table 18. MACVLAN options
┌──────┬────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├──────┼────────────────┤
│dev │ macvlan.parent │
├──────┼────────────────┤
│mode │ macvlan.mode │
├──────┼────────────────┤
│tap │ macvlan.tap │
└──────┴────────────────┘
Table 19. VxLAN options
┌─────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│id │ vxlan.id │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│remote │ vxlan.remote │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│dev │ vxlan.parent │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│local │ vxlan.local │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│source-port-min │ vxlan.source-port-min │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│source-port-max │ vxlan.source-port-max │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│destination-port │ vxlan.destination-port │
└─────────────────┴────────────────────────┘
Table 20. Tun options
┌────────────┬─────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├────────────┼─────────────────┤
│mode │ tun.mode │
Table 21. IP tunneling options
┌───────┬──────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │
├───────┼──────────────────┤
│mode │ ip-tunnel.mode │
├───────┼──────────────────┤
│local │ ip-tunnel.local │
├───────┼──────────────────┤
│remote │ ip-tunnel.remote │
├───────┼──────────────────┤
│dev │ ip-tunnel.parent │
└───────┴──────────────────┘
Table 22. IPv4 options
┌──────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │ Note │
├──────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ip4 │ ipv4.addresses │ This option can be specified │
│ │ │ multiple times. It's │
│ │ │ equivalent of using │
│ │ │ +ipv4.addresses syntax. │
├──────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│gw4 │ ipv4.gateway │ │
└──────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
Table 23. IPv6 options
┌──────┬────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│Alias │ Property │ Note │
├──────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│ip6 │ ipv6.addresses │ This option can be specified │
│ │ │ multiple times. It's │
│ │ │ equivalent of using │
│ │ │ +ipv6.addresses syntax. │
├──────┼────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│gw6 │ ipv6.gateway │ │
└──────┴────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
nmcli's behavior is affected by the following environment variables.
LC_ALL
If set to a non-empty string value, it overrides the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_MESSAGES
Determines the locale to be used for internationalized messages.
LANG
Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null.
INTERNATIONALIZATION NOTES
Be aware that nmcli is localized and that is why the output depends on your environment. This is important to
realize especially when you parse the output.
1
Unknown or unspecified error.
2
Invalid user input, wrong nmcli invocation.
3
Timeout expired (see --wait option).
4
Connection activation failed.
5
Connection deactivation failed.
6
Disconnecting device failed.
7
Connection deletion failed.
8
NetworkManager is not running.
10
Connection, device, or access point does not exist.
65
When used with --complete-args option, a file name is expected to follow.
EXAMPLES
This section presents various examples of nmcli usage. If you want even more, please refer to nmcli-
examples(7) manual page.
nmcli -t -f RUNNING general
tells you whether NetworkManager is running or not.
nmcli -t -f STATE general
shows the overall status of NetworkManager.
nmcli radio wifi off
switches Wi-Fi off.
nmcli connection show
lists all connections NetworkManager has.
nmcli -p -m multiline -f all con show
shows all configured connections in multi-line mode.
nmcli connection show --active
lists all currently active connections.
nmcli -f name,autoconnect c s
shows all connection profile names and their auto-connect property.
shows static configuration details of the connection profile with "My wired connection" name.
nmcli -p con up "My wired connection" ifname eth0
activates the connection profile with name "My wired connection" on interface eth0. The -p option makes
nmcli show progress of the activation.
nmcli con up 6b028a27-6dc9-4411-9886-e9ad1dd43761 ap 00:3A:98:7C:42:D3
connects the Wi-Fi connection with UUID 6b028a27-6dc9-4411-9886-e9ad1dd43761 to the AP with BSSID
00:3A:98:7C:42:D3.
nmcli device status
shows the status for all devices.
nmcli dev disconnect em2
disconnects a connection on interface em2 and marks the device as unavailable for auto-connecting. As a
result, no connection will automatically be activated on the device until the device's 'autoconnect' is
set to TRUE or the user manually activates a connection.
nmcli -f GENERAL,WIFI-PROPERTIES dev show wlan0
shows details for wlan0 interface; only GENERAL and WIFI-PROPERTIES sections will be shown.
nmcli -f CONNECTIONS device show wlp3s0
shows all available connection profiles for your Wi-Fi interface wlp3s0.
nmcli dev wifi
lists available Wi-Fi access points known to NetworkManager.
nmcli dev wifi con "Cafe Hotspot 1" password caffeine name "My cafe"
creates a new connection named "My cafe" and then connects it to "Cafe Hotspot 1" SSID using password
"caffeine". This is mainly useful when connecting to "Cafe Hotspot 1" for the first time. Next time, it is
better to use nmcli con up id "My cafe" so that the existing connection profile can be used and no
additional is created.
nmcli -s dev wifi hotspot con-name QuickHotspot
creates a hotspot profile and connects it. Prints the hotspot password the user should use to connect to
the hotspot from other devices.
nmcli dev modify em1 ipv4.method shared
starts IPv4 connection sharing using em1 device. The sharing will be active until the device is
disconnected.
nmcli dev modify em1 ipv6.address 2001:db8::a:bad:c0de
temporarily adds an IP address to a device. The address will be removed when the same connection is
activated again.
nmcli connection add type ethernet autoconnect no ifname eth0
non-interactively adds an Ethernet connection tied to eth0 interface with automatic IP configuration
(DHCP), and disables the connection's autoconnect flag.
nmcli c a ifname Maxipes-fik type vlan dev eth0 id 55
non-interactively adds a VLAN connection with ID 55. The connection will use eth0 and the VLAN interface
will be named Maxipes-fik.
nmcli c a ifname eth0 type ethernet ipv4.method disabled ipv6.method link-local
nmcli con mod "Home Wi-Fi" wifi.mtu 1350
modifies 'mtu' property in the 'wifi' setting of 'Home Wi-Fi' connection.
nmcli con mod em1-1 ipv4.method manual ipv4.addr "192.168.1.23/24 192.168.1.1, 10.10.1.5/8, 10.0.0.11"
sets manual addressing and the addresses in em1-1 profile.
nmcli con modify ABC +ipv4.dns 8.8.8.8
appends a Google public DNS server to DNS servers in ABC profile.
nmcli con modify ABC -ipv4.addresses "192.168.100.25/24 192.168.1.1"
removes the specified IP address from (static) profile ABC.
nmcli con import type openvpn file ~/Downloads/frootvpn.ovpn
imports an OpenVPN configuration to NetworkManager.
nmcli con export corp-vpnc /home/joe/corpvpn.conf
exports NetworkManager VPN profile corp-vpnc as standard Cisco (vpnc) configuration.
NOTES
nmcli accepts abbreviations, as long as they are a unique prefix in the set of possible options. As new
options get added, these abbreviations are not guaranteed to stay unique. For scripting and long term
compatibility it is therefore strongly advised to spell out the full option names.
BUGS
There are probably some bugs. If you find a bug, please report it to https://bugzilla.gnome.org/ — product
NetworkManager.
SEE ALSO
nmcli-examples(7), nm-online(1), NetworkManager(8), NetworkManager.conf(5), nm-settings(5), nm-applet(1), nm-
connection-editor(1).
NetworkManager 1.4.0 NMCLI(1)
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