Networking/CLI

Description

nmcli is a tool that allows NetworkManager management from command line.

NetworkManager status

Display overall status of NetworkManager

nmcli general status

Display active connections

nmcli connection show active

Display all configured connections

nmcli connection show configured

Connect/disconnect to an already configured connection

Connect to a configured connection by name

nmcli connection up id <connection name>

Disconnection by name

nmcli connection down id <connection name>

Wifi

Get Wifi status

nmcli radio wifi

Turn wifi on or off

nmcli radio wifi <on|off>

List available access points(AP) to connect to

nmcli device wifi list

Refresh previous list

nmcli device wifi rescan

Create a new connection to an open AP

nmcli device wifi connect <SSID|BSSID>

Create a new connection to a password protected AP

nmcli device wifi connect <SSID|BSSID> password <password>

Network interfaces

List available devices and their status

nmcli device status

Disconnect an interface

nmcli device disconnect iface <interface>

Create or modify a connection

To create a new connection using an interactive editor

nmcli connection edit con-name <name of new connection>

To edit an already existing connection using an interactive editor

nmcli connection edit <connection name>

Example/Tutorial

Let's create a new connection

nmcli connection edit con-name <name of new connection>

It will ask us to define a connection type

Valid connection types: 802-3-ethernet (ethernet), 802-11-wireless (wifi), wimax, gsm, cdma, infiniband, adsl, bluetooth, vpn, 802-11-olpc-mesh (olpc-mesh), vlan, bond, team, bridge, bond-slave, team-slave, bridge-slave
Enter connection type: 

In this example we will use ethernet

Enter connection type: ethernet

Next this will appear, note that "nmcli>" is a prompt and that it lists the main settings available

===| nmcli interactive connection editor |===

Adding a new '802-3-ethernet' connection

Type 'help' or '?' for available commands.
Type 'describe [<setting>.<prop>]' for detailed property description.

You may edit the following settings: connection, 802-3-ethernet (ethernet), 802-1x, ipv4, ipv6
nmcli> 

We will edit the setting "ipv4"

nmcli> goto ipv4

Note that after this our promt has changed to this to indicate that we are currently editing the "ipv4" setting

nmcli ipv4>

List available properties under the setting "ipv4" and describe the property "method"

nmcli ipv4> describe

Available properties: method, dns, dns-search, addresses, routes, ignore-auto-routes, ignore-auto-dns, dhcp-client-id, dhcp-send-hostname, dhcp-hostname, never-default, may-fail
Property name?

Property name? method

Let's set property "method" to "auto"

nmcli ipv4> set method auto

Now that we have finished editing the "ipv4" setting let's go back to the main level. Execute the following command until the prompt looks like this "nmcli>"

nmcli> back

If you need to list again the main settings use the "goto" command without any arguments. After that just press enter and ignore the error.

nmcli> goto

Available settings: connection, 802-3-ethernet (ethernet), 802-1x, ipv4, ipv6
Setting name?

It is possible to set a value for a property directly from the main level

nmcli> set <setting>.<property> <value>

For example

nmcli> set connection.autoconnect TRUE

nmcli> set connection.interface-name <interface name this connection is bound to>

nmcli> set ethernet.cloned-mac-address <Spoofed MAC address>

Finally check the connection details, save and exit

nmcli> print

nmcli> save

nmcli> quit

Manually editing

To manually edit a ifcfg connection configuration open or create with a text editor the configuration file of the connection located in "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<connection name>"

A description of most common configuration options is available at: http://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Deployment_Guide/s1-networkscripts-interfaces.html

To modify a connection password open with a text editor and edit the file "keys-<connection id>" located in "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/". The password is stored in plain text. For example

$ cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/keys-<connection name>
WPA_PSK='password'

Or if using keyfile, simply edit the connection file located inside "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/"

Finally save the files and to apply changes to an already active connection execute

nmcli connection up id <connection name>

For versions previous to NetworkManager 0.9.9.0

These versions lack some features described in this page and some of the commands may vary. If your current version is lower than 0.9.9.0 update NetworkManager. If you decide not to do so check the info pages for more information about your current version.

info nmcli

However as those previous version lack the support for interactive connection editing, this have to be done manually as explained above

Delete a connection configuration

In case that the connection is active

nmcli connection down id <connection name>

Delete the connection

nmcli connection delete id <connection name>

Documentation for NetworkManager Command Line Interface nmcli

The primary reference for nmcli are the manual pages nmcli(1) and nmcli-examples(5). For a quick reference, the user can type nmcli [help] to print the supported options and commands. The help parameter can also be used to obtain a more detailed description for the individual commands. For example nmcli connection help and nmcli connection add help show a description for the possible connection operations and for how to add connections, respectively.

The newest version of the manual page can be found on nmcli(1) and nmcli-examples(7).

Notes

nmcli maybe contain some bugs and lack some features graphical tools for NetworkManager have.

To see all available options for your version of nmcli

info nmcli