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.

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] [domain 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 NetworkManager.conf(5) for available level and domain values.

on, off

Enable enable or disable networking control by NetworkManager. All interfaces managed by NetworkManager are deactivated when networking is disabled.

connectivity [check]

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.

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.

See also nmcli connection monitor and nmcli device monitor to watch for changes in certain devices or connections.

Consider a machine which is usually connected to a DHCP-enabled network, but sometimes connected to a testing network which uses static IP addressing. Instead of manually reconfiguring eth0 each time the network is changed, the settings can be saved as two connections which both apply to eth0, one for DHCP (called default) and one with the static addressing details (called testing). When connected to the DHCP-enabled network the user would run nmcli con up default , and when connected to the static network the user would run nmcli con up testing.

show [--active] [--order [+-]category:...]

List in-memory and on-disk connection profiles, some of which may also be active if a device is using that connection profile. Without a parameter, all profiles are listed. When --active option is specified, only the active profiles are shown.

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:

ifname

interface that will be used for activation.

ap

BSSID of the AP which the command should connect to (for Wi-Fi connections).

passwd-file

some networks may require credentials during activation. You can give these credentials using this option. Each line of the file should contain one password in the form:

setting_name.property_name:the password

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.

add ifname ifname [con-name name] [autoconnect {yes | no}] [save {yes | no}] [master master] [slave-type type] [type type] [ARGUMENTS...] [ip4 addr] [gw4 addr] [ip6 addr] [gw6 addr] [-- [+|-]setting.property value ...]

Add a connection for NetworkManager. Arguments differ according to connection types, see below.

ifname

interface to bind the connection to. The connection will only be applicable to this interface name. A special value of * can be used for interface-independent connections. The ifname argument is mandatory for all connection types except bond, team, bridge and vlan. Note: use quotes around * to suppress shell expansion.

con-name

connection name (when not provided a default name is generated: <type>[-<ifname>][-<num>]).

autoconnect

whether the connection profile can be automatically activated (default: yes).

save

whether the connection should be persistent, i.e. NetworkManager should store it on disk (default: yes).

master

master interface name, or connection UUID or ID of master connection profile. The value can be prefixed with ifname/, uuid/ or id/ to disambiguate it.

slave-type

type of master connection. Only required when it can not be inferred (i.e. the master connection does not exist yet).

type

connection type; see below for allowed values. Note that types bond-slave, team-slave and bridge-slave create ethernet connection profiles. Their use is discouraged in favor of using a specific type with master option.

type ethernet [mac addr] [cloned-mac addr] [mtu mtu]

mac

MAC address of the device this connection is locked to.

cloned-mac

cloned MAC.

mtu

MTU.

type wifi ssid SSID [mac addr] [cloned-mac addr] [mode {infrastructure | ap | adhoc}] [mtu mtu]

ssid

SSID.

mac

MAC address of the device this connection is locked to.

cloned-mac

cloned MAC.

mode

Wi-Fi network mode. If blank, infrastructure is assumed.

mtu

MTU.

type wimax [mac addr] [nsp nsp]

mac

MAC address of the device this connection is locked to.

nsp

Network Service Provider name.

type pppoe username user [password passwd] [service name] [mtu mtu] [mac addr]

username

PPPoE username.

password

Password for the PPPoE username.

service

PPPoE service name (if required by concentrator).

mtu

MTU.

mac

MAC address of the device this connection is locked to.

type gsm [apn APN] [username user] [password passwd]

apn

APN - GSM Access Point Name.

user

user name.

password

password.

type cdma [username user] [password passwd]

user

user name.

password

password.

type infiniband [mac addr] [mtu mtu] [transport-mode {datagram | connected}] [parent device] [p-key key]

mac

MAC address of the device this connection is locked to (InfiniBand MAC is 20 bytes).

mtu

MTU.

transport-mode

InfiniBand transport mode.

parent

the interface name of the parent device (if any).

p-key

the InfiniBand P_Key (16-bit unsigned integer).

type bluetooth [addr addr] [bt-type {panu | dun-gsm | dun-cdma}]

addr

Bluetooth device address (MAC).

bt-type

Bluetooth connection type.

type vlan dev device id id [flags flags] [ingress mapping] [egress mapping] [mtu mtu]

dev

parent device this VLAN is on.

id

VLAN ID in range 0-4095.

flags

flags.

ingress

VLAN ingress priority mapping.

egress

VLAN egress priority mapping.

mtu

MTU.

type bond [mode {active-backup | balance-xor | broadcast | 802.3ad | balance-tlb | balance-alb | num}] [primary ifname] [miimon num] [downdelay num] [updelay num] [arp-interval num] [arp-ip-target num]

mode

bonding mode (default: balance-rr).

primary

primary interface name (for active-backup mode).

miimon

miimon (default: 100).

downdelay

downdelay (default: 0).

updelay

updelay (default: 0).

arp-interval

ARP interval (default: 0).

arp-ip-target

ARP IP target.

type bond-slave [master master]

master

master bond interface name, or connection UUID or ID of bond master connection profile. The value can be prefixed with ifname/, uuid/ or id/ to disambiguate it.

type team [config {file | JSON}]

config

JSON configuration for team.

type team-slave [config JSON]

master

master team interface name, or connection UUID or ID of team master connection profile. The value can be prefixed with ifname/, uuid/ or id/to disambiguate it.

config

JSON configuration for team.

type bridge [stp {yes | no}] [priority num] [forward-delay 2-30] [hello-time 1-10] [max-age 6-42] [ageing-time 0-1000000] [multicast-snooping {yes | no}] [mac addr]

stp

controls whether Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is enabled for this bridge (default: yes).

priority

sets STP priority (default: 128).

forward-delay

STP forwarding delay, in seconds (default: 15).

hello-time

STP hello time, in seconds (default: 2).

max-age

STP maximum message age, in seconds (default: 20).

ageing-time

the Ethernet MAC address aging time, in seconds (default: 300).

multicast-snooping

controls whether IGMP snooping is enabled (default: yes).

mac

MAC address of the bridge (note: this requires a recent kernel feature, originally introduced in 3.15 upstream kernel).

type bridge-slave [master master] [priority num] [path-cost 1-65535] [hairpin {yes | no}]

master

master bridge interface name, or connection UUID or ID of bridge master connection profile. The value can be prefixed with ifname/, uuid/ or id/ to disambiguate it.

priority

STP priority of this slave (default: 32).

path-cost

STP port cost for destinations via this slave (default: 100).

hairpin

'hairpin mode' for the slave, which allows frames to be sent back out through the slave the frame was received on (default: yes).

type vpn [type type] [user username]

vpn-type

VPN type.

user

VPN username.

type olpc-mesh ssid SSID [channel 1-13] [dhcp-anycast MAC]

ssid

SSID.

channel

channel to use for the network.

dhcp-anycast

anycast DHCP MAC address used when requesting an IP address via DHCP.

type adsl username username protocol {pppoa | pppoe | ipoatm} [password passwd] [encapsulation {vcmux | llc}]

username

ADSL user name.

protocol

ADSL protocol.

password

ADSL password.

encapsulation

ADSL encapsulation.

type tun mode {tun | tap} [owner UID] [group GID] [pi {yes | no}] [vnet-hdr {yes | no}] [multi-queue {yes | no}]

mode

Mode for the device.

owner

UID of the owner.

group

GID of the group.

pi

include packet information (~IFF_NO_PI flag).

vnet-hdr

send and receive large (i.e. GSO) packets and packets with partial checksums (IFF_VNET_HDR flag).

multi-queue

multi-queue support for tun/tap device (IFF_MULTI_QUEUE flag).

type ip-tunnel mode {ipip | gre | sit | isatap | vti | ip6ip6 | ipip6 | ip6gre | vti6 | tun} remote addr [local addr] [dev device]

mode

tunnel mode.

remote

IPv4 or IPv6 address of the remote tunnel endpoint.

local

IPv4 or IPv6 address of the local tunnel endpoint.

dev

device to use for tunnel endpoint communication.

type macvlan dev device mode {vepa | bridge | private | passthru | source} [tap {yes | no}]

dev

parent device this MACVLAN is on.

mode

MACVLAN mode, which specifies the communication mechanism between multiple MACVLANs on the same lower device.

tap

controls the device type. If set to 'yes' a MACVTAP will be created (default: no).

type vxlan id id remote addr [dev parent device (ifname or connection UUID)] [local addr] [source-port-min 0-65535] [source-port-max 0-65535] [destination-port 0-65535]

id

VXLAN Network Identifer to use.

remote

unicast destination IP address or multicast IP address to join.

dev

device to use for tunnel endpoint communication.

local

source IP address.

source-port-min

minimum UDP source port to communicate to the remote VXLAN tunnel endpoint.

source-port-max

maximum UDP source port to communicate to the remote VXLAN tunnel endpoint.

destination-port

UDP destination port to communicate to the remote VXLAN tunnel endpoint.

ip4, gw4

IPv4 addresses.

ip6, gw6

IPv6 addresses.

--

If a -- argument is encountered, the rest of command line is interpreted as property list in the same format as connection modify command accepts. This makes it possible to adjust the connection properties before it's added.

edit {[id | uuid | path] ID... | [type type] [con-name name] }

Edit an existing connection or add a new one, using an interactive editor.

The existing connection 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. Not providing an ID means that a new connection will be added.

The interactive editor will guide you through the connection editing and allow you to change connection parameters according to your needs by means of a simple menu-driven interface. The editor indicates what settings and properties can be modified and provides in-line help.

Available options:

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.

modify [--temporary] [id | uuid | path] ID [+|-]setting.property value...

Modify one or more properties in the connection profile.

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. See nm-settings(5) for setting and property names, their descriptions and default values. This command supports abbreviations for setting and property provided they are unique. Empty value ("") removes the property value (sets the property to the default value). The provided value overwrites the existing property value.

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. Of course, + and - only have a real effect for multi-value (container) properties like ipv4.dns, ipv4.addresses, bond.options, etc.

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. name is the name of the new cloned connection. The new connection will be the exact copy except the connection.id (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.

The imported connection profile will be saved as persistent unless --temporary option is specified, in which case the new profile won't exist after NetworkManager restart.

export [id | uuid | path] ID [file]

Export a connection.

Only VPN connections are supported at the moment. A proper VPN plugin has to be installed so that nmcli could export a connection. If no file is provided, the VPN configuration data will be printed to standard output.

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.

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.

Monitors all devices in case no interface is specified. The monitor terminates when all specified devices disappear. If you want to monitor device addition consider using the global monitor with nmcli monitor command.

wifi [list [ifname ifname] [bssid BSSID]]

List available Wi-Fi access points. The ifname and bssid options can be used to list APs for a particular interface or with a specific BSSID, respectively.

wifi connect (B)SSID [password password] [wep-key-type {key | phrase}] [ifname ifname] [bssid BSSID] [name name] [private {yes | no}] [hidden {yes | no}]

Connect to a Wi-Fi network specified by SSID or BSSID. The command creates a new connection and then 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.

password

password to use for the created hotspot. If not provided, nmcli will generate a password. The password is either WPA pre-shared key or WEP key.

Note that --show-secrets global option can be used to print the hotspot password. It is useful especially when the password was generated.

wifi rescan [ifname ifname] [ssid SSID...]

Request that NetworkManager immediately re-scan for available access points. NetworkManager scans Wi-Fi networks periodically, but in some cases it can be useful to start scanning manually (e.g. after resuming the computer). By using ssid, it is possible to scan for a specific SSID, which is useful for APs with 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

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.