Coming in NetworkManager 1.2: nmcli improvements

New major version if NetworkManager, a service that manages your network connectivity is being released in coming months. This might be a good time to talk about the changes you can expect.

A simple client tool has been introduced with the release of NetworkManager version 0.8.1. Since then it has improved to the point it’s able to configure all functionality provided by the service. It can be used to control the daemon, manage the connections and create complex network configurations.

It’s accompanied by extensive documentation in nmcli(1) and nmcli-examples(1) manuals. Since the big overhaul in 0.9.10 release, we’re keeping the format of command line arguments compatible, guaranteeing your scripts that use it will keep working. Nevertheless, we’ve made some changes that make it easier to use.

Colors

A picture worth a thousand words:

NetworkManager 1.0
NetworkManager 1.0
NetworkManager 1.2
In NetworkManager 1.2 you can set properties at connection addition time

More flexible connection addition

You can now add connection properties atomically with addition. Also, the construction of master-slaver relationships is now more flexible with the addition of master option for any connection type. This allows for arbitrary configurations of software devices. Need a bridge over VLANs or bond bridges together? No problem any more!

NetworkManager 1.2
In NetworkManager 1.2 you can set properties at connection addition time

It’s in the details

Various other aspects of nmcli got their portion of improvements too. Did you know we how a very powerful bash command line completion rules for all nmcli sub-commands? It now got even better.

Disconnecting a connection? Only connections that are up are offered for completion.
Disconnecting a connection? Only connections that are up are offered for completion.

Overall, there’s over 90 changes piled up for the nmcli 1.2 in the repository already.

Stay tuned for the release later this year!

Published by

Lubomir Rintel

A free software enthusiast, Fedora contributor and a NetworkManager developer.

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