-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:

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:

-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 command.

If omitted, default is common. The option is mandatory when --terse is used. In this case, generic values all and common cannot be used. This is to maintain compatibility when new fields are added in the future.

-e | --escape { yes | no }

Whether to escape : and \ characters in terse tabular mode. The escape character is \.

If omitted, default is yes.

-a | --ask

When using this option nmcli will stop and ask for any missing required arguments, so do not use this 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.

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 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:

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.

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:

It is possible to filter the output using the global --fields option. Use the following values:

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:

setting_name.property_name:the password

802-11-wireless-security.psk:secret12345

802-1x.password:my 1X password

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 } ...

Create a new connection using specified properties.

You need to describe the newly created connections with the property and value pairs. See nm-settings(5) for the complete reference. You can also use the aliases described in Property Aliases section. The syntax is the same as of the nmcli connection modify command.

To construct a meaningful connection you at the very least need to set the connection.type property (or use the type alias) to one of known NetworkManager connection types:

The most typical uses are described in the Examples section.

Aside from the properties and values two special options are accepted:

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:

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.

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.

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.

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:

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:

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.

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.

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.

nmcli -p connection show "My default em1"

shows details for "My default em1" connection profile.

nmcli --show-secrets connection show "My Home WiFi"

shows details for "My Home WiFi" connection profile with all passwords. Without --show-secrets option, secrets would not be displayed.

nmcli -f active connection show "My default em1"

shows details for "My default em1" active connection, like IP, DHCP information, etc.

nmcli -f profile con s "My wired connection"

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

non-interactively adds a connection that will use eth0 Ethernet interface and only have an IPv6 link-local address configured.

nmcli connection edit ethernet-em1-2

edits existing "ethernet-em1-2" connection in the interactive editor.

nmcli connection edit type ethernet con-name "yet another Ethernet connection"

adds a new Ethernet connection in the interactive editor.

nmcli con mod ethernet-2 connection.autoconnect no

modifies 'autoconnect' property in the 'connection' setting of 'ethernet-2' connection.

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.