NETWORKMANAGER.CON(5)

NAME
NetworkManager.conf - NetworkManager configuration file

SYNOPSIS

/etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/name.conf

DESCRIPTION

This is a configuration file for NetworkManager. It is used to set up various aspects of NetworkManager's behavior. The location of the file may be changed through use of the --config argument for NetworkManager.

If a default NetworkManager.conf is provided by your distribution's packages, you should not modify it, since your changes may get overwritten by package updates. Instead, you can add additional .conf files to the conf.d directory. These will be read in order, with later files overriding earlier ones.

FILE FORMAT

The configuration file format is so-called key file (sort of ini-style format). It consists of sections (groups) of key-value pairs. Lines beginning with a '#' and blank lines are considered comments. Sections are started by a header line containing the section enclosed in '[' and ']', and ended implicitly by the start of the next section or the end of the file. Each key-value pair must be contained in a section.

For keys that take a list of devices as their value, you can specify devices by their MAC addresses or interface names, or "*" to specify all devices. See the section called “Device List Format” below.

Minimal system settings configuration file looks like this:

    	[main]
    	plugins=keyfile

As an extension to the normal keyfile format, you can also append a value to a previously-set list-valued key by doing:

    	plugins+=another-plugin
    	plugins-=remove-me

MAIN SECTION

plugins
    Lists system settings plugin names separated by ','. These plugins are used to read and write system-wide connections. When multiple plugins are specified, the connections are read from all listed plugins. When writing connections, the plugins will be asked to save the connection in the order listed here; if the first plugin cannot write out that connection type (or can't write out any connections) the next plugin is tried, etc. If none of the plugins can save the connection, an error is returned to the user.

    If NetworkManager defines a distro-specific network-configuration plugin for your system, then that will normally be listed here. (See below for the available plugins.) Note that the keyfile plugin is always appended to the end of this list (if it doesn't already appear earlier in the list), so if there is no distro-specific plugin for your system then you can leave this key unset and NetworkManager will fall back to using keyfile.

monitor-connection-files
    Whether the configured settings plugin(s) should set up file monitors and immediately pick up changes made to connection files while NetworkManager is running. This is disabled by default; NetworkManager will only read the connection files at startup, and when explicitly requested via the ReloadConnections D-Bus call. If this key is set to 'true', then NetworkManager will reload connection files any time they changed.

auth-polkit
    Whether the system uses PolicyKit for authorization. If false, all requests will be allowed. If true, non-root requests are authorized using PolicyKit. The default value is true.

dhcp
    This key sets up what DHCP client NetworkManager will use. Allowed values are dhclient, dhcpcd, and internal. The dhclient and dhcpcd options require the indicated clients to be installed. The internal option uses a built-in DHCP client which is not currently as featureful as the external clients (and in particular, does not yet support DHCPv6).

    If this key is missing, available DHCP clients are looked for in this order: dhclient, dhcpcd, internal.

no-auto-default
    Specify devices for which NetworkManager shouldn't create default wired connection (Auto eth0). By default, NetworkManager creates a temporary wired connection for any Ethernet device that is managed and doesn't have a connection configured. List a device in this option to inhibit creating the default connection for the device. May have the special value * to apply to all devices.

    When the default wired connection is deleted or saved to a new persistent connection by a plugin, the device is added to a list in the file /var/run/NetworkManager/no-auto-default.state to prevent creating the default connection for that device again.

    See the section called “Device List Format” for the syntax how to specify a device.

    Example:

        no-auto-default=00:22:68:5c:5d:c4,00:1e:65:ff:aa:ee
        no-auto-default=eth0,eth1
        no-auto-default=*

ignore-carrier
    Specify devices for which NetworkManager will (partially) ignore the carrier state. Normally, for device types that support carrier-detect, such as Ethernet and InfiniBand, NetworkManager will only allow a connection to be activated on the device if carrier is present (ie, a cable is plugged in), and it will deactivate the device if carrier drops for more than a few seconds.

    Listing a device here will allow activating connections on that device even when it does not have carrier, provided that the connection uses only statically-configured IP addresses. Additionally, it will allow any active connection (whether static or dynamic) to remain active on the device when carrier is lost.

    Note that the "carrier" property of NMDevices and device D-Bus interfaces will still reflect the actual device state; it's just that NetworkManager will not make use of that information.

    See the section called “Device List Format” for the syntax how to specify a device.

assume-ipv6ll-only
    Specify devices for which NetworkManager will try to generate a connection based on initial configuration when the device only has an IPv6 link-local address.

    See the section called “Device List Format” for the syntax how to specify a device.

configure-and-quit
    When set to 'true', NetworkManager quits after performing initial network configuration but spawns small helpers to preserve DHCP leases and IPv6 addresses. This is useful in environments where network setup is more or less static or it is desirable to save process time but still handle some dynamic configurations. When this option is true, network configuration for WiFi, WWAN, Bluetooth, ADSL, and PPPoE interfaces cannot be preserved due to their use of external services, and these devices will be deconfigured when NetworkManager quits even though other interface's configuration may be preserved. Also, to preserve DHCP addresses the 'dhcp' option must be set to 'internal'. The default value of the 'configure-and-quit' option is 'false', meaning that NetworkManager will continue running after initial network configuration and continue responding to system and hardware events, D-Bus requests, and user commands.

dns
    Set the DNS (resolv.conf) processing mode.

    default: The default if the key is not specified. NetworkManager will update resolv.conf to reflect the nameservers provided by currently active connections.

    dnsmasq: NetworkManager will run dnsmasq as a local caching nameserver, using a "split DNS" configuration if you are connected to a VPN, and then update resolv.conf to point to the local nameserver.

    unbound: NetworkManager will talk to unbound and dnssec-triggerd, providing a "split DNS" configuration with DNSSEC support. The /etc/resolv.conf will be managed by dnssec-trigger daemon.

    none: NetworkManager will not modify resolv.conf.

debug
    Comma separated list of options to aid debugging. This value will be combined with the environment variable NM_DEBUG. Currently the following values are supported:

    RLIMIT_CORE: set ulimit -c unlimited to write out core dumps. Beware, that a core dump can contain sensitive information such as passwords or configuration settings.

    fatal-warnings: set g_log_set_always_fatal() to core dump on warning messages from glib. This is equivalent to the --g-fatal-warnings command line option.

KEYFILE SECTION

This section contains keyfile-plugin-specific options, and is normally only used when you are not using any other distro-specific plugin.

hostname
    Set a persistent hostname.

unmanaged-devices
    Set devices that should be ignored by NetworkManager.

    See the section called “Device List Format” for the syntax how to specify a device.

    Example:

        unmanaged-devices=interface-name:em4
        unmanaged-devices=mac:00:22:68:1c:59:b1;mac:00:1E:65:30:D1:C4;interface-name:eth2

IFUPDOWN SECTION

This section contains ifupdown-specific options and thus only has effect when using the ifupdown plugin.

managed
    If set to true, then interfaces listed in /etc/network/interfaces are managed by NetworkManager. If set to false, then any interface listed in /etc/network/interfaces will be ignored by NetworkManager. Remember that NetworkManager controls the default route, so because the interface is ignored, NetworkManager may assign the default route to some other interface.

    The default value is false.

LOGGING SECTION

This section controls NetworkManager's logging. Any settings here are overridden by the --log-level and --log-domains command-line options.

level
    The default logging verbosity level. One of ERR, WARN, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE. The ERR level logs only critical errors. WARN logs warnings that may reflect operation. INFO logs various informational messages that are useful for tracking state and operations. DEBUG enables verbose logging for debugging purposes. TRACE enables even more verbose logging then DEBUG level. Subsequent levels also log all messages from earlier levels; thus setting the log level to INFO also logs error and warning messages.

domains
    The following log domains are available: PLATFORM, RFKILL, ETHER, WIFI, BT, MB, DHCP4, DHCP6, PPP, WIFI_SCAN, IP4, IP6, AUTOIP4, DNS, VPN, SHARING, SUPPLICANT, AGENTS, SETTINGS, SUSPEND, CORE, DEVICE, OLPC, WIMAX, INFINIBAND, FIREWALL, ADSL, BOND, VLAN, BRIDGE, DBUS_PROPS, TEAM, CONCHECK, DCB, DISPATCH.

    In addition, these special domains can be used: NONE, ALL, DEFAULT, DHCP, IP.

    You can specify per-domain log level overrides by adding a colon and a log level to any domain. E.g., "WIFI:DEBUG".

    Domain descriptions:
        PLATFORM : OS (platform) operations
        RFKILL : RFKill subsystem operations
        ETHER : Ethernet device operations
        WIFI : Wi-Fi device operations
        BT : Bluetooth operations
        MB : Mobile broadband operations
        DHCP4 : DHCP for IPv4
        DHCP6 : DHCP for IPv6
        PPP : Point-to-point protocol operations
        WIFI_SCAN : Wi-Fi scanning operations
        IP4 : IPv4-related operations
        IP6 : IPv6-related operations
        AUTOIP4 : AutoIP (avahi) operations
        DNS : Domain Name System related operations
        VPN : Virtual Private Network connections and operations
        SHARING : Connection sharing
        SUPPLICANT : WPA supplicant related operations
        AGENTS : Secret agents operations and communication
        SETTINGS : Settings/config service operations
        SUSPEND : Suspend/resume
        CORE : Core daemon and policy operations
        DEVICE : Activation and general interface operations
        OLPC : OLPC Mesh device operations
        WIMAX : WiMAX device operations
        INFINIBAND : InfiniBand device operations
        FIREWALL : FirewallD related operations
        ADSL : ADSL device operations
        BOND : Bonding operations
        VLAN : VLAN operations
        BRIDGE : Bridging operations
        DBUS_PROPS : D-Bus property changes
        TEAM : Teaming operations
        CONCHECK : Connectivity check
        DCB : Data Center Bridging (DCB) operations
        DISPATCH : Dispatcher scripts

        NONE : when given by itself logging is disabled
        ALL : all log domains
        DEFAULT : default log domains
        DHCP : shortcut for "DHCP4,DHCP6"
        IP : shortcut for "IP4,IP6"

        HW : deprecated alias for "PLATFORM"

CONNECTION SECTION

This section allows to specify default values for connections. Not all properties can be overwritten, only a selected list below. You can have multiple connection sections, by having different sections with a name that all start with "connection".

Example:

    [connection]
    ipv6.ip6-privacy=0
    connection.autoconnect-slaves=1
    [connection-wifi-wlan0]
    match-device=interface-name:wlan0
    ipv4.route-metric=50
    [connection-wifi-other]
    match-device=type:wifi
    ipv4.route-metric=55
    ipv6.ip6-privacy=1

The sections within one file are considered in order of appearance, with the exception that the [connection] section is always considered last. In the example above, this order is [connection-wifi-wlan0], [connection-wlan-other], and [connection]. When checking for a default configuration value, the section are searched until the requested value is found. In the example above, "ipv4.route-metric" for wlan0 interface is set to 50, and for all other Wi-Fi typed interfaces to 55. Also, Wi-Fi devices would have IPv6 private addresses enabled by default, but other devices would have it disabled. Note that also "wlan0" gets "ipv6.ip6-privacy=1", because although the section "[connection-wifi-wlan0]" matches the device, it does not contain that property and the search continues.

When having different sections in multiple files, sections from files that are read later have higher priority. So within one file the priority of the sections is top-to-bottom. Across multiple files later definitions take precedence.

match-device
    An optional device spec that restricts when the section applies. See the section called “Device List Format” for the possible values.

stop-match
    An optional boolean value which defaults to no. If the section matches (based on match-device), further sections will not be considered even if the property in question is not present. In the example above, if [connection-wifi-wlan0] would have stop-match set to yes, its ipv6.ip6-privacy value would be unspecified.

The following properties are supported to have their default values configured:

ipv4.route-metric

ipv6.ip6-privacy
    If ipv6.ip6-privacy is unset, use the content of "/proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/default/use_tempaddr" as last fallback.

ipv6.route-metric

connection.autoconnect-slaves

ethernet.wake-on-lan

CONNECTIVITY SECTION

This section controls NetworkManager's optional connectivity checking functionality. This allows NetworkManager to detect whether or not the system can actually access the internet or whether it is behind a captive portal.

uri
    The URI of a web page to periodically request when connectivity is being checked. This page should return the header "X-NetworkManager-Status" with a value of "online". Alternatively, it's body content should be set to "NetworkManager is online". The body content check can be controlled by the response option. If this option is blank or missing, connectivity checking is disabled.

interval
    Specified in seconds; controls how often connectivity is checked when a network connection exists. If set to 0 connectivity checking is disabled. If missing, the default is 300 seconds.

response
    If set controls what body content NetworkManager checks for when requesting the URI for connectivity checking. If missing, defaults to "NetworkManager is online"

PLUGINS

keyfile
    The keyfile plugin is the generic plugin that supports all the connection types and capabilities that NetworkManager has. It writes files out in an .ini-style format in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections.

    The stored connection file may contain passwords and private keys, so it will be made readable only to root, and the plugin will ignore files that are readable or writable by any user or group other than root.

    This plugin is always active, and will automatically be used to store any connections that aren't supported by any other active plugin.

ifcfg-rh
    This plugin is used on the Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions to read and write configuration from the standard /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* files. It currently supports reading Ethernet, Wi-Fi, InfiniBand, VLAN, Bond, Bridge, and Team connections.

ifcfg-suse
    This plugin is only provided for simple backward compatibility with SUSE and OpenSUSE configuration. Most setups should be using the keyfile plugin instead. The ifcfg-suse plugin supports reading Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections, but does not support saving any connection types.

ifupdown
    This plugin is used on the Debian and Ubuntu distributions, and reads Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections from /etc/network/interfaces.

    This plugin is read-only; any connections (of any type) added from within NetworkManager when you are using this plugin will be saved using the keyfile plugin instead.

ibft
    This plugin allows to read iBFT configuration (iSCSI Boot Firmware Table). The configuration is read using /sbin/iscsiadm. Users are expected to configure iBFT connections via the firmware interfaces.

APPENDIX

  Device List Format

The configuration options main.no-auto-default, main.ignore-carrier, and keyfile.unmanaged-devices select devices based on a list of matchings. Devices can be specified using the following format:

*
    Matches every device.

IFNAME
    Case sensitive match of interface name of the device. Globbing is not supported.

HWADDR
    Match the MAC address of the device. Globbing is not supported

interface-name:IFNAME, interface-name:~IFNAME
    Case sensitive match of interface name of the device. Simple globbing is supported with * and ?. Ranges and escaping is not supported.

interface-name:=IFNAME
    Case sensitive match of interface name of the device. Globbing is disabled and IFNAME is taken literally.

mac:HWADDR
    Match the MAC address of the device. Globbing is not supported

s390-subchannels:HWADDR
    Match the device based on the subchannel address. Globbing is not supported

type:TYPE
    Match the device type. Valid type names are as reported by "nmcli -f GENERAL.TYPE device show". Globbing is not supported.

except:SPEC
    Negative match of a device. SPEC must be explicitly qualified with a prefix such as interface-name:. A negative match has higher priority then the positive matches above.

SPEC[,;]SPEC
    Multiple specs can be concatenated with commas or semicolons. The order does not matter as matches are either positive (inclusive) or negative, with negative matches having higher priority.

    Backslash is supported to escape the separators ';' and ',', and to express special characters such as newline ('\n'), tabulator ('\t'), whitespace ('\s') and backslash ('\\'). The globbing of interface names cannot be escaped. Whitespace is taken literally so usually the specs will be concatenated without spaces.

Example:

    interface-name:em4
    mac:00:22:68:1c:59:b1;mac:00:1E:65:30:D1:C4;interface-name:eth2
    interface-name:vboxnet*,except:interface-name:vboxnet2
    *,except:mac:00:22:68:1c:59:b1

SEE ALSO

NetworkManager(8), nmcli(1), nmcli-examples(5), nm-online(1), nm-settings(5), nm-applet(1), nm-connection-editor(1)