ifup(8)
NAME
ifup - bring a network interface up
ifdown - take a network interface down
SYNOPSIS
ifup [-nv] [--no-act] [--verbose] [-i FILE|--interfaces=FILE] [--allow CLASS] -a|IFACE... ifup -h|--help ifup -V|--version ifdown [-nv] [--no-act] [--verbose] [-i FILE|--interfaces=FILE] [--allow CLASS] -a|IFACE...
DESCRIPTION
The ifup and ifdown commands may be used to configure (or, respectively, deconfigure) network interfaces based on interface definitions in the file /etc/network/interfaces.
OPTIONS
A summary of options is included below.
- -a, --all
- If given to ifup, affect all interfaces marked auto. Interfaces are brought up in the order in which they are defined in /etc/network/interfaces. If given to ifdown, affect all defined interfaces. Interfaces are brought down in the order in which they are currently listed in the state file. Only interfaces defined in /etc/network/interfaces will be brought down.
- --force
- Force configuration or deconfiguration of the interface.
- -h, --help
- Show summary of options.
- --allow=CLASS
- Only allow interfaces listed in an allow-CLASS line in /etc/network/interfaces to be acted upon.
- -i FILE, --interfaces=FILE
- Read interface definitions from FILE instead of from /etc/network/interfaces.
- -n, --no-act
- Don't configure any interfaces or run any "up" or "down" commands.
- --no-mappings
- Don't run any mappings. See interfaces(5) for more information about the mapping feature.
- -V, --version
- Show copyright and version information.
- -v, --verbose
- Show commands as they are executed.
EXAMPLES
- ifup -a
- Bring up all the interfaces defined with auto in /etc/network/interfaces
- ifup eth0
- Bring up interface eth0
- ifup eth0=home
- Bring up interface eth0 as logical interface home
- ifdown -a
- Bring down all interfaces that are currently up.
NOTES
ifup and ifdown are actually the same program called by different
names.
The program does not configure network interfaces directly; it runs low level utilities such as ifconfig and route to do its dirty work.
FILES
- /etc/network/interfaces
- definitions of network interfaces See interfaces(5) for more information.
- /etc/network/run/ifstate
- current state of network interfaces
KNOWN BUGS/LIMITATIONS
The program keeps records of whether network interfaces are up or down.
Under exceptional circumstances these records can become inconsistent
with the real states of the interfaces. For example, an interface that
was brought up using ifup and later deconfigured using ifconfig will
still be recorded as up. To fix this you can use the --force option to
force ifup or ifdown to run configuration or deconfiguration commands
despite what it considers the current state of the interface to be.
The file /etc/network/run/ifstate must be writable for ifup or ifdown
to work properly. If that location is not writable (for example,
because the root filesystem is mounted read-only for system recovery)
then /etc/network/run/ifstate should be made a symbolic link to a
writable location. If that is not possible then you can use the
--force option to run configuration or deconfiguration commands without
updating the file.
Note that the program does not run automatically: ifup alone does not
bring up interfaces that appear as a result of hardware being installed
and ifdown alone does not bring down interfaces that disappear as a
result of hardware being removed. To automate the configuration of
network interfaces you need to install other packages such as hotplug(8) or ifplugd(8).
AUTHOR
The ifupdown suite was written by Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au>.