How to use the nmcli command: Linux Tip

Hi, this is Sandra Henry-Stocker, author of the “Unix as a Second Language” blog on NetworkWorld. In this Linux tip, we’re going to look at the nmcli command.
nmcli is a command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager and getting the status of network interfaces.
The name stands for Network Manager Command Line Interface.
The nmcli command can be used to query network connections and devices:
This output shows the system’s wifi connection and its bridge (used for local connections using hardware addresses) along with other connections – either not in use or not managed by NetworkManager.
Here’s another view of network connections that shows what type of connections are enabled.
The view below provides information on our active network connections along with the IDs assigned to the devices.
If you want to see a lot of details on your network devices, use the nmcli device show command. Looking at the top ten lines, you might see something like this:
This particular output tells us that the system is using a WiFi connection and shows us the assigned IP address along with the hardware (MAC) address and IP address.
If we instead see something like this when we run the command, we’ll know that the system’s connection is through its ethernet port (not a wifi connection):
The nmcli command is only one command for looking at network connections, but provides useful information in a fairly terse and useful format.
That’s your Linux tip for today.
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