ifupdown(n)                                           ifupdown(n)



NAME
       ifup - bring a network interface up

       ifdown - take a network interface down

SYNOPSIS
       ifup  [-sinv]  [--interfaces=file]  [--no-act] [--verbose]
       [-a|ifaces]

       ifdown [-sinv] [--interfaces=file] [--no-act]  [--verbose]
       [-a|ifaces]

DESCRIPTION
       The ifup and ifdown commands may be used to configure (or,
       respectively, deconfigure) network  interfaces,  based  on
       descriptions  of  the  interfaces  entered  into  the file
       /etc/network/interfaces.

OPTIONS
       These programs follow the usual GNU command  line  syntax,
       with  long options starting with two dashes (`-').  A sum-
       mary of options is included below.

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       -V, --version
              Show copyright and version information.

       -a, --all
              Affect all interfaces marked auto.

       -i file, --interfaces file
              Read interface definitions from a different file.

       -v, --verbose
              Show commands being executed.

       -n, --no-act
              Don't actually execute the commands  (this  doesn't
              disable mappings, however)

       --no-mappings
              Don't run any mappings.

       --force
              Force de/configuration of interface.

NOTES
       The  ifup and ifdown programs don't actually know anything
       about configuring interfaces themselves but instead invoke
       lower-level utilities such as ifconfig and route to do the
       actual dirtywork. The main advantages to  using  ifup  and
       ifdown   instead  of  calling  the  lower-level  utilities
       directy is the ability to keep all your interface specifi-
       cations  in  a  single  (easily parsable) file, and to not
       have to deal with the various idiosyncracies of the lower-
       level commands.

FILES
       /etc/network/interfaces
              Descriptions  of  all  the  network  interfaces the
              system has.

       /etc/network/ifstate
              Current state of network interfaces.

AUTHOR
       The ifupdown suite written by Anthony Towns <aj@azure.hum-
       bug.org.au>.

SEE ALSO
       interfaces(s), ifconfig(g),



                        February 13, 2000             ifupdown(n)