systemd systemd-networkd.service 8 systemd-networkd.service systemd-networkd Network manager systemd-networkd.service /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd systemd-networkd is a system service that manages networks. It detects and configures network devices as they appear, as well as creating virtual network devices. Certain low-level settings of physical network devices (e.g. device names and altnames) as well as the creation of SR-IOV virtual functions on physical network interfaces may be managed by systemd-udevd8 according to the contents of systemd.link5 files. systemd-networkd will create "virtual" network devices (e.g. bridges and tunnels) based on the configuration in systemd.netdev5 files, respecting the [Match] sections in those files. systemd-networkd will manage network addresses and routes for any link for which it finds a .network file with an appropriate [Match] section, see systemd.network5. For those links, it will flush existing network addresses and routes when bringing up the device (except when directed not to). Any links not matched by one of the .network files will be ignored. It is also possible to explicitly tell systemd-networkd to ignore a link by using the Unmanaged=yes option, see systemd.network5. When systemd-networkd exits, it generally leaves existing network devices and configuration intact. This makes it possible to transition from the initrd and to restart the service without breaking connectivity. This also means that when configuration is updated and systemd-networkd is restarted, netdev interfaces for which configuration was removed will not be dropped, and may need to be cleaned up manually. systemd-networkd may be introspected and controlled at runtime using networkctl1. See org.freedesktop.network15 and org.freedesktop.LogControl15 for a description of the D-Bus API. The configuration files are read from the files located in the system network directory /usr/lib/systemd/network, the volatile runtime network directory /run/systemd/network and the local administration network directory /etc/systemd/network. Networks are configured in .network files, see systemd.network5, and virtual network devices are configured in .netdev files, see systemd.netdev5. networkctl1 systemd1 systemd.link5 systemd.network5 systemd.netdev5 systemd-networkd-wait-online.service8 systemd-network-generator.service8 org.freedesktop.network15