Provided by: network-manager_1.48.8-1ubuntu3_amd64 
NAME
nm-settings-keyfile - Description of keyfile settings plugin
DESCRIPTION
NetworkManager is based on the concept of connection profiles that contain network configuration (see nm-
settings-nmcli(5) for details). The profiles can be stored in various formats. NetworkManager uses
plugins for reading and writing the data. The plugins can be configured in NetworkManager.conf(5).
The keyfile plugin is the generic plugin that supports all the connection types and capabilities that
NetworkManager has. The files are in a .ini-style format and located in
/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/, /usr/lib/NetworkManager/system-connections/ and
/run/NetworkManager/system-connections/. This plugin is always enabled and will automatically be used to
store any connections that are not supported by any other active plugin. For security, it will ignore
files that are readable or writable by any user other than 'root' since private keys and passphrases may
be stored in plaintext inside the file.
FILE FORMAT
The keyfile config format is a simple .ini-style format. It consists of sections (groups) of key-value
pairs. More information of the generic key file format can be found at GLib key file format[1] (Lines
beginning with a '#' are comments, lists are separated by character ; etc.).
Each section corresponds to a setting name as described in the settings specification (nm-settings-
nmcli(5)). Each key/value pair in a section is one of the properties from the specification.
The majority of properties are written in the same format as the specification into the keyfile. However,
some values are inconvenient for people to use so they are stored in the keyfile in more readable ways.
These properties that differ from the specification are described below. An example could be IP addresses
that are not written as integer arrays, but more reasonably as "1.2.3.4/12 1.2.3.254". Also, some lists
of complex values (addresses, routes, routing-rules), instead of using a semicolon separated list, use
one key-value pair per list element, with the key being the singular of the property name followed by the
numeric index (i.e address1, address2, ...).
Users can create or modify the keyfile connection files manually, even if that is not the recommended way
of managing the profiles. However, if they choose to do that, they must inform NetworkManager about their
changes (for example via nmcli con (re)load).
Examples of keyfile configuration.
A sample configuration for an ethernet network:
[connection]
id=Main eth0
uuid=27afa607-ee36-43f0-b8c3-9d245cdc4bb3
type=802-3-ethernet
autoconnect=true
[ipv4]
method=auto
[802-3-ethernet]
mac-address=00:23:5a:47:1f:71
A sample configuration for WPA-EAP (PEAP with MSCHAPv2) and always-ask secret:
[connection]
id=CompanyWIFI
uuid=cdac6154-a33b-4b15-9904-666772cfa5ee
type=wifi
autoconnect=false
[wifi]
ssid=CorpWLAN
mode=infrastructure
security=802-11-wireless-security
[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-eap
[ipv4]
method=auto
[ipv6]
method=auto
[802-1x]
eap=peap;
identity=joe
ca-cert=/home/joe/.cert/corp.crt
phase1-peapver=1
phase2-auth=mschapv2
password-flags=2
A sample configuration for openvpn:
[connection]
id=RedHat-openvpn
uuid=7f9b3356-b210-4c0e-8123-bd116c9c280f
type=vpn
timestamp=1385401165
[vpn]
service-type=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn
connection-type=password
password-flags=3
remote=ovpn.my-company.com
cipher=AES-256-CBC
reneg-seconds=0
port=443
username=joe
ca=/etc/openvpn/ISCA.pem
tls-remote=ovpn.my-company.com
[ipv6]
method=auto
[ipv4]
method=auto
ignore-auto-dns=true
never-default=true
A sample configuration for a bridge and a bridge port:
[connection] [connection]
id=MainBridge id=br-port-1
uuid=171ae855-a0ab-42b6-bd0c-60f5812eea9d uuid=d6e8ae98-71f8-4b3d-9d2d-2e26048fe794
interface-name=MainBridge interface-name=em1
type=bridge type=ethernet
controller=MainBridge
[bridge] port-type=bridge
interface-name=MainBridge
A sample configuration for a VLAN:
[connection]
id=VLAN for building 4A
uuid=8ce1c9e0-ce7a-4d2c-aa28-077dda09dd7e
interface-name=VLAN-4A
type=vlan
[vlan]
interface-name=VLAN-4A
parent=eth0
id=4
DETAILS
keyfile plugin variables for the majority of NetworkManager properties have one-to-one mapping. It means
a NetworkManager property is stored in the keyfile as a variable of the same name and in the same format.
There are several exceptions to this rule, mainly for making keyfile syntax easier for humans. The
exceptions handled specially by keyfile plugin are listed below. Refer to nm-settings-nmcli(5) for all
available settings and properties and their description.
Name aliases. Some of the NetworkManager setting names are somewhat hard to type or remember. Therefore
keyfile introduces aliases that can be used instead of the names.
setting name keyfile alias
802-3-ethernet = ethernet
802-11-wireless = wifi
802-11-wireless-security = wifi-security
Table 1. 802-11-wireless setting (section)
┌───────────────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ssid │ │ string (or │ SSID of Wi-Fi network. │
│ │ │ decimal-byte list - │ │
│ │ │ obsolete) │ Example: ssid=Quick │
│ │ │ │ Net │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address │ │ usual │ MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A2), or │
│ │ │ │ semicolon separated │
│ │ │ │ list of 6 bytes │
│ │ │ │ (obsolete) (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 0;34;104;18;121;162). │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ cloned-mac-address │ │ usual │ Cloned MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:B2), or │
│ │ │ │ semicolon separated │
│ │ │ │ list of 6 bytes │
│ │ │ │ (obsolete) (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 0;34;104;18;121;178). │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address-blacklist │ │ list of MACs │ MAC address blacklist. │
│ │ │ (separated with │ │
│ │ │ semicolons) │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ mac-address-blacklist= │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A6;00:22:68:12:79:78 │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address-denylist │ │ list of MACs │ MAC address denylist. │
│ │ │ (separated with │ │
│ │ │ semicolons) │ Example: mac-address-denylist= │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A6;00:22:68:12:79:78 │
└───────────────────────┴──────────────────┴───────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┘
Table 2. 802-3-ethernet setting (section)
┌───────────────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address │ │ usual │ MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A2), or │
│ │ │ │ semicolon separated │
│ │ │ │ list of 6 bytes │
│ │ │ │ (obsolete) (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 0;34;104;18;121;162) │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ cloned-mac-address │ │ usual │ Cloned MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:B2), or │
│ │ │ │ semicolon separated │
│ │ │ │ list of 6 bytes │
│ │ │ │ (obsolete) (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 0;34;104;18;121;178). │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address-blacklist │ │ list of MACs │ MAC address blacklist. │
│ │ │ (separated with │ │
│ │ │ semicolons) │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ mac-address-blacklist= │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A6;00:22:68:12:79:78 │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address-denylist │ │ list of MACs │ MAC address denylist. │
│ │ │ (separated with │ │
│ │ │ semicolons) │ Example: mac-address-denylist= │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A6;00:22:68:12:79:78 │
└───────────────────────┴──────────────────┴───────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┘
Table 3. bridge setting (section)
┌─────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├─────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address │ │ usual │ MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation, or semicolon │
│ │ │ │ separated list of 6 │
│ │ │ │ decimal bytes │
│ │ │ │ (obsolete) │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ mac-address=00:22:68:12:79:A2 │
│ │ │ │ mac-address=0;34;104;18;121;162; │
└─────────────┴──────────────────┴───────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
Table 4. infiniband setting (section)
┌─────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├─────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address │ │ usual │ MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation, or or │
│ │ │ │ semicolon separated │
│ │ │ │ list of 20 decimal │
│ │ │ │ bytes (obsolete) │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: mac-address= │
│ │ │ │ 80:00:00:6d:fe:80:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:02:55:00:70:33:cf:01 │
└─────────────┴──────────────────┴───────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Table 5. ipv4 setting (section)
┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ dns │ │ list of DNS IP │ List of DNS servers. │
│ │ │ addresses │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ dns=1.2.3.4;8.8.8.8;8.8.4.4; │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ addresses │ address1, address2, │ address/plen │ List of static IP addresses. │
│ │ ... │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ address1=192.168.100.100/24 │
│ │ │ │ address2=10.1.1.5/24 │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ gateway │ gateway │ string │ Gateway IP addresses as a │
│ │ │ │ string. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ gateway=192.168.100.1 │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ routes │ route1, route2, ... │ route/plen[,gateway,metric] │ List of IP routes. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ route1=8.8.8.0/24,10.1.1.1,77 │
│ │ │ │ route2=7.7.0.0/16 │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ routes (attributes) │ route1_options, │ key=val[,key=val...] │ Attributes defined for the │
│ │ route2_options, ... │ │ routes, if any. The supported │
│ │ │ │ attributes are explained in │
│ │ │ │ ipv4.routes entry in `man │
│ │ │ │ nm-settings-nmcli`. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ route1_options=mtu=1000,onlink=true │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ routing-rules │ routing-rule1, │ routing rule string │ Routing rules as defined with `ip │
│ │ routing-rule2, ... │ │ rule add`, but with mandatory fixed │
│ │ │ │ priority. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: routing-rule1=priority 5 │
│ │ │ │ from 192.167.4.0/24 table 45 │
└─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┘
Table 6. ipv6 setting (section)
┌─────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ dns │ │ list of DNS IP │ List of DNS servers. │
│ │ │ addresses │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ dns=2001:4860:4860::8888;2001:4860:4860::8844; │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ addresses │ address1, address2, │ address/plen │ List of static IP addresses. │
│ │ ... │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: address1=abbe::cafe/96 │
│ │ │ │ address2=2001::1234 │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ gateway │ gateway │ string │ Gateway IP addresses as a string. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: gateway=abbe::1 │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ routes │ route1, route2, ... │ route/plen[,gateway,metric] │ List of IP routes. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ route1=2001:4860:4860::/64,2620:52:0:2219:222:68ff:fe11:5403 │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ routes (attributes) │ route1_options, │ key=val[,key=val...] │ Attributes defined for the routes, if any. The supported │
│ │ route2_options, ... │ │ attributes are explained in ipv6.routes entry in `man │
│ │ │ │ nm-settings-nmcli`. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: route1_options=mtu=1000,onlink=true │
├─────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ routing-rules │ routing-rule1, │ routing rule string │ Routing rules as defined with `ip rule add`, but with │
│ │ routing-rule2, ... │ │ mandatory fixed priority. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: routing-rule1=priority 5 from 2001:4860:4860::/64 │
│ │ │ │ table 45 │
└─────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Table 7. serial setting (section)
┌──────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├──────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ parity │ │ 'e', 'o', or 'n' │ The connection parity; │
│ │ │ │ even, odd, or none. │
│ │ │ │ Note that older │
│ │ │ │ versions of │
│ │ │ │ NetworkManager stored │
│ │ │ │ this as an integer: 69 │
│ │ │ │ ('E') for even, 111 │
│ │ │ │ ('o') for odd, or 110 │
│ │ │ │ ('n') for none. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: parity=n │
└──────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┴────────────────────────┘
Table 8. vpn setting (section)
┌──────────┬─────────────────────┬────────┬────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ data │ separate variables │ │ The keys of the data │
│ │ named after keys of │ │ dictionary are used as │
│ │ the dictionary │ │ variable names │
│ │ │ │ directly under [vpn] │
│ │ │ │ section. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ remote=ovpn.corp.com │
│ │ │ │ cipher=AES-256-CBC │
│ │ │ │ username=joe │
├──────────┼─────────────────────┼────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ secrets │ separate variables │ │ The keys of the │
│ │ named after keys of │ │ secrets dictionary are │
│ │ the dictionary │ │ used as variable names │
│ │ │ │ directly under │
│ │ │ │ [vpn-secrets] section. │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ Example: │
│ │ │ │ password=Popocatepetl │
└──────────┴─────────────────────┴────────┴────────────────────────┘
Table 9. wifi-p2p setting (section)
┌──────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├──────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ peer │ │ usual │ MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ traditional │
│ │ │ notation │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ │ notation (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 00:22:68:12:79:A2), or │
│ │ │ │ semicolon separated │
│ │ │ │ list of 6 bytes │
│ │ │ │ (obsolete) (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 0;34;104;18;121;162). │
└──────────┴──────────────────┴───────────────────────┴────────────────────────┘
Table 10. wpan setting (section)
┌─────────────┬──────────────────┬───────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
│ Property │ Keyfile Variable │ Format │ Description │
├─────────────┼──────────────────┼───────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ mac-address │ │ usual │ MAC address in │
│ │ │ hex-digits-and-colons │ hex-digits-and-colons │
│ │ │ notation │ notation (e.g. │
│ │ │ │ 76:d8:9b:87:66:60:84:ee). │
└─────────────┴──────────────────┴───────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘
Secret flags
Each secret property in a NetworkManager setting has an associated flags property that describes how to
handle that secret. In the keyfile plugin, the value of -flags variable is a decimal number (0 - 7)
defined as a sum of the following values:
• 0 - (NM owned) - the system is responsible for providing and storing this secret.
• 1 - (agent-owned) - a user-session secret agent is responsible for providing and storing this secret;
when it is required, agents will be asked to provide it.
• 2 - (not-saved) - this secret should not be saved but should be requested from the user each time it
is required.
• 4 - (not-required) - in some situations it cannot be automatically determined that a secret is
required or not. This flag hints that the secret is not required and should not be requested from the
user.
FILES
/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*
SEE ALSO
nm-settings-nmcli(5), nm-settings-ifcfg-rh(5), NetworkManager(8), NetworkManager.conf(5), nmcli(1),
nmcli-examples(7)
NOTES
1. GLib key file format
https://developer.gnome.org/glib/stable/glib-Key-value-file-parser.html#glib-Key-value-file-parser.description
NetworkManager 1.48.8 NM-SETTINGS-KEYFILE(5)