1NETWORK_NAMESPACES(7)      Linux Programmer's Manual     NETWORK_NAMESPACES(7)
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NAME

6       network_namespaces - overview of Linux network namespaces
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DESCRIPTION

9       Network namespaces provide isolation of the system resources associated
10       with networking: network devices, IPv4 and  IPv6  protocol  stacks,  IP
11       routing  tables,  firewall  rules,  the /proc/net directory (which is a
12       symbolic link to /proc/PID/net), the /sys/class/net directory,  various
13       files under /proc/sys/net, port numbers (sockets), and so on.  In addi‐
14       tion, network namespaces isolate the UNIX domain abstract socket names‐
15       pace (see unix(7)).
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17       A  physical  network  device can live in exactly one network namespace.
18       When a network namespace is freed (i.e., when the last process  in  the
19       namespace  terminates),  its physical network devices are moved back to
20       the initial network namespace (not to the parent of the process).
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22       A virtual network (veth(4)) device pair provides a  pipe-like  abstrac‐
23       tion that can be used to create tunnels between network namespaces, and
24       can be used to create a bridge to a physical network device in  another
25       namespace.  When a namespace is freed, the veth(4) devices that it con‐
26       tains are destroyed.
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28       Use of network namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the
29       CONFIG_NET_NS option.
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SEE ALSO

32       nsenter(1),  unshare(1),  clone(2),  veth(4), proc(5), sysfs(5), names‐
33       paces(7),  user_namespaces(7),  brctl(8),  ip(8),  ip-address(8),   ip-
34       link(8), ip-netns(8), iptables(8), ovs-vsctl(8)
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COLOPHON

37       This  page  is  part of release 5.02 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
38       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
39       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
40       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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44Linux                             2018-02-02             NETWORK_NAMESPACES(7)
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