1network_namespaces(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual network_namespaces(7)
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6 network_namespaces - overview of Linux network namespaces
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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 name‐
15 space (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 namespace of the parent of
21 the process).
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23 A virtual network (veth(4)) device pair provides a pipe-like abstrac‐
24 tion that can be used to create tunnels between network namespaces, and
25 can be used to create a bridge to a physical network device in another
26 namespace. When a namespace is freed, the veth(4) devices that it con‐
27 tains are destroyed.
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29 Use of network namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the
30 CONFIG_NET_NS option.
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33 nsenter(1), unshare(1), clone(2), veth(4), proc(5), sysfs(5), name‐
34 spaces(7), user_namespaces(7), brctl(8), ip(8), ip-address(8),
35 ip-link(8), ip-netns(8), iptables(8), ovs-vsctl(8)
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39Linux man-pages 6.04 2023-03-12 network_namespaces(7)