NAME

       network_namespaces - overview of Linux network namespaces

DESCRIPTION

       Network namespaces provide isolation of the system resources associated with networking: network devices,
       IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks, IP routing tables, firewall rules, the /proc/net  directory  (which  is  a
       symbolic  link  to  /proc/PID/net), the /sys/class/net directory, various files under /proc/sys/net, port
       numbers (sockets), and so on.

       A physical network device can live in exactly one network namespace.  When a network namespace  is  freed
       (i.e., when the last process in the namespace terminates), its physical network devices are moved back to
       the initial network namespace (not to the parent of the process).

       A virtual network (veth(4)) device pair provides a pipe-like abstraction  that  can  be  used  to  create
       tunnels  between  network  namespaces, and can be used to create a bridge to a physical network device in
       another namespace.  When a namespace is freed, the veth(4) devices that it contains are destroyed.

       Use of network namespaces requires a kernel that is configured with the CONFIG_NET_NS option.

SEE ALSO

       nsenter(1),  unshare(1),  clone(2),  veth(4),  proc(5),  sysfs(5),   namespaces(7),   user_namespaces(7),
       brctl(8), ip(8), ip-address(8), ip-link(8), ip-netns(8), iptables(8), ovs-vsctl(8)

COLOPHON

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       information  about  reporting  bugs,  and  the  latest  version  of  this   page,   can   be   found   at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.