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.   In
       addition,  network  namespaces  isolate  the  UNIX  domain  abstract socket namespace (see
       unix(7)).

       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

       This  page  is  part of release 5.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of  this  page,  can  be
       found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.