nlink - Rust IP utilities

A modern Rust implementation of Linux network management tools, providing both a library crate and CLI binaries.

Overview

nlink is a from-scratch implementation of Linux netlink-based network management. The primary goal is to provide a high-quality Rust library for programmatic network configuration, with CLI tools serving as proof-of-concept binaries.

Key design principles:

• Library-first: Core functionality lives in a single, well-designed crate
• Async/tokio-native: Built for async Rust from the ground up
• Custom netlink: No dependency on rtnetlink or netlink-packet-* crates
• Type-safe: Leverage Rust's type system for correctness

Installation

# Core netlink functionality
nlink = "0.1"

# With additional features
nlink = { version = "0.1", features = ["sockdiag", "tuntap", "tc", "output"] }

# All features
nlink = { version = "0.1", features = ["full"] }

Features

Quick Start

use nlink::netlink::{Connection, Protocol};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> nlink::Result<()> {
    let conn = Connection::new(Protocol::Route)?;
    
    // Query interfaces
    let links = conn.get_links().await?;
    for link in &links {
        println!("{}: {} (up={})", 
            link.ifindex(), 
            link.name_or("?"),  // Convenience helper
            link.is_up());
    }
    
    // Build ifindex -> name map for resolving routes/addresses
    let names = conn.get_interface_names().await?;
    
    // Modify interface state
    conn.set_link_up("eth0").await?;
    conn.set_link_mtu("eth0", 9000).await?;
    
    // Monitor events
    use nlink::netlink::events::{EventStream, NetworkEvent};
    
    let mut stream = EventStream::builder()
        .links(true)
        .addresses(true)
        .build()?;
    
    while let Some(event) = stream.next().await? {
        match event {
            NetworkEvent::NewLink(link) => println!("Link: {:?}", link.name),
            _ => {}
        }
    }
    
    Ok(())
}

Documentation

• Library Usage - Detailed library examples: namespaces, TC, WireGuard, error handling
• CLI Tools - ip and tc command reference

Library Modules

Project Status

The library API is production-ready for network monitoring and querying.

Implemented:

• Core netlink socket and connection handling
• Link operations (show, add, del, set) with 20+ link types
• Address, route, neighbor, and rule operations
• Event monitoring (link, address, route, neighbor, TC)
• TC qdisc operations with 19 qdisc types
• TC class, filter (9 types), and action (12 types) support
• Network namespace support
• Tunnel management (GRE, IPIP, SIT, VTI)
• WireGuard configuration via Generic Netlink
• VRF and XFRM/IPSec support

Building

Requires Rust 1.85+ (edition 2024).

cargo build --release
cargo run --release -p ip -- link show
cargo run --release -p tc -- qdisc show

License

Licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option.