networkd

systemd-networkd is a system service that manages network configuration and connectivity on Linux systems, handling IP address assignment, routing, and DNS resolution automatically.

networkd (formally systemd-networkd) is a network management daemon that runs as part of systemd. It reads network configuration from files in /etc/systemd/network/ and automatically configures network interfaces, IP addresses, routes, and DNS settings without requiring manual intervention or separate network management tools.

Unlike traditional tools such as ifupdown or NetworkManager, networkd is lightweight and well-integrated with systemd. It uses simple declarative configuration files with a .network extension to define how each interface should be configured, making it ideal for servers and embedded systems.

Example: A file /etc/systemd/network/10-eth0.network might contain:

[Match]
Name=eth0

[Network]
DHCP=yes
DNS=8.8.8.8

This tells networkd to configure the eth0 interface with DHCP and use Google's DNS server.

Related terms