---
name: "ifenslave"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "ifenslave"
version: "2.9"
release: "Debian 10 (Buster)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/ifenslave"
---

# ifenslave(8)

Attach and detach slave network devices to a bonding device.

## NAME

**ifenslave** – Attach and detach slave network devices to a bonding device.

## SYNOPSIS

**ifenslave** \[**-acdfhuvV**\] \[**--all-interfaces**\] \[**--change-active**\] \[**--detach**\] \[**--force**\] \[**--help**\] \[**--usage**\] \[**--verbose**\] \[**--version**\] *master* *slave* ...

## DESCRIPTION

**ifenslave** is a tool to attach and detach slave network devices to a bonding device. A bonding device will act like a normal Ethernet network device to the kernel, but will send out the packets via the slave devices using a simple round-robin scheduler. This allows for simple load-balancing, identical to "channel bonding" or "trunking" techniques used in switches.

The kernel must have support for bonding devices for **ifenslave** to be useful.

## OPTIONS

- **-a,** **--all-interfaces**

  Show information about all interfaces.

- **-c,** **--change-active**

  Change active slave.

- **-d,** **--detach**

  Removes slave interfaces from the bonding device.

- **-f,** **--force**

  Force actions to be taken if one of the specified interfaces appears not to belong to an Ethernet device.

- **-h,** **--help**

  Display a help message and exit.

- **-u,** **--usage**

  Show usage information and exit.

- **-v,** **--verbose**

  Print warning and debug messages.

- **-V,** **--version**

  Show version information and exit.

If no options are given, the default action will be to enslave interfaces.

## EXAMPLE

The following example shows how to setup a bonding device and enslave two real Ethernet devices to it:

```
# modprobe bonding
# ifconfig bond0 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.0.0
# ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1
```

## AUTHOR

Guus Sliepen ⟨guus@debian.org⟩