---
name: "netctl"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "netctl"
version: "1.29-2"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/netctl"
---

# netctl(1)

Control the netctl network profile manager

## NAME

netctl - Control the netctl network profile manager

## SYNOPSIS

**netctl** {**COMMAND**} \[PROFILE\]

**netctl** \[--help \| --version\]

## DESCRIPTION

**netctl** may be used to introspect and control the state of the systemd services for the network profile manager.

## OPTIONS

The following commands are understood:

**list**

List all available profiles. Online profiles will be marked with a ‘\*’, otherwise active profiles will be marked with a ‘+’.

**store**

Saves which profiles are currently active.

**restore**

Loads the profiles that were active during the last invocation of ‘**store**’.

**stop-all**

Stops all active network profiles.

**start \[PROFILE\]**

Start the network profile specified on the command line.

**stop \[PROFILE\]**

Stop the network profile specified on the command line.

**restart \[PROFILE\]**

Restart the network profile specified on the command line. If it is not started yet, it will be started.

**switch-to \[PROFILE\]**

Starts the network profile specified on the command line after stopping all profiles that refer to the same interface.

**is-active \[PROFILE\]**

Check whether the network profile specified on the command line is active. Prints the current state.

**status \[PROFILE\]**

Show terse runtime status information about a profile, followed by its most recent log data from the journal.

**enable \[PROFILE\]**

Enable the systemd unit for the profile specified. This will create a unit configuration file. If the file already exists, the command fails. No other profiles than the one specified will be enabled. Changes to the general options in a profile specification will not propagate to the unit configuration file automatically. After such changes, it is necessary to ‘**reenable**’ the profile.

**disable \[PROFILE\]**

Disable the systemd unit for the profile specified. This will remove the file created by ‘**enable**’ even if it was customized, so be careful.

**reenable \[PROFILE\]**

Reenable the systemd unit for the profile specified. This is effectively a combination of ‘**disable**’ and ‘**enable**’.

**is-enabled \[PROFILE\]**

Check whether the systemd unit for the specified profile is enabled. Prints the current enable status.

**edit \[PROFILE\]**

Open the file of the specified profile in an editor. This does not reenable, restart, or verify any profiles.

**verify \[PROFILE\]**

Check the file of the specified profile for syntax errors. If no errors are found, no output is produced.

**wait-online \[PROFILE\]**

Wait until the interface of the profile has a routable IP address of some kind.

## EXIT STATUS

On success 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

## ENVIRONMENT

*$NETCTL\_DEBUG*

If set to "yes", debugging output is generated.

The value of this variable is independent of the value of the variable with the same name in profiles.

*$NETCTL\_STATE\_FILE*

The location of the state file. Defaults to */var/lib/netctl/netctl.state*.

## SEE ALSO

[**netctl-auto**(1)](/netctl-auto/1.md), [**netctl.profile**(5)](/netctl.profile/5.md), [**netctl.special**(7)](/netctl.special/7.md), [**systemctl**(1)](/systemctl/1.md)