Change IP settings using Python on Linux

Question

I need to provide a Python program allowing the user to change dynamically the network parameters of his device (IP, mask, DNS & Gateway). For example, changing his IP from 192.168.1.10/24 to 192.168.1.15/24. I don't want to run my program as root - but I can give to my user some specifics rights (for instance add the user to a group which can modify the /usr/network/interfaces file).

What I found is the pynetlinux library but it only provides IP and mask modifications and needs to be run as root (or maybe I missused it).

I could probably do it by parsing the interfaces file and running some bash/shell commands but I don't want to re-invent the wheel. I'm pretty sure some people already had my issue and did something great about it.

I'm running on Ubuntu 12.04. I would need my programm to work also on Ubuntu 14.04, CentOS and RedHat

Can you clarify if you want to modify the network configuration files or you want to change the IP address and subnet mask on the fly, like ifconfig does? — Iskren
– Iskren, Commented Apr 21, 2015 at 8:44
I want for instance to be able to change the local IP address (for example from 192.168.1.10/24 to 192.168.1.11/24) — Julien Greard
– Julien Greard, Commented Apr 21, 2015 at 8:48

Michael Jaros · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-21 08:47:15Z

2

You should try to create a complete list of actions your program will have to execute. I found that in a similar setting, in response to user interaction we had to:

modify config files (interfaces, host, resolv.conf, ...)
echo to sysfs to change some settings
start/stop certain network services
switch firewall configuration (we did that via init script too)

We ended up creating a Bash script with a well-defined interface that a certain non-privileged user could call with sudo from any other program.

However our dialog-based frontend was written in Bash already so we did not spend much time in looking for existing libraries which surely is worth the effort in your case.

answered Apr 21, 2015 at 8:47

Michael Jaros

4,6991 gold badge27 silver badges41 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Julien Greard Over a year ago

Thanks for the examples, and yes if I don't find any library doing what I want, I'll end up writing my own bash or python script, but that would be unfortunate

Michael Jaros Over a year ago

You are definitely doing it in the right order :-) Good Luck.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Change IP settings using Python on Linux

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related