DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / netplan.io / netplan-apply.8.en
netplan-apply(8) netplan-apply(8)

netplan-apply - apply configuration from netplan YAML files to a running system

netplan [--debug] apply -h | --help

netplan [--debug] apply

netplan apply applies the current netplan configuration to a running system.

The process works as follows:

1.
The backend configuration is generated from netplan YAML files.
2.
The appropriate backends (systemd-networkd(8) or NetworkManager(8)) are invoked to bring up configured interfaces.
3.
netplan apply iterates through interfaces that are still down, unbinding them from their drivers, and rebinding them. This gives udev(7) renaming rules the opportunity to run.
4.
If any devices have been rebound, the appropriate backends are re-invoked in case more matches can be done.

For information about the generation step, see netplan-generate(8). For details of the configuration file format, see netplan(5).

Print basic help.
Print debugging output during the process.

netplan apply will not remove virtual devices such as bridges and bonds that have been created, even if they are no longer described in the netplan configuration. That is due to the fact that netplan operates statelessly and is not aware of the previously defined virtual devices.

This can be resolved by manually removing the virtual device (for example ip link delete dev bond0) and then running netplan apply, by rebooting, or by creating a temporary backup of the YAML state in /etc/netplan before modifying the configuration and passing this state to netplan (e.g. mkdir -p /tmp/netplan_state_backup/etc && cp -r /etc/netplan /tmp/netplan_state_backup/etc/ then running netplan apply --state /tmp/netplan_state_backup)

netplan(5), netplan-generate(8), netplan-try(8), udev(7), systemd-networkd.service(8), NetworkManager(8)

Daniel Axtens (<daniel.axtens@canonical.com>).