brctl

brctl command [bridge] [interface]

brctl manages Ethernet bridge interfaces on Linux. Bridges connect multiple network segments at Layer 2, allowing them to act as a single network. This is commonly used for virtualization, containers, and network infrastructure.It is part of the legacy bridge-utils package. No new features are added to it; modern setups should use ip link and the bridge command from iproute2 instead. For example, brctl addbr br0 is equivalent to ip link add br0 type bridge, and brctl addif br0 eth0 to ip link set eth0 master br0.

show

Display information about existing bridges

Create a new bridge

Delete a bridge

Add an interface to a bridge

Remove an interface from a bridge

Enable/disable Spanning Tree Protocol

Set MAC address ageing time

Set forwarding delay

brctl is deprecated in favor of the ip and bridge commands from iproute2. Interfaces must be up to participate in bridging. STP should be enabled in complex topologies to prevent loops.

brctl is part of the bridge-utils package, being replaced by the iproute2 bridge command.

bridge(8), ip(8), ifconfig(8), iptables(8)

Source code · Documentation