NM CLI utility

[Witold Sowa <witold sowa gmail com>]

Hi,

We are going to write CLI utility to control NetworkManager. It will be
written in C, using libnm-glib. The goal is to have a tool which will
let users to get network information and to control NM including:

- getting information about network interfaces (e.g. IP configuration,
used NMConnection)
- getting information specific to the interface type (e.g. scan results
and associated AP for WiFi)
- getting a list of connections configured in NM, both system-wide and
user's (if available)
- activation/deactivation connection for a network interface
- managing connections: adding, removing, modifying, both system and
user scope
- creating WiFi connection basing on scan result
- managing global NM options (eg. turning networking/wireless on/off)

The interface:
I thought that the tool's interface could be similar to ifconfig or
iwconfig. Running it without parameters would print basic information
about network interfaces and configured connections. Launching something
like
networkmanager-list gnome org
$ nmconfig wlan0

would print wlan0 interface information including more specific data
like scan results

$ nmconfig wlan0 deactivate

would deactivate interface's connection, and

$ nmconfig wlan0 activate <connection_id> <ap_id>

would activate connection for wlan0.

I think that we should avoid any kind interactive modes, so the tool
could be easily used from shell scripts.

I'm aware of two persons willing to contribute to this project: me after
my university classes and one person from NM team. I'm sure that Dan
Williams will help us with his knowledge too. Of course every head will
be very helpful.

I'll make a Git repo for some prototyping stuff soon. It could help us
decide what changes to libnm-glib would be useful. Currently, there is
one patch already sent and I'll prepare another within days.

Thanks,
Witek.