nic-cli 0.1.3

A clean, readable cross-platform network interface CLI for macOS, Linux, and Windows.

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nic

Minimal network interface CLI for macOS, Linux, and Windows.

nic is built for the common case: you want to see the interfaces that are actually working right now, not pages of raw ifconfig or ipconfig output.

Why nic

• Active-first default view nic hides inactive and helper noise in the default summary.
• Grouped by role Interfaces are grouped into Physical / Host, VM / Virtual, and Tunnel / VPN.
• Key fields only Default output shows IFACE, TYPE, IPv4, MAC, and Subnet.
• Detail on demand Use nic detail or nic show <iface> when you need the verbose view.
• Cross-platform The same CLI works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.
• Native collection nic uses built-in OS tools instead of third-party runtime dependencies.

Install

Recommended:

pip install nic-cli

If pip is not on your PATH, use python -m pip install nic-cli or python3 -m pip install nic-cli.

Current release:

• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/nic-cli/
• GitHub Release: https://github.com/Kidder1/nic/releases/tag/v0.1.3

Usage

nic
nic detail
nic physical
nic all
nic show en0
nic --json
nic raw

Default view

Network summary
  Primary       : Ethernet (Ethernet)
  Default route : Ethernet -> 192.168.5.1
  Active        : 1 physical, 2 vm/virtual

Physical / Host
  IFACE     TYPE      IPv4            MAC                Subnet
  Ethernet  Ethernet  192.168.5.12/24 e0:be:03:97:aa:b4 192.168.5.0/24

VM / Virtual
  IFACE   TYPE        IPv4              MAC                Subnet
  VMnet1  VM network  192.168.159.1/24  00:50:56:c0:00:01  192.168.159.0/24
  VMnet8  VM network  192.168.206.1/24  00:50:56:c0:00:08  192.168.206.0/24

The compact summary only shows active, meaningful interfaces. For the expanded multi-interface view, use nic detail.

Commands

• nic Compact summary of active interfaces only.
• nic detail Grouped verbose view with per-interface details.
• nic physical All physical adapters on the current machine.
• nic all Full inventory, including system and helper interfaces.
• nic show <iface> Detailed view for one interface.
• nic --json Machine-readable payload.
• nic raw Native raw network command for the current platform.

Platform Notes

• macOS Uses ifconfig -a, netstat -rn -f inet, and cached system_profiler SPNetworkDataType -json.
• Linux Uses ip -j addr, ip -j route, and /etc/resolv.conf, with text fallback when JSON output is unavailable.
• Windows Uses ipconfig /all, route print -4, and getmac /v /fo csv when available.

Development

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v
python3 -m nic --help

Version history is in CHANGELOG.md.

License

MIT