Listing Listing information on all active interfaces on MacOS is a process involving multiple pieces, which then can be combined together.
Listing all active interfaces try 1
This involves both the -l (list with optional criteria) and -u parameter (the up criterion) as per excerpts from the [Archive.is] ifconfig(8) [osx man page] / [WayBack] ifconfig Man Page – macOS – SS64.com:
NAME ifconfig -- configure network interface parameters SYNOPSIS ... ifconfig -l [-d] [-u] [address_family] ... DESCRIPTION The ifconfig utility is used to assign an address to a network interface and/or configure network interface parameters. The following options are available: ... address_family Specify the address family which affects interpretation of the remaining parameters. Since an interface can receive transmissions in differing protocols with different naming schemes, specifying the address family is recommended. The address or protocol fami- lies currently supported are ``inet'', ``inet6'', and ``link''. The default is ``inet''. ``ether'' and ``lladdr'' are synonyms for ``link''. ... The -l flag may be used to list all available interfaces on the system, with no other additional information. Use of this flag is mutually exclusive with all other flags and commands, except for -d (only list interfaces that are down) and -u (only list interfaces that are up).
Example:
ifconfig -l -u
Each interface on one line:
ifconfig -l -u | xargs -n1 echo
The problem is that on my system, it also lists bridges as active, whereas they are not:
# ifconfig -l -u | xargs -n1 echo lo0 en1 en2 en0 p2p0 awdl0 bridge0 utun0 en10 # ifconfig bridge0 bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6> ether 6a:00:02:9a:23:f0 Configuration: id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0 maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200 root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0 ipfilter disabled flags 0x2 member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 0 path cost 0 member: en2 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER> ifmaxaddr 0 port 6 priority 0 path cost 0 Address cache: nd6 options=201<PERFORMNUD,DAD> media: status: inactive
So this is where the MacOS and BSD documentation is inaccurate.
Interface types
The above interfaces are many more than just ethernet or WiFi interfaces; there is a list at [WayBack] macos – What are en0, en1, p2p, and so on, that are displayed after executing ifconfig? – Stack Overflow by [WayBack] mcint:
In arbitrary order of my familarity / widespread relevance:
lo0is loopback.
en0at one point “ethernet”, now is WiFi (and I have no idea what extraen1oren2are used for).
fw0is the FireWire network interface.
stf0is an IPv6 to IPv4 tunnel interface to support the transition from IPv4 to the IPv6 standard.
gif0is a more generic tunneling interface [46]-to-[46].
awdl0is Apple Wireless Direct Link
p2p0is related to AWDL features. Either as an old version, or virtual interface with different semantics thanawdl.…
many VPNs will add additional devices, often “
utun#” or “utap#” following TUN/TAP (L3/L2)virtual networking devices.
More on AWDL at [WayBack] ios – What is AWDL (Apple Wireless Direct Link) and how does it work? – Stack Overflow.
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 