NetworkManager, a system service and set of tools for managing network connections, widely adopted by most Linux distributions, is rolling out version 1.56.
This release standardizes the versioning scheme, consistently applying the -rcX and -dev suffixes. Release tarball names, URLs, and version reporting in nmcli and the daemon are updated accordingly. The C API continues to use the 90+ scheme for release candidates.
Version 1.56 extends nmcli to support viewing and managing WireGuard peers, enabling peer-level administration directly from the command line without manual configuration changes.
DNS handling has been updated, too. The global-dns configuration now overwrites, rather than merges, DNS searches and options from connections. Hostnames longer than 64 characters are now accepted from DNS lookups. Per-connection configuration of systemd-resolved DNSSEC is available through the connection.dnssec property.
Moreover, multipath TCP now includes a laminar endpoint type, set by default with the existing subflow type. VPN connections now correctly apply properties such as connection.mdns, connection.llmnr, connection.dns-over-tls, connection.mptcp-flags, and ipv6.ip6-privacy.
For SR-IOV setups, the sriov.vfs property can now be reapplied if sriov.total-vfs is unchanged. Reapplying bond-port.vlans is also supported. High-availability networking now allows configuring the HSR protocol version with hsr.protocol-version and defining the interlink port using hsr.interlink.
Broadband and modem handling have been improved. A bug preventing broadband auto-connect during modem states such as “disconnecting” or “disconnected” has been resolved. Connections without an operator code are now treated as recoverable errors. The new GSM device-uid setting restricts which devices a connection applies to.
The nm-initrd-generator now supports the rd.net.dhcp.client-id option. Additionally, n-acd is always compiled with eBPF enabled, and runtime detection determines if eBPF support is available on the system.
Finally, security and permissions have been strengthened for private connections specifying a user in connection.permissions. NetworkManager now verifies user access to 802.1X certificates and keys. A new libnm function allows VPN plugins to validate user permissions on certificates and keys.
For more information, see the changelog. NetworkManager 1.56’s source code is available for download from the project’s GitLab page.
