How to find out the Connected state of a network card in Linux

Every once in a while, we Linux administrators want to know if a network cable that’s connected to a Linux box is connected or not without having to physically move the machine and checking the connection and watching to see if the little green light blinks.

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Linux has a way for administrators to quickly check the status of the connection via the Terminal.  Here’s how:

At the Terminal prompt, type: cat /sys/class/net/enp5s0/carrier

If the output returns with a “1“, then the cable should be connected and talking to the network.

For a more English type of response, enter: cat /sys/class/net/enp5s0/operstate

The output will return by saying “up”.

That’s it.

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Dan Uff

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