Editing network interfaces without system rebooting

I'd like to make some changes to my networking configuration by editing my /etc/network/interfaces file. What's the cleanest way to make changes to this file and have them take effect, without having to reboot? Typically, I've been doing:

1. Edit the file
2. service networking restart

But I have the impression that this isn't the "right" way to make these kinds of changes.

Solution 1:

Shut the network interface down using

sudo ifdown eth0

(replace eth0 with the interface you want to change) and bring it up again using

sudo ifup eth0

Solution 2:

In Ubuntu Server 16.04 you must use the ip command to flush the address before restarting networking, otherwise any address changes in the interfaces file will not take effect:

$ sudo ip addr flush interface-name
$ sudo systemctl restart networking

I got this answer from this helpful article

Solution 3:

Stop all interfaces using

sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop

Configure (edit) your interfaces as you wish, then

Start them again

sudo /etc/init.d/networking start

There is no need to reboot.

Solution 4:

Why don't you think it is the right way. Think, what can ubuntu do extra during booting? Ubuntu has a list of services that need to run during booting, each service has a list of consecutive command to start itself. Ubuntu just run networking service through /etc/init.d/networking script which contains some command that need to run network service. So if any change need to apply to your network then you have to restart your service and the way is recall your service's consecutive commands.

Solution 5:

/etc/network/interfaces controls the ifupdown tools.

So after making changes, you can just say eg sudo ifup eth0.