netifaces-plus

What it is and what it does

netifaces-plus is a maintained fork of the archived netifaces library that provides a cross-platform way to query network interface information from Python. It wraps low-level OS networking APIs (getifaddrs on Unix-like systems, Windows API on Windows) so you don't have to write platform-specific code. The library returns dictionaries keyed by address family (AF_INET for IPv4, AF_INET6 for IPv6, AF_LINK for hardware addresses), allowing you to retrieve all addresses, netmasks, broadcast addresses, MAC addresses, and gateway information for each interface.

The fork modernizes the original package with type hints, support for Python 3.9 and higher, and GitHub Actions-based wheel builds. It has no runtime dependencies and compiles to a C extension. The maintainer recommends ifaddr as a more modern pure-Python alternative, but netifaces-plus remains useful for projects already using the netifaces API or requiring direct access to low-level interface details.

Use it for:

• Retrieve the local IPv4 or IPv6 address of a machine for logging, configuration, or service discovery.
• Get MAC addresses for network interfaces to identify hardware or enforce network policies.
• Query default gateway information for routing decisions or network diagnostics.
• List all active network interfaces on a system to detect connectivity or enumerate available adapters.
• Build cross-platform network utilities that need interface details without writing OS-specific code.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Retrieves network interface information (addresses, gateways, MAC addresses) across Windows, macOS, and Linux in a portable way without platform-specific code.

Yes, if you need portable network interface querying and are comfortable with C extension compilation. The MIT license and zero runtime dependencies make it low-risk. However, consider the aging maintenance status (286 days since last release) and the maintainer's own recommendation of ifaddr for new projects. Install if you're maintaining existing code using netifaces or need direct low-level interface access; otherwise evaluate ifaddr first.

Install

netifaces-plus on PyPI

pip install netifaces-plus

uv add netifaces-plus

poetry add netifaces-plus

Installing netifaces-plus

Before you install

Medium install friction due to C extension compilation required on all platforms. Package is aging (286 days since last release) but repository is active and not archived. Wheels are provided for Python 3.10–3.12 across major platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows), reducing compilation burden on supported versions.

License in practice

MIT License (permissive) places no restrictions on commercial or private use, modification, or redistribution.

Quickstart

pip install netifaces-plus

import netifaces

# List all network interfaces
print(netifaces.interfaces())

# Get addresses for a specific interface
addrs = netifaces.ifaddresses('eth0')
print(addrs[netifaces.AF_INET])  # IPv4 addresses

# Get gateway information
gws = netifaces.gateways()
print(gws['default'][netifaces.AF_INET])

Requires C compiler and development headers for your platform to build the extension during installation, unless a pre-built wheel is available for your Python version and OS.

Verify before relying

• Whether the maintainer actively backports security fixes or only applies merged pull requests from the archived upstream.
• Performance characteristics when querying interfaces on systems with many network adapters.
• Compatibility with modern Python 3.13 and 3.14 in practice (classifiers list support but package is aging).

Package facts

Evidence: netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_universal2.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.manylinux_2_5_x86_64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-manylinux2014_armv7l.manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux_2_31_armv7l.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-win32.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-win_amd64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp310-cp310-win_arm64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_universal2.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-macosx_11_0_arm64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-manylinux1_x86_64.manylinux_2_28_x86_64.manylinux_2_5_x86_64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_aarch64.manylinux_2_17_aarch64.manylinux_2_28_aarch64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-manylinux2014_armv7l.manylinux_2_17_armv7l.manylinux_2_31_armv7l.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-win32.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp311-cp311-win_arm64.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_universal2.whl; netifaces_plus-0.12.5-cp312-cp312-macosx_10_13_x86_64.whl

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