How To Install nftables on Ubuntu 18.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install nftables on Ubuntu 18.04.
What is nftables
nftables is:
This software provides an in-kernel packet classification framework that is based on a network-specific Virtual Machine (VM) and the nft userspace command line tool. The nftables framework reuses the existing Netfilter subsystems such as the existing hook infrastructure, the connection tracking system, NAT, userspace queueing and logging subsystem.
nftables replaces the old popular iptables, ip6tables, arptables and ebtables.
Netfilter software and nftables in particular are used in applications such as Internet connection sharing, firewalls, IP accounting, transparent proxying, advanced routing and traffic control.
A Linux kernel >= 3.13 is required. However, >= 4.14 is recommended.
There are three methods to install nftables on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install nftables Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install nftables using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install nftables
Install nftables Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install nftables using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install nftables
Install nftables Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install nftables using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install nftables
How To Uninstall nftables on Ubuntu 18.04
To uninstall only the nftables package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove nftables
Uninstall nftables And Its Dependencies
To uninstall nftables and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove nftables
Remove nftables Configurations and Data
To remove nftables configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge nftables
Remove nftables configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove nftables configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge nftables
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install nftables package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.
