Pipework

Pipework is an older software-defined networking utility for connecting Linux containers into custom network topologies. It works with both traditional LXC containers and early Docker environments by using Linux namespaces and cgroups. The tool can attach containers to bridges, physical interfaces, VLANs, Open vSwitch, InfiniBand, DHCP networks, and custom routes. It also supports configurable interface names, MAC addresses, gateways, and multiple interfaces per container. Pipework was created before Docker gained richer native networking capabilities and is now officially unmaintained. The maintainer recommends native container networking when possible, making Pipework mainly valuable for legacy systems and networking experiments.