RHEL 8 Deprecated Network Scripts

From your first link:

Note that custom commands in /sbin/ifup-local, ifdown-pre-local and ifdown-local scripts are not executed.

If any of these scripts are required, the installation of the deprecated network scripts in the system is still possible with the following command:

~]# yum install network-scripts

So, anything contained in the RHEL 8 network-scripts RPM file or relying on functionality of that RPM is now deprecated. In particular, if you previously used scripts like /sbin/ifup-local to set up some advanced routing or other specialized network configuration, now it's time to find out a new way to do that.

Note that when NetworkManager was introduced into RHEL, it included - and still does - a configuration back-end that uses the old configuration file locations, but with a new NetworkManager infrastructure and an extended version of the old configuration script syntax. So the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* files will still be there and using the same syntax, although they will now be parsed by NetworkManager and not executed as sourced scripts.

The deprecated network-scripts package essentially contains:

• the SysVinit-style service script /etc/init.d/network
• the ifup*, ifdown*, init.ipv6-global and network-functions* scripts you've used to seeing in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory
• classic versions of /usr/sbin/ifup and /usr/sbin/ifdown (which would override the compatibility wrappers for nmcli that are present by default)
• the /usr/sbin/usernetctl command
• and the associated documentation and example files

So, when you're not using the deprecated network-scripts RPM, you would now expect the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory to only contain the ifcfg-* files for your network interfaces, and possibly route-* files for custom routes, but no other files at all. If you needed the usernetctl command, it's among the deprecated functionality and you should start using the appropriate nmcli subcommands as its replacement.

ifup and ifdown will still be available, but now do their job through NetworkManager, unless you install the deprecated network-scripts RPM.