Apple MacOS Sequoia 15.4.1 Creates a ton of unused network interfaces and it's a nightmare trying to figure out what they all do, what theyr're linked to, etc.
It appears that network links utun0, utun1, utun2, ... are never used or useful. ip link shows they are all status UNKNOWN.
I don't use a VPN or anything like that, and the documentation on these interfaces does not exist.
I'd like to permanently delete them and permanently prevent them from ever being created again -- how can I accomplish this task?
So, the standard term for this is network interfaces.
macOS supports a wide array of network interfaces. I have lots of background to this in the various posts referenced by Extra-ordinary Networking.
I'd like to permanently delete them
Don’t attempt to do that. Some of these interfaces are used for stuff that’s vital to the internal operation of macOS, for example, communication between the main CPU and various co-processors.
My general advice is that you adjust your workflows so that these don’t get in the way. If you’re writing code, the suggestions in Extra-ordinary Networking should help. If not, I’ve found this command to be super helpful:
% networksetup -listallhardwareports
…
Hardware Port: Wi-Fi
Device: en0
Ethernet Address: …
…
It gives you the BSD name of each user-visible interface, which you can then use with commands like ifconfig.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"