Get network interfaces on Linux

I wrote this in order to get a list of network interfaces on Linux. In the past, I have used publicly available methods from, say, ActiveState, which uses ioctl and was annoying to get working under Python 3. This version simply uses regular expressions on the output of ifconfig.

The documentation style used here follows the numpy documentation guide.

``
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -- coding: utf-8 --
"""
Get a list of network interfaces on Linux.

This code is compatible with Python versions 2 and 3.

"""
from collections import namedtuple
import re
import subprocess

def get_interfaces(external=False, ip=False):
"""
Get a list of network interfaces on Linux.

To access the MAC address and/or the IP address, set the relevant keyword
arguments to True.

Parameters
----------
external : bool, optional
Only show external interfaces, and ignore virtual (e.g. loopback)
devices, and return their MAC addresses.
ip : bool, optional
Only show interfaces which are UP and have an IP address, and return
their IPv4 addresses.

Returns
-------
interfaces
list of str containing the interface name by default, or list of
namedtuple containing name, mac, and ip` as requested.

Examples
--------
>>> print(get_interfaces())
['eth0', 'lo', 'wlan0']
>>> print(get_interfaces(external=True))
[Interface(name='eth0', mac='a0:b1:c2:d3:e4:f5'), Interface(name='wlan0', ma
c='f5:e4:d3:c2:b1:a0')]
>>> print(get_interfaces(ip=True))
[Interface(name='lo', ip='127.0.0.1'), Interface(name='wlan0', ip='192.168.1
1.2')]
>>> print(get_interfaces(external=True, ip=True))
[Interface(name='wlan0', mac='f5:e4:d3:c2:b1:a0', ip='192.168.11.2')]

"""
name_pattern = "^(\w+)\s"
mac_pattern = ".*?HWaddr " if external else ""
ip_pattern = ".*?\n\s+inet[ ]addr:((?:\d+\.){3}\d+)" if ip else ""
pattern = re.compile("".join((name_patt

That is a huge docstring, it's longer than the code itself. You should read Python's PEP about how to write good docstrings.

For a start a docstring shouldn't contain examples, you can put that as a regular comment in the script if you want. And you don't need to be so detailed and explicit about the type and optional nature of your parameters. I would take some information out of your parameters and returns sections and just fold it back into your opening section. Docstrings should be relatively concise and mostly add context and explanation.

A user can easily see the default parameters get_interfaces(external=False, ip=False), which reveals that they're optional and booleans. All you need to explain is what setting them will affect.

StackExchange Code Review Q#104504, answer score: 4