How do I control the order in which NetworkManager brings up connections?

Question

I have a server running Fedora 28. I've created six connections using nmcli. I would like for these connections to be brought up in a certain order each time the system boots. How do I do this?

When I checked the NetworkManager reference manual, I noticed the connection.autoconnect-priority setting, which reads,

"The autoconnect priority. If the connection is set to autoconnect, connections with higher priority will be preferred. Defaults to 0. The higher number means higher priority."

This does not sound like the functionality I'm after. I do not want to activate one connection without activating the remaining five. I want all six connections to activate in a certain order.

I considered the idea of adding the nmcli con up command to my crontab and calling it at bootup, but I'm wondering if a more "elegant" solution exists.

Answer 1

This will bring them up one by one. Set the ONBOOT parameter to no first.

#!/bin/bash

while true
do
  ip link set eth0 up && break
  sleep 3
done

echo "eth0 up.."

while true
do
  ip link set eth1 up && break
  sleep 3
done

echo "eth1 up.."

Answer 2

#!/bin/bash
for iface in eth1 eth3 eth0 eth2 
do
  count=0
  until  ip link set $iface up || [ $((++count)) -gt 20 ] 
  do
    sleep 3
  done

  if [ $count -gt 20 ] 
  then 
    echo " FAILURE to start interface $iface .."
  else
    echo "interface $iface up.."
  fi
done

This is really just a refactoring of the code in the Maltigo's answer.
It also adds code to back off after multiple failures.