diff --git a/lib/Makefile b/lib/Makefile
index 493aeab7572e..bdb8a67e2d9d 100644
--- a/lib/Makefile
+++ b/lib/Makefile
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ DIRS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_TIMER) += librte_timer
 DEPDIRS-librte_timer := librte_eal
 DIRS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_CFGFILE) += librte_cfgfile
 DIRS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_CMDLINE) += librte_cmdline
-DEPDIRS-librte_cmdline := librte_eal
+DEPDIRS-librte_cmdline := librte_eal librte_net
 DIRS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_ETHER) += librte_ethdev
 DEPDIRS-librte_ethdev := librte_net librte_eal librte_mempool librte_ring
 DEPDIRS-librte_ethdev += librte_mbuf
diff --git a/lib/librte_cmdline/Makefile b/lib/librte_cmdline/Makefile
index c64142b8d5a0..04057d7c671f 100644
--- a/lib/librte_cmdline/Makefile
+++ b/lib/librte_cmdline/Makefile
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ include $(RTE_SDK)/mk/rte.vars.mk
 LIB = librte_cmdline.a
 
 CFLAGS += $(WERROR_FLAGS) -I$(SRCDIR) -O3
+CFLAGS += -DALLOW_EXPERIMENTAL_API
 
 EXPORT_MAP := rte_cmdline_version.map
 
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ SRCS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_CMDLINE) += cmdline_vt100.c
 SRCS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_CMDLINE) += cmdline_socket.c
 SRCS-$(CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_CMDLINE) += cmdline_parse_portlist.c
 
-LDLIBS += -lrte_eal
+LDLIBS += -lrte_net -lrte_eal
 
 # install includes
 INCS := cmdline.h cmdline_parse.h cmdline_parse_num.h cmdline_parse_ipaddr.h
diff --git a/lib/librte_cmdline/cmdline_parse_etheraddr.c b/lib/librte_cmdline/cmdline_parse_etheraddr.c
index 24e04755cd9e..2cb8dd2a1267 100644
--- a/lib/librte_cmdline/cmdline_parse_etheraddr.c
+++ b/lib/librte_cmdline/cmdline_parse_etheraddr.c
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
 #include <ctype.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
-#include <net/ethernet.h>
 
 #include <rte_string_fns.h>
+#include <rte_ether.h>
 
 #include "cmdline_parse.h"
 #include "cmdline_parse_etheraddr.h"
@@ -26,69 +26,15 @@ struct cmdline_token_ops cmdline_token_etheraddr_ops = {
 	.get_help = cmdline_get_help_etheraddr,
 };
 
-/* the format can be either XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX or XXXX:XXXX:XXXX */
-#define ETHER_ADDRSTRLENLONG 18
-#define ETHER_ADDRSTRLENSHORT 15
-
-#ifdef __linux__
-#define ea_oct ether_addr_octet
-#else
-#define ea_oct octet
-#endif
-
-
-static struct ether_addr *
-my_ether_aton(const char *a)
-{
-	int i;
-	char *end;
-	unsigned long o[ETHER_ADDR_LEN];
-	static struct ether_addr ether_addr;
-
-	i = 0;
-	do {
-		errno = 0;
-		o[i] = strtoul(a, &end, 16);
-		if (errno != 0 || end == a || (end[0] != ':' && end[0] != 0))
-			return NULL;
-		a = end + 1;
-	} while (++i != sizeof (o) / sizeof (o[0]) && end[0] != 0);
-
-	/* Junk at the end of line */
-	if (end[0] != 0)
-		return NULL;
-
-	/* Support the format XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX */
-	if (i == ETHER_ADDR_LEN) {
-		while (i-- != 0) {
-			if (o[i] > UINT8_MAX)
-				return NULL;
-			ether_addr.ea_oct[i] = (uint8_t)o[i];
-		}
-	/* Support the format XXXX:XXXX:XXXX */
-	} else if (i == ETHER_ADDR_LEN / 2) {
-		while (i-- != 0) {
-			if (o[i] > UINT16_MAX)
-				return NULL;
-			ether_addr.ea_oct[i * 2] = (uint8_t)(o[i] >> 8);
-			ether_addr.ea_oct[i * 2 + 1] = (uint8_t)(o[i] & 0xff);
-		}
-	/* unknown format */
-	} else
-		return NULL;
-
-	return (struct ether_addr *)&ether_addr;
-}
-
 int
 cmdline_parse_etheraddr(__attribute__((unused)) cmdline_parse_token_hdr_t *tk,
 	const char *buf, void *res, unsigned ressize)
 {
 	unsigned int token_len = 0;
-	char ether_str[ETHER_ADDRSTRLENLONG+1];
-	struct ether_addr *tmp;
+	char ether_str[RTE_ETHER_ADDR_FMT_SIZE];
+	struct rte_ether_addr tmp;
 
-	if (res && ressize < sizeof(struct ether_addr))
+	if (res && ressize < sizeof(tmp))
 		return -1;
 
 	if (!buf || ! *buf)
@@ -98,17 +44,16 @@ cmdline_parse_etheraddr(__attribute__((unused)) cmdline_parse_token_hdr_t *tk,
 		token_len++;
 
 	/* if token doesn't match possible string lengths... */
-	if ((token_len != ETHER_ADDRSTRLENLONG - 1) &&
-			(token_len != ETHER_ADDRSTRLENSHORT - 1))
+	if (token_len >= RTE_ETHER_ADDR_FMT_SIZE)
 		return -1;
 
 	strlcpy(ether_str, buf, token_len + 1);
 
-	tmp = my_ether_aton(ether_str);
-	if (tmp == NULL)
+	if (rte_ether_unformat_addr(ether_str, &tmp) < 0)
 		return -1;
+
 	if (res)
-		memcpy(res, tmp, sizeof(struct ether_addr));
+		memcpy(res, &tmp, sizeof(tmp));
 	return token_len;
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/librte_cmdline/meson.build b/lib/librte_cmdline/meson.build
index 0fa61385fccf..07334c1b0956 100644
--- a/lib/librte_cmdline/meson.build
+++ b/lib/librte_cmdline/meson.build
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
 # Copyright(c) 2017 Intel Corporation
 
-# This library is processed before EAL
-includes = [global_inc]
-
 version = 2
+allow_experimental_apis = true
 sources = files('cmdline.c',
 	'cmdline_cirbuf.c',
 	'cmdline_parse.c',
@@ -28,3 +26,5 @@ headers = files('cmdline.h',
 	'cmdline_socket.h',
 	'cmdline_cirbuf.h',
 	'cmdline_parse_portlist.h')
+
+deps += ['net']
diff --git a/lib/meson.build b/lib/meson.build
index 3d77b1f9014a..e5ff83893489 100644
--- a/lib/meson.build
+++ b/lib/meson.build
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 libraries = [
 	'kvargs', # eal depends on kvargs
 	'eal', # everything depends on eal
-	'cmdline', # ethdev depends on cmdline for parsing functions
 	'ring', 'mempool', 'mbuf', 'net', 'meter', 'ethdev', 'pci', # core
+	'cmdline',
 	'metrics', # bitrate/latency stats depends on this
 	'hash',    # efd depends on this
 	'timer',   # eventdev depends on this
