Attempt to load the kernel module only if we are going to create a

new interface.  In other cases loading the module is unwanted and
can lead to ill side effects.  One such effect found is as follows:
"kldunload if_foo" tells the module to kill all its interfaces,
which results in messages sent to devd; the module unloads.  Then
devd starts processing the messages, which ends up in a etc script
running ifconfig fooX, which reloads the module.

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.c b/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.c
index e03a54d..6e4aa6a 100644
--- a/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.c
+++ b/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.c
@@ -228,9 +228,6 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		ifname = *argv;
 		argc--, argv++;
 
-		/* check and maybe load support for this interface */
-		ifmaybeload(ifname);
-
 		ifindex = if_nametoindex(ifname);
 		if (ifindex == 0) {
 			/*
@@ -244,6 +241,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 				if (iflen >= sizeof(name))
 					errx(1, "%s: cloning name too long",
 					    ifname);
+				ifmaybeload(ifname);
 				ifconfig(argc, argv, NULL);
 				exit(0);
 			}