DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / openvswitch-switch / ovs-kmod-ctl.8.en
ovs-ctl(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-ctl(8)

ovs-kmod-ctl - OVS startup helper script for loading kernel modules

ovs-kmod-ctl insert
ovs-kmod-ctl remove
ovs-kmod-ctl help | -h | --help
ovs-kmod-ctl --version
ovs-kmod-ctl version

The ovs-kmod-ctl program is responsible for inserting and removing Open vSwitch kernel modules. It is not meant to be invoked directly by system administrators but to be called internally by system startup scripts. The script is used as part of an SELinux transition domain.

Each of ovs-kmod-ctl's commands is described separately below.

The insert command loads the Open vSwitch kernel modules, if needed. If this fails, and the Linux bridge module is loaded but no bridges exist, it tries to unload the bridge module and tries loading the Open vSwitch kernel module again.

The remove command unloads the Open vSwitch kernel module (including the bridge compatibility module, if loaded) and any associated vport modules.

ovs-kmod-ctl exits with status 0 on success and nonzero on failure. The insert command is considered to succeed if kernel modules are already loaded; the remove command is considered to succeed if none of the kernel modules are loaded.

The following environment variables affect ovs-kmod-ctl:

ovs-kmod-ctl does not hardcode the location of any of the programs that it runs. ovs-kmod-ctl will add the sbindir and bindir that were specified at configure time to PATH, if they are not already present.






Setting one of these variables in the environment overrides the respective configure option, both for ovs-kmod-ctl itself and for the other Open vSwitch programs that it runs.

ovs-kmod-ctl uses the following files:

Shell function library used internally by ovs-kmod-ctl. It must be installed in the same directory as ovs-kmod-ctl.

ovs-kmod-ctl isn't intended to be manually executed. However, the following examples demonstrate loading the kernel modules.

Attempts to insert the Open vSwitch kernel modules.
Attempts to remove the Open vSwitch kernel modules.

README.rst, ovs-ctl(8)

February 2018 Open vSwitch