ovs-ctl(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-ctl(8) NAME ovs-kmod-ctl - OVS startup helper script for loading kernel modules SYNOPSIS ovs-kmod-ctl insert ovs-kmod-ctl remove ovs-kmod-ctl help | -h | --help ovs-kmod-ctl --version ovs-kmod-ctl version DESCRIPTION The ovs-kmod-ctl program is responsible for inserting and removing Open vSwitch kernel modules. It is not meant to be invoked directly by sys‐ tem 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 The insert command loads the Open vSwitch kernel modules, if needed. If this fails, and the Linux bridge module is loaded but no bridges ex‐ ist, it tries to unload the bridge module and tries loading the Open vSwitch kernel module again. The ``remove'' command The remove command unloads the Open vSwitch kernel module (including the bridge compatibility module, if loaded) and any associated vport modules. EXIT STATUS ovs-kmod-ctl exits with status 0 on success and nonzero on failure. The insert command is considered to succeed if kernel modules are al‐ ready loaded; the remove command is considered to succeed if none of the kernel modules are loaded. ENVIRONMENT The following environment variables affect ovs-kmod-ctl: PATH ovs-kmod-ctl does not hardcode the location of any of the pro‐ grams 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. OVS_LOGDIR OVS_RUNDIR OVS_DBDIR OVS_SYSCONFDIR OVS_PKGDATADIR OVS_BINDIR OVS_SBINDIR 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. FILES ovs-kmod-ctl uses the following files: ovs-lib Shell function library used internally by ovs-kmod-ctl. It must be installed in the same directory as ovs-kmod-ctl. EXAMPLE ovs-kmod-ctl isn't intended to be manually executed. However, the fol‐ lowing examples demonstrate loading the kernel modules. ovs-kmod-ctl insert Attempts to insert the Open vSwitch kernel modules. ovs-kmod-ctl remove Attempts to remove the Open vSwitch kernel modules. SEE ALSO README.rst, ovs-ctl(8) Open vSwitch February 2018 ovs-ctl(8)