Do I need to run netif stop/start if IP is changed?

[Mel]

On Wednesday 21 January 2009 08:20:07 Peter Steele wrote:

> The user later runs a tool and specifies the IP address to use for a
> given system. This tool modifies ifconfig and default router lines, e.g.
>
>
>
> ifconfig_lagg0="laggproto failover laggport nfe0 laggport nfe1
> 192.168.17.49 netmask 255.255.240.0"
>
> defaultrouter="192.168.16.1"
>
>
>
> and also executes explicit ifconfig and route add commands that match
> the entries in rc.conf.
>
>
>
> The question is, should we also execute a netif stop/start sequence when
> this IP/router information is assigned? Are there other services that
> should also be stopped/restarted when the IP is set? Ideally, we want to
> avoid having to reboot the box to set the IP as we are doing.

The question is, should the tool execute the ifconfig and route commands or 
should the tool simply call netif stop/start so that the tool does not have 
to be maintained for those command sequences and dependencies of netif get 
processed (i.e.: /etc/rc.d/pf resync).

-- 
Mel

Problem with today's modular software: they start with the modules
    and never get to the software part.