[plug] IP Chains

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Christian]
> The kernel will load these automatically if needed.  Furthermore,
> your distribution is probably configured to automatically remove
> unused kernel modules automatically on a regular basis (Debian
> certainly is, it would make sense if others did too)

Automatic module loading and removal is a property of the kernel, not
of the distribution.

Unused modules are normally removed after one minute according to the
documentation (linux/Documentation/modules.txt).

If the kernel autoloads modules, they will also be removed
automatically.  The modules with (autoclean) behind them where
automatically loaded and will be automatically removed when they no
longer are used.  Example from one Linux server:

  % lsmod
  Module                  Size  Used by
  nfsd                  144316   8  (autoclean)
  nfs                    29816  13  (autoclean)
  lockd                  31464   0  (autoclean) [nfsd nfs]
  sunrpc                 53700   1  (autoclean) [nfsd nfs lockd]

In this example, module lockd will be removed if it is unused for one
minute (and of course reloaded if it is used thereafter).
-- 
##>  Petter Reinholdtsen  <##  |  pere at td.org.uit.no