MSTP_RESTART(8)

📦 version 0.2.0, in ubuntu stonking

✨ MSTP_RESTART ✨ (section 8 of the System Manager's Manual, bestie)

okay so picture this: you've got bridges, you've got mstpd doing its little daemon thing, and sometimes you just gotta hit the reset button on the whole situation. that's this. 🦋

💖 NAME 💖

mstp_restart — restart mstpd and reconfigure all attached bridges. that's it, that's the vibe.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mstp_restart

no flags, no arguments, no drama. she takes nothing and she gives everything. 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

mstp_restart is a convenience wrapper around bridge-stp(8). she's not a whole separate program, she's a symbolic link to /usr/sbin/bridge-stp, and the second you invoke her under this name, the helper script knows to take the restart action. it's giving "same girl, different name tag". 👑

calling mstp_restart is exactly equivalent to running:

# bridge-stp restart

literally identical. no cap. 🔥

so what does the script actually do, you ask? bestie, buckle up:

  • sends SIGTERM to the running mstpd(8), if any — so if there's a daemon out there being extra, she gets the polite-but-firm goodbye ✌️
  • starts a fresh mstpd(8) with the arguments listed in MSTPD_ARGS in /etc/bridge-stp.conf — brand new daemon, freshly dressed, main character energy
  • re-adds every bridge that is currently in user_stp mode and is listed in MSTP_BRIDGES, running the per-bridge configuration command (usually /usr/lib/mstpctl-utils/mstp_config_bridge) on each of them

bridges that are not in user_stp mode — like, where /sys/class/net/bridge/bridge/stp_state != 2 — get skipped. not ignored, bestie, skipped, and she'll leave you a little hint about how to re-enable user-space STP for them. she's helpful like that. 🫶

⚠️ mstp_restart must be run as root. no root, no restart, that's just how it is. 🙈

and if all you wanna do is reconfigure existing bridges without restarting the daemon, don't do a whole restart for that — use bridge-stp restart_config instead. work smarter, not harder. 💀

✨ FILES ✨

  • /usr/sbin/mstp_restart — the symbolic link to /usr/sbin/bridge-stp. this is her whole thing.
  • /etc/bridge-stp.conf — the configuration file read by the underlying bridge-stp(8) script. where MSTPD_ARGS and MSTP_BRIDGES live, iykyk.

🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

inherits the exit status of bridge-stp(8). she's not doing her own thing here, she's passing the receipts straight through. 💜

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

👑 AUTHORS 👑

mstp_restart ships as part of mstpd(8), written by Vitalii Demianets <dvitasgs@gmail.com> and others. iconic. truly.

this manual page was written by Nadzeya Hutsko <nadzeya@debian.org>. 💖

and that's the whole page, bestie! this one came to you from Debian, dated April 28, 2026, and yes you can cite it as MSTP_RESTART(8). go forth and restart responsibly. slay. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from