Yes, shutting down the interface is considered a feature or the kernel will continue routing/accepting traffic.
Strange feature - the system should provide standby power to devices that are configured for wake-up. This can include one or more NICs, but also USB devices (keyboards, mice, some webcams) How breaking this is not a bug eludes me. Especially since the NIC can't very well route anything on its own. There's a difference between deconfiguring the interface (so that it keeps the link but looses the IP) and turning the NIC off. The question is, what conditions must be met for a device to keep power? The driver docs say the driver must be loaded at shutdown - does udev unload modules when the box is shutting down? ifdowning the interface severes the link (no connection shown at the switch anymore), but commenting out the ifdown is not enough ...
Done, but I am not sure if the kernel maintainers will care.
Now that cheers me up ... :( Thanks, C.
