modprobe is automatically calling ifup/ifconfig. Why?

[Joe Emenaker]

I've been having a problem with my Debian system automatically bringing up my eth0 interface even though I don't have it marked as "auto" in /etc/network/interfaces. Until now, I had figured that it was due to a bug in ifup that brought up all auto *and* all dhcp'd interfaces, but now I've discovered that that isn't the problem.   The problem seems to be that, when I run modprobe to load the driver for my ethernet interface, ifup or ifconfig seems to get run as well. Since I have my 3c95x driver in my /etc/modules, it gets loaded at boot time and then the interface actually gets *brought up*. Now, I kinda suspect that it's "ifup" that's getting run because the interface, after it has been brought up, seems to use the contents of /etc/network/interfaces... which is a debianism. However, if ifconfig can save/restore the settings from the last time the interface was brought up, then I guess ifconfig could be what's being run... but I really suspect ifup.   So, does anybody know more about this modprobe/ifup relationship? Is there a way to turn it off, or do I need to take 3c59x out of /etc/modules and alias eth0 to it in modules.conf?   - Joe