PBR does not apply rules to the restarted interface

[swing-nn]

PBR 1.2.1-r21 , OpenWRT 24.10.4
OpenVPN multiple clients with fixed device names.

Occasionally, one of two ovpn interfaces restarts on a link loss that causes PBR not applying rules to it.

In the log, PBR notes it applies rules

Fri Nov  7 11:07:20 2025 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'whr' is enabled
Fri Nov  7 11:07:20 2025 daemon.notice openvpn(whr_kk)[4069]: net_addr_v4_add: 10.245.0.2/24 dev tun1
Fri Nov  7 11:07:20 2025 daemon.notice netifd: Network device 'tun1' link is up
Fri Nov  7 11:07:20 2025 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'whr' has link connectivity
Fri Nov  7 11:07:20 2025 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'whr' is setting up now

Fri Nov  7 11:07:20 2025 daemon.notice netifd: Interface 'whr' is now up

Fri Nov  7 11:07:21 2025 user.notice firewall: Reloading firewall due to ifup of whr (tun1)
Fri Nov  7 11:07:23 2025 user.notice pbr [14083]: Processing environment (on_interface_reload) [✓]
Fri Nov  7 11:07:23 2025 user.notice pbr [14083]: Reloading routing for 'whr/tun1/10.245.0.2' [✓]

whereas it looks as

PBR restart is required as a workaround. On PBR restart all rules are being properly applied.

[stangri]

Can you try creating an iface hotplug script for the affected OpenVPN tunnels to reload/restart pbr?

[swing-nn]

a hotplug script added as a workaround, ovpn ifaces are pointed.

touch /etc/hotplug.d/iface/99-pbr-reload
chmod +x /etc/hotplug.d/iface/99-pbr-reload

content copied

#!/bin/sh

# The interface name will be passed as the $INTERFACE variable (e.g., tun0, ovpnc0)
# The action (ifup, ifdown) will be in the $ACTION variable

# Check if the affected interface is one of the OpenVPN tunnels and the action is relevant
if [ "$ACTION" = "ifup" ] || [ "$ACTION" = "ifdown" ]; then
    case "$INTERFACE" in
        # Replace 'ovpnc' with the actual prefix for your VPN interfaces
        ovpnc*|tun*)
            # Command to restart the PBR service
            /etc/init.d/pbr restart
            ;;
    esac
fi

[stangri]

@swing-nn thank you for pasting your hot plug script. Could you please confirm this has resolved your issue with pbr?