<para>Virtual Network Device files must have the extension
<filename>.netdev</filename>; other extensions are ignored. Virtual
- network devices are created as soon as networkd is started.</para>
+ network devices are created as soon as networkd is started. If a netdev
+ with the specified name already exists, networkd will use that as-is
+ rather than create its own. Note that the settings of the pre-existing
+ netdev will not be changed by networkd.</para>
<para>The <filename>.netdev</filename> files are read from the files located in the
system network directory <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/network</filename>,