diff --git a/libifupdown/lifecycle.c b/libifupdown/lifecycle.c
index 9004e3f..d8ab8c5 100644
--- a/libifupdown/lifecycle.c
+++ b/libifupdown/lifecycle.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include "libifupdown/lifecycle.h"
 #include "libifupdown/state.h"
 #include "libifupdown/tokenize.h"
+#include "libifupdown/config-file.h"
 
 static bool
 handle_commands_for_phase(const struct lif_execute_opts *opts, char *const envp[], const struct lif_interface *iface, const char *phase)
@@ -240,6 +241,10 @@ lif_lifecycle_run_phase(const struct lif_execute_opts *opts, struct lif_interfac
 	if (!handle_commands_for_phase(opts, envp, iface, phase))
 		goto handle_error;
 
+	/* if we don't need to support /etc/if-X.d we're done here */
+	if (!lif_config.allow_addon_scripts)
+		goto out_free;
+
 	/* Check if scripts dir for this phase is present and bail out if it isn't */
 	struct stat dir_stat;
 	char dir_path[4096];