1<?xml version='1.0'?> 2<!--*-nxml-*--> 3<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN" 4 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd"> 5<refentry id="modprobe"> 6 <refentryinfo> 7 <title>modprobe</title> 8 <productname>kmod</productname> 9 10 <authorgroup> 11 <author> 12 <contrib>Developer</contrib> 13 <firstname>Jon</firstname> 14 <surname>Masters</surname> 15 <email>[email protected]</email> 16 </author> 17 <author> 18 <contrib>Developer</contrib> 19 <firstname>Robby</firstname> 20 <surname>Workman</surname> 21 <email>[email protected]</email> 22 </author> 23 <author> 24 <contrib>Developer</contrib> 25 <firstname>Lucas</firstname> 26 <surname>De Marchi</surname> 27 <email>[email protected]</email> 28 </author> 29 </authorgroup> 30 </refentryinfo> 31 32 <refmeta> 33 <refentrytitle>modprobe</refentrytitle> 34 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 35 </refmeta> 36 37 <refnamediv> 38 <refname>modprobe</refname> 39 <refpurpose>Add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel</refpurpose> 40 </refnamediv> 41 42 <refsynopsisdiv> 43 <cmdsynopsis> 44 <command>modprobe</command> 45 <arg><option>-v</option></arg> 46 <arg><option>-V</option></arg> 47 <arg><option>-C <replaceable>config-file</replaceable></option></arg> 48 <arg><option>-n</option></arg> 49 <arg><option>-i</option></arg> 50 <arg><option>-q</option></arg> 51 <arg><option>-b</option></arg> 52 <arg><replaceable>modulename</replaceable></arg> 53 <arg rep='repeat'><option><replaceable>module parameters</replaceable></option></arg> 54 </cmdsynopsis> 55 <cmdsynopsis> 56 <command>modprobe</command> 57 <arg>-r</arg> 58 <arg><option>-v</option></arg> 59 <arg><option>-n</option></arg> 60 <arg><option>-i</option></arg> 61 <arg rep='repeat'><option><replaceable>modulename</replaceable></option></arg> 62 </cmdsynopsis> 63 <cmdsynopsis> 64 <command>modprobe</command> 65 <arg>-c</arg> 66 </cmdsynopsis> 67 <cmdsynopsis> 68 <command>modprobe</command> 69 <arg>--dump-modversions</arg> <arg><replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg> 70 </cmdsynopsis> 71 </refsynopsisdiv> 72 <refsect1> 73 <title>Description</title> 74 75 <para> 76 <command>modprobe</command> intelligently adds or removes a 77 module from the Linux kernel: note that for convenience, there 78 is no difference between _ and - in module names (automatic 79 underscore conversion is performed). 80 <command>modprobe</command> looks in the module directory 81 <filename>@MODULE_DIRECTORY@/`uname -r`</filename> for all 82 the modules and other files, except for the optional 83 configuration files in the 84 <filename>/etc/modprobe.d</filename> directory 85 (see <citerefentry> 86 <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum> 87 </citerefentry>). <command>modprobe</command> will also use module 88 options specified on the kernel command line in the form of 89 <module>.<option> and blacklists in the form of 90 modprobe.blacklist=<module>. 91 </para> 92 <para> 93 Note that unlike in 2.4 series Linux kernels (which are not supported 94 by this tool) this version of <command>modprobe</command> does not 95 do anything to the module itself: the work of resolving symbols 96 and understanding parameters is done inside the kernel. So 97 module failure is sometimes accompanied by a kernel message: see 98 <citerefentry> 99 <refentrytitle>dmesg</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 100 </citerefentry>. 101 </para> 102 <para> 103 <command>modprobe</command> expects an up-to-date 104 <filename>modules.dep.bin</filename> file as generated 105 by the corresponding <command>depmod</command> utility shipped 106 along with <command>modprobe</command> (see 107 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>depmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 108 </citerefentry>). This file lists what other modules each 109 module needs (if any), and <command>modprobe</command> uses this 110 to add or remove these dependencies automatically. 111 </para> 112 <para> 113 If any arguments are given after the 114 <replaceable>modulename</replaceable>, they are passed to the 115 kernel (in addition to any options listed in the configuration 116 file). 117 </para> 118 <para> 119 When loading modules, <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> can also 120 be a path to the module. If the path is relative, it must 121 explicitly start with "./". Note that this may fail when using a 122 path to a module with dependencies not matching the installed depmod 123 database. 124 </para> 125 </refsect1> 126 127 <refsect1><title>OPTIONS</title> 128 <variablelist> 129 <varlistentry> 130 <term> 131 <option>-a</option> 132 </term> 133 <term> 134 <option>--all</option> 135 </term> 136 <listitem> 137 <para>Insert all module names on the command line.</para> 138 </listitem> 139 </varlistentry> 140 <varlistentry> 141 <term> 142 <option>-b</option> 143 </term> 144 <term> 145 <option>--use-blacklist</option> 146 </term> 147 <listitem> 148 <para> 149 This option causes <command>modprobe</command> to apply the 150 <command>blacklist</command> commands in the configuration files 151 (if any) to module names as well. It is usually used by 152 <citerefentry> 153 <refentrytitle>udev</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum> 154 </citerefentry>. 155 </para> 156 </listitem> 157 </varlistentry> 158 <varlistentry> 159 <term> 160 <option>-C</option> 161 </term> 162 <term> 163 <option>--config</option> 164 </term> 165 <listitem> 166 <para>This option overrides the default configuration directory 167 (<filename>/etc/modprobe.d</filename>). 168 </para> 169 <para> 170 This option is passed through <command>install</command> 171 or <command>remove</command> commands to other 172 <command>modprobe</command> commands in the 173 MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable. 174 </para> 175 </listitem> 176 </varlistentry> 177 <varlistentry> 178 <term> 179 <option>-c</option> 180 </term> 181 <term> 182 <option>--showconfig</option> 183 </term> 184 <listitem> 185 <para> 186 Dump out the effective configuration from the config directory and 187 exit. 188 </para> 189 </listitem> 190 </varlistentry> 191 <varlistentry> 192 <term> 193 <option>--dump-modversions</option> 194 </term> 195 <listitem> 196 <para> 197 Print out a list of module versioning information required by a 198 module. This option is commonly used by distributions in order to 199 package up a Linux kernel module using module versioning deps. 200 </para> 201 </listitem> 202 </varlistentry> 203 <varlistentry> 204 <term> 205 <option>-d</option> 206 </term> 207 <term> 208 <option>--dirname</option> 209 </term> 210 <listitem> 211 <para> 212 Root directory for modules, <filename>/</filename> by default. 213 </para> 214 </listitem> 215 </varlistentry> 216 <varlistentry> 217 <term> 218 <option>--first-time</option> 219 </term> 220 <listitem> 221 <para> 222 Normally, <command>modprobe</command> will succeed (and do 223 nothing) if told to insert a module which is already 224 present or to remove a module which isn't present. This is 225 ideal for simple scripts; however, more complicated scripts often 226 want to know whether <command>modprobe</command> really 227 did something: this option makes modprobe fail in the 228 case that it actually didn't do anything. 229 </para> 230 </listitem> 231 </varlistentry> 232 <varlistentry> 233 <term> 234 <option>--force-vermagic</option> 235 </term> 236 <listitem> 237 <para> 238 Every module contains a small string containing important 239 information, such as the kernel and compiler versions. If a module 240 fails to load and the kernel complains that the "version magic" 241 doesn't match, you can use this option to remove it. Naturally, 242 this check is there for your protection, so using this option is 243 dangerous unless you know what you're doing. 244 </para> 245 <para> 246 This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on 247 the command line and any modules on which it depends. 248 </para> 249 </listitem> 250 </varlistentry> 251 <varlistentry> 252 <term> 253 <option>--force-modversion</option> 254 </term> 255 <listitem> 256 <para> 257 When modules are compiled with CONFIG_MODVERSIONS set, a section 258 detailing the versions of every interfaced used by (or supplied by) 259 the module is created. If a module fails to load and the kernel 260 complains that the module disagrees about a version of some 261 interface, you can use "--force-modversion" to remove the version 262 information altogether. Naturally, this check is there for your 263 protection, so using this option is dangerous unless you know what 264 you're doing. 265 </para> 266 <para> 267 This applies any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on 268 the command line and any modules on which it depends. 269 </para> 270 </listitem> 271 </varlistentry> 272 <varlistentry> 273 <term> 274 <option>-f</option> 275 </term> 276 <term> 277 <option>--force</option> 278 </term> 279 <listitem> 280 <para> 281 Try to strip any versioning information from the module which might 282 otherwise stop it from loading: this is the same as using both 283 <option>--force-vermagic</option> and 284 <option>--force-modversion</option>. Naturally, these checks are 285 there for your protection, so using this option is dangerous unless 286 you know what you are doing. 287 </para> 288 <para> 289 This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on 290 the command line and any modules it on which it depends. 291 </para> 292 </listitem> 293 </varlistentry> 294 <varlistentry> 295 <term> 296 <option>-i</option> 297 </term> 298 <term> 299 <option>--ignore-install</option> 300 </term> 301 <term> 302 <option>--ignore-remove</option> 303 </term> 304 <listitem> 305 <para> 306 This option causes <command>modprobe</command> to ignore 307 <command>install</command> and <command>remove</command> commands 308 in the configuration file (if any) for the module specified on the 309 command line (any dependent modules are still subject to commands 310 set for them in the configuration file). Both 311 <command>install</command> and <command>remove</command> commands 312 will currently be ignored when this option is used regardless of 313 whether the request was more specifically made with only one or 314 other (and not both) of <option>--ignore-install</option> or 315 <option>--ignore-remove</option>. See <citerefentry> 316 <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum> 317 </citerefentry>. 318 </para> 319 </listitem> 320 </varlistentry> 321 <varlistentry> 322 <term> 323 <option>-n</option> 324 </term> 325 <term> 326 <option>--dry-run</option> 327 </term> 328 <term> 329 <option>--show</option> 330 </term> 331 <listitem> 332 <para> 333 This option does everything but actually insert or delete the 334 modules (or run the install or remove commands). Combined with 335 <option>-v</option>, it is useful for debugging problems. For 336 historical reasons both <option>--dry-run</option> and 337 <option>--show</option> actually mean the same thing and are 338 interchangeable. 339 </para> 340 </listitem> 341 </varlistentry> 342 <varlistentry> 343 <term> 344 <option>-q</option> 345 </term> 346 <term> 347 <option>--quiet</option> 348 </term> 349 <listitem> 350 <para> 351 With this flag, <command>modprobe</command> won't print an error 352 message if you try to remove or insert a module it can't find (and 353 isn't an alias or 354 <command>install</command>/<command>remove</command> command). 355 However, it will still return with a non-zero exit status. The 356 kernel uses this to opportunistically probe for modules which might 357 exist using request_module. 358 </para> 359 </listitem> 360 </varlistentry> 361 <varlistentry> 362 <term> 363 <option>-R</option> 364 </term> 365 <term> 366 <option>--resolve-alias</option> 367 </term> 368 <listitem> 369 <para> 370 Print all module names matching an alias. This can be useful for 371 debugging module alias problems. 372 </para> 373 </listitem> 374 </varlistentry> 375 <varlistentry> 376 <term> 377 <option>-r</option> 378 </term> 379 <term> 380 <option>--remove</option> 381 </term> 382 <listitem> 383 <para> 384 This option causes <command>modprobe</command> to remove rather 385 than insert a module. If the modules it depends on are also 386 unused, <command>modprobe</command> will try to remove them too. 387 Unlike insertion, more than one module can be specified on the 388 command line (it does not make sense to specify module parameters 389 when removing modules). 390 </para> 391 <para> 392 There is usually no reason to remove modules, but some buggy 393 modules require it. Your distribution kernel may not have been 394 built to support removal of modules at all. 395 </para> 396 </listitem> 397 </varlistentry> 398 <varlistentry> 399 <term> 400 <option>-w</option> 401 </term> 402 <term> 403 <option>--wait=</option>TIMEOUT_MSEC 404 </term> 405 <listitem> 406 <para> 407 This option causes <command>modprobe -r</command> to continue trying to 408 remove a module if it fails due to the module being busy, i.e. its refcount 409 is not 0 at the time the call is made. Modprobe tries to remove the module 410 with an incremental sleep time between each tentative up until the maximum 411 wait time in milliseconds passed in this option. 412 </para> 413 </listitem> 414 </varlistentry> 415 <varlistentry> 416 <term> 417 <option>-S</option> 418 </term> 419 <term> 420 <option>--set-version</option> 421 </term> 422 <listitem> 423 <para> 424 Set the kernel version, rather than using 425 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> 426 to decide on the kernel version (which dictates where to find the 427 modules). 428 </para> 429 </listitem> 430 </varlistentry> 431 <varlistentry> 432 <term> 433 <option>--show-depends</option> 434 </term> 435 <listitem> 436 <para> 437 List the dependencies of a module (or alias), including the module 438 itself. This produces a (possibly empty) set of module filenames, 439 one per line, each starting with "insmod" and is typically used by 440 distributions to determine which modules to include when generating 441 initrd/initramfs images. <command>Install</command> commands which 442 apply are shown prefixed by "install". It does not run any of the 443 install commands. Note that 444 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>modinfo</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> 445 can be used to extract dependencies of a module from the module 446 itself, but knows nothing of aliases or install commands. 447 </para> 448 </listitem> 449 </varlistentry> 450 <varlistentry> 451 <term> 452 <option>-s</option> 453 </term> 454 <term> 455 <option>--syslog</option> 456 </term> 457 <listitem> 458 <para> 459 This option causes any error messages to go through the syslog 460 mechanism (as LOG_DAEMON with level LOG_NOTICE) rather than to 461 standard error. This is also automatically enabled when stderr is 462 unavailable. 463 </para> 464 <para> 465 This option is passed through <command>install</command> or 466 <command>remove</command> commands to other 467 <command>modprobe</command> commands in the MODPROBE_OPTIONS 468 environment variable. 469 </para> 470 </listitem> 471 </varlistentry> 472 <varlistentry> 473 <term> 474 <option>-V</option> 475 </term> 476 <term> 477 <option>--version</option> 478 </term> 479 <listitem> 480 <para>Show version of program and exit.</para> 481 </listitem> 482 </varlistentry> 483 <varlistentry> 484 <term> 485 <option>-v</option> 486 </term> 487 <term> 488 <option>--verbose</option> 489 </term> 490 <listitem> 491 <para> 492 Print messages about what the program is doing. Usually 493 <command>modprobe</command> only prints messages if something goes 494 wrong. 495 </para> 496 <para> 497 This option is passed through <command>install</command> or 498 <command>remove</command> commands to other 499 <command>modprobe</command> commands in the MODPROBE_OPTIONS 500 environment variable. 501 </para> 502 </listitem> 503 </varlistentry> 504 </variablelist> 505 </refsect1> 506 507 <refsect1><title>ENVIRONMENT</title> 508 <para> 509 The MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable can also be used to pass 510 arguments to <command>modprobe</command>. 511 </para> 512 </refsect1> 513 514 <refsect1><title>COPYRIGHT</title> 515 <para> 516 This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM 517 Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others. 518 </para> 519 </refsect1> 520 521 <refsect1> 522 <title>SEE ALSO</title> 523 <para> 524 <citerefentry> 525 <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum> 526 </citerefentry>, 527 <citerefentry> 528 <refentrytitle>insmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 529 </citerefentry>, 530 <citerefentry> 531 <refentrytitle>rmmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 532 </citerefentry>, 533 <citerefentry> 534 <refentrytitle>lsmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 535 </citerefentry>, 536 <citerefentry> 537 <refentrytitle>modinfo</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 538 </citerefentry> 539 <citerefentry> 540 <refentrytitle>depmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> 541 </citerefentry> 542 </para> 543 </refsect1> 544</refentry> 545