man/modprobe.xml

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<refentry id="modprobe">
  <refentryinfo>
    <title>modprobe</title>
    <productname>kmod</productname>

    <authorgroup>
      <author>
        <contrib>Developer</contrib>
        <firstname>Jon</firstname>
        <surname>Masters</surname>
        <email>jcm@jonmasters.org</email>
      </author>
      <author>
        <contrib>Developer</contrib>
        <firstname>Robby</firstname>
        <surname>Workman</surname>
        <email>rworkman@slackware.com</email>
      </author>
      <author>
        <contrib>Developer</contrib>
        <firstname>Lucas</firstname>
        <surname>De Marchi</surname>
        <email>lucas.demarchi@profusion.mobi</email>
      </author>
    </authorgroup>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>modprobe</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>modprobe</refname>
    <refpurpose>Add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <cmdsynopsis>
      <command>modprobe</command>
      <arg><option>-v</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-V</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-C <replaceable>config-file</replaceable></option></arg>
      <arg><option>-n</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-i</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-q</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-b</option></arg>
      <arg><replaceable>modulename</replaceable></arg>
      <arg rep='repeat'><option><replaceable>module parameters</replaceable></option></arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
    <cmdsynopsis>
      <command>modprobe</command>
      <arg>-r</arg>
      <arg><option>-v</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-n</option></arg>
      <arg><option>-i</option></arg>
      <arg rep='repeat'><option><replaceable>modulename</replaceable></option></arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
    <cmdsynopsis>
      <command>modprobe</command>
      <arg>-c</arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
    <cmdsynopsis>
      <command>modprobe</command>
      <arg>--dump-modversions</arg> <arg><replaceable>filename</replaceable></arg>
    </cmdsynopsis>
  </refsynopsisdiv>
  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para>
      <command>modprobe</command> intelligently adds or removes a
      module from the Linux kernel: note that for convenience, there
      is no difference between _ and - in module names (automatic
      underscore conversion is performed).
      <command>modprobe</command> looks in the module directory
      <filename>/lib/modules/`uname -r`</filename> for all
      the modules and other files, except for the optional
      configuration files in the
      <filename>/etc/modprobe.d</filename> directory
      (see <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>). <command>modprobe</command> will also use module
      options specified on the kernel command line in the form of
      &lt;module&gt;.&lt;option&gt; and blacklists in the form of
      modprobe.blacklist=&lt;module&gt;.
    </para>
    <para>
      Note that unlike in 2.4 series Linux kernels (which are not supported
      by this tool) this version of <command>modprobe</command> does not
      do anything to the module itself: the work of resolving symbols
      and understanding parameters is done inside the kernel.  So
      module failure is sometimes accompanied by a kernel message: see
      <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>dmesg</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>.
    </para>
    <para>
      <command>modprobe</command> expects an up-to-date
      <filename>modules.dep.bin</filename> file (or fallback human
      readable <filename>modules.dep</filename> file), as generated
      by the corresponding <command>depmod</command> utility shipped
      along with <command>modprobe</command> (see
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>depmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>).  This file lists what other modules each
      module needs (if any), and <command>modprobe</command> uses this
      to add or remove these dependencies automatically.
    </para>
    <para>
      If any arguments are given after the
      <replaceable>modulename</replaceable>, they are passed to the
      kernel (in addition to any options listed in the configuration
      file).
    </para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1><title>OPTIONS</title>
    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-a</option> <option>--all</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Insert all module names on the command line.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-b</option> <option>--use-blacklist</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This option causes <command>modprobe</command> to apply the
            <command>blacklist</command> commands in the configuration files
            (if any) to module names as well.  It is usually used by
            <citerefentry>
              <refentrytitle>udev</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
            </citerefentry>.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-C</option> <option>--config</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>This option overrides the default configuration directory
            (<filename>/etc/modprobe.d</filename>).
          </para>
          <para>
            This option is passed through <command>install</command>
            or <command>remove</command> commands to other
            <command>modprobe</command> commands in the
            MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-c</option> <option>--showconfig</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Dump out the effective configuration from the config directory and
            exit.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--dump-modversions</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Print out a list of module versioning information required by a
            module. This option is commonly used by distributions in order to
            package up a Linux kernel module using module versioning deps.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-d</option> <option>--dirname</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Directory where modules can be found,
            <filename>/lib/modules/<replaceable>RELEASE</replaceable></filename>
            by default.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--first-time</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Normally, <command>modprobe</command> will succeed (and do
            nothing) if told to insert a module which is already
            present or to remove a module which isn't present.  This is
            ideal for simple scripts; however, more complicated scripts often
            want to know whether <command>modprobe</command> really
            did something: this option makes modprobe fail in the
            case that it actually didn't do anything.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--force-vermagic</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Every module contains a small string containing important
            information, such as the kernel and compiler versions.  If a module
            fails to load and the kernel complains that the "version magic"
            doesn't match, you can use this option to remove it.  Naturally,
            this check is there for your protection, so this using option is
            dangerous unless you know what you're doing.
          </para>
          <para>
            This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on
            the command line and any modules on which it depends.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--force-modversion</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            When modules are compiled with CONFIG_MODVERSIONS set, a section
            detailing the versions of every interfaced used by (or supplied by)
            the module is created.  If a module fails to load and the kernel
            complains that the module disagrees about a version of some
            interface, you can use "--force-modversion" to remove the version
            information altogether.  Naturally, this check is there for your
            protection, so using this option is dangerous unless you know what
            you're doing.
          </para>
          <para>
            This applies any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on
            the command line and any modules on which it depends.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-f</option> <option>--force</option></term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Try to strip any versioning information from the module which might
            otherwise stop it from loading: this is the same as using both
            <option>--force-vermagic</option> and
            <option>--force-modversion</option>.  Naturally, these checks are
            there for your protection, so using this option is dangerous unless
            you know what you are doing.
          </para>
          <para>
            This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on
            the command line and any modules it on which it depends.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-i</option>
          <option>--ignore-install</option>
          <option>--ignore-remove</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This option causes <command>modprobe</command> to ignore
            <command>install</command> and <command>remove</command> commands
            in the configuration file (if any) for the module specified on the
            command line (any dependent modules are still subject to commands
            set for them in the configuration file). Both
            <command>install</command> and <command>remove</command> commands
            will currently be ignored when this option is used regardless of
            whether the request was more specifically made with only one or
            other (and not both) of <option>--ignore-install</option> or
            <option>--ignore-remove</option>.  See <citerefentry>
              <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
            </citerefentry>.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-n</option>
          <option>--dry-run</option>
          <option>--show</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This option does everything but actually insert or delete the
            modules (or run the install or remove commands).  Combined with
            <option>-v</option>, it is useful for debugging problems. For
            historical reasons both <option>--dry-run</option> and
            <option>--show</option> actually mean the same thing and are
            interchangeable.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-q</option>
          <option>--quiet</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            With this flag, <command>modprobe</command> won't print an error
            message if you try to remove or insert a module it can't find (and
            isn't an alias or
            <command>install</command>/<command>remove</command> command).
            However, it will still return with a non-zero exit status. The
            kernel uses this to opportunistically probe for modules which might
            exist using request_module.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-R</option>
          <option>--resolve-alias</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Print all module names matching an alias. This can be useful for
            debugging module alias problems.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-r</option>
          <option>--remove</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This option causes <command>modprobe</command> to remove rather
            than insert a module.  If the modules it depends on are also
            unused, <command>modprobe</command> will try to remove them too.
            Unlike insertion, more than one module can be specified on the
            command line (it does not make sense to specify module parameters
            when removing modules).
          </para>
          <para>
            There is usually no reason to remove modules, but some buggy
            modules require it.  Your distribution kernel may not have been
            built to support removal of modules at all.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-S</option>
          <option>--set-version</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Set the kernel version, rather than using
            <citerefentry><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
            to decide on the kernel version (which dictates where to find the
            modules).
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>--show-depends</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            List the dependencies of a module (or alias), including the module
            itself.  This produces a (possibly empty) set of module filenames,
            one per line, each starting with "insmod" and is typically used by
            distributions to determine which modules to include when generating
            initrd/initramfs images.  <command>Install</command> commands which
            apply are shown prefixed by "install".  It does not run any of the
            install commands.  Note that
            <citerefentry><refentrytitle>modinfo</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
            can be used to extract dependencies of a module from the module
            itself, but knows nothing of aliases or install commands.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-s</option>
          <option>--syslog</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            This option causes any error messages to go through the syslog
            mechanism (as LOG_DAEMON with level LOG_NOTICE) rather than to
            standard error.  This is also automatically enabled when stderr is
            unavailable.
          </para>
          <para>
            This option is passed through <command>install</command> or
            <command>remove</command> commands to other
            <command>modprobe</command> commands in the MODPROBE_OPTIONS
            environment variable.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-V</option>
          <option>--version</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>Show version of program and exit.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>
          <option>-v</option>
          <option>--verbose</option>
        </term>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Print messages about what the program is doing.  Usually
            <command>modprobe</command> only prints messages if something goes
            wrong.
          </para>
          <para>
            This option is passed through <command>install</command> or
            <command>remove</command> commands to other
            <command>modprobe</command> commands in the MODPROBE_OPTIONS
            environment variable.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1><title>ENVIRONMENT</title>
    <para>
      The MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable can also be used to pass
      arguments to <command>modprobe</command>.
    </para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1><title>COPYRIGHT</title>
    <para>
      This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM
      Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.
    </para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>SEE ALSO</title>
    <para>
      <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>,
      <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>insmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>,
      <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>rmmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>,
      <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>lsmod</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>,
      <citerefentry>
        <refentrytitle>modinfo</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
      </citerefentry>
    </para>
  </refsect1>
</refentry>