Sunday, July 11, 2010

Man Page of modprobe

MODPROBE(8)                                                        MODPROBE(8)



NAME
       modprobe - program to add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel

SYNOPSIS
       modprobe [ -v ] [ -V ] [ -C config-file ] [ -n ] [ -i ] [ -q ] [ -b ] [
       -o modulename ] [ modulename ] [ module parameters ... ]


       modprobe [ -r ] [ -v ] [ -n ] [ -i ] [ modulename ... ]


       modprobe [ -l ] [ -t dirname ] [ wildcard ]


       modprobe [ -c ]


       modprobe [ --dump-modversions ] [ filename ... ]


DESCRIPTION
       modprobe intelligently adds or removes a module from the Linux  kernel:
       note  that  for  convenience, there is no difference between _ and - in
       module  names.   modprobe  looks  in  the  module  directory  /lib/mod-
       ules/`uname  -r`  for  all  the modules and other files, except for the
       optional  /etc/modprobe.conf  configuration  file  and  /etc/modprobe.d
       directory (see modprobe.conf(5)). modprobe will also use module options
       specified on the kernel command line in the form of  ..

       Note  that  this version of modprobe 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 dmesg(8).

       modprobe expects an up-to-date modules.dep file, as generated by depmod
       (see  depmod(8)).  This file lists what other modules each module needs
       (if any), and modprobe uses this to add or  remove  these  dependencies
       automatically.  See modules.dep(5)).

       If any arguments are given after the modulename, they are passed to the
       kernel (in addition to any options listed in the configuration file).

OPTIONS
       -v --verbose
              Print messages about what the program is  doing.   Usually  mod-
              probe only prints messages if something goes wrong.

              This  option  is  passed  through  install or remove commands to
              other modprobe  commands  in  the  MODPROBE_OPTIONS  environment
              variable.

       -C --config
              This  option  overrides the default configuration directory/file
              (/etc/modprobe.d or /etc/modprobe.conf).

              This option is passed through  install  or  remove  commands  to
              other  modprobe  commands  in  the  MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment
              variable.

       -c --showconfig
              Dump out the effective configuration from the  config  directory
              and exit.

       -n --dry-run --show
              This  option  does  everything but actually insert or delete the
              modules (or run the install or remove commands).  Combined  with
              -v, it is useful for debugging problems.

       -i --ignore-install --ignore-remove
              This  option  causes  modprobe to ignore install and remove com-
              mands in the configuration file (if any) for the  module  speci-
              fied  on  the command line (any dependent modules are still sub-
              ject to commands set for them in the configuration  file).   See
              modprobe.conf(5).

       -q --quiet
              Normally  modprobe  will report an error if you try to remove or
              insert  a  module  it  can't  find  (and  isn't  an   alias   or
              install/remove  command).   With this flag, modprobe will simply
              ignore any bogus names (the kernel uses  this  to  opportunisti-
              cally probe for modules which might exist).

       -r --remove
              This  option causes modprobe to remove rather than insert a mod-
              ule.  If the modules it depends on  are  also  unused,  modprobe
              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).

              There  is  usually  no  reason to remove modules, but some buggy
              modules require it.  Your kernel may not support removal of mod-
              ules.

       -V --version
              Show version of program and exit.

       -f --force
              Try  to  strip  any versioning information from the module which
              might otherwise stop it from loading: this is the same as  using
              both  --force-vermagic and --force-modversion.  Naturally, these
              checks are there for your protection, so using  this  option  is
              dangerous.

              This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias)
              on the command line and any modules it on which it depends.

       --force-vermagic
              Every module contains a small string containing important infor-
              mation,  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.

              This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias)
              on the command line and any modules on which it depends.

       --force-modversion
              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.

              This applies any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on
              the command line and any modules on which it depends.

       -l --list
              List all modules matching the given wildcard (or "*" if no wild-
              card is given).  This option is provided for backwards  compati-
              bility: see find(1) and basename(1) for a more flexible alterna-
              tive.

       -a --all
              Insert all module names on the command line.

       -t --type
              Restrict -l to  modules  in  directories  matching  the  dirname
              given.  This option is provided for backwards compatibility: see
              find(1) and basename(1) for a more flexible alternative.

       -s --syslog
              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.

              This  option  is  passed  through  install or remove commands to
              other modprobe  commands  in  the  MODPROBE_OPTIONS  environment
              variable.

       -S --set-version
              Set  the kernel version, rather than using uname(2) to decide on
              the kernel version (which dictates where to find the modules).

       --show-depends
              List the dependencies of a module (or alias), including the mod-
              ule  itself.   This  produces  a  (possibly empty) set of module
              filenames, one per line, each starting with  "insmod".   Install
              commands  which  apply are shown prefixed by "install".  It does
              not run any of the install commands.  Note that  modinfo(8)  can
              be  used  to  extract  dependencies  of a module from the module
              itself, but knows nothing of aliases or install commands.

       -o --name
              This option tries to rename the module which is  being  inserted
              into  the kernel.  Some testing modules can usefully be inserted
              multiple times, but the kernel refuses to have  two  modules  of
              the  same  name.   Normally, modules should not require multiple
              insertions, as that would make them useless  if  there  were  no
              module support.

       --first-time
              Normally,  modprobe  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  modprobe
              really  did  something: this option makes modprobe fail for that
              case.

       --dump-modversions
              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.

       -b --use-blacklist
              This  option  causes modprobe to apply the blacklist commands in
              the configuration files (if any) to module names as well.  It is
              usually used by udev(7).

       -d --dirname
              Directory  where  modules  can be found, /lib/modules/RELEASE by
              default.

       --allow-unsupported-modules
              Load unsupported modules even if disabled in configuration.

RETURN VALUE
       modprobe returns 0 on success, 1 on an unspecified error and 2  if  the
       module  is not supported. Use the --allow-unsupported-modules option to
       force using an unsupported module.

ENVIRONMENT
       The MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable can  also  be  used  to  pass
       arguments to modprobe.

COPYRIGHT
       This manual page Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.

SEE ALSO
       modprobe.conf(5), lsmod(8), modinfo(8)



                               15 September 2009                   MODPROBE(8)

No comments: