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/modules/`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)).
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
modprobe 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 file
(/etc/modprobe.conf or
/etc/modprobe.d/ if that isn't found).
This option is passed through install
or remove commands to other
modprobe commands in the
MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.
-c --showconfig
Dump out the configuration file and exit.
-n --dry-run
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 commands in the
configuration file (if any), for the module on the
command line (any dependent modules are still subject
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 opportunistically probe for modules which might exist).
-r --remove
This option causes modprobe to remove,
rather than insert a module. 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 modules.
-V --version
Show version of program, and exit. See below for caveats when run on older kernels.
-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 depends on.
--force-vermagic
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.
This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or
alias) on the command line, and any modules it depends on.
--force-modversion
When modules are compiled with CONFIG_MODVERSIONS set, a
section is created detailing the versions of every
interface used by (or supplied by) the module. 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 it depends on.
-l --list
List all modules matching the given wildcard (or "*"
if no wildcard is given). This option is provided for
backwards compatibility: see
find(1) and
basename(1) for a more flexible alternative.
-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) or 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.
--set-version
Set the kernel version, rather than using
uname(2) to decide on the kernel version (which dictates where to
find the modules). This also disables backwards
compatibility checks (so
modprobe.old(8) will never be run).
--show-depends
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". 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 remove a module which isn't present. This is
backwards compatible with the modutils, and 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.
BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
This version of modprobe is for kernels
2.5.48 and above. If it detects a kernel
with support for old-style modules (for which much of the work
was done in userspace), it will attempt to run
modprobe.old in its place, so it is
completely transparent to the user.
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.
