modprobe man page on Debian

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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 ] [
       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 (automatic underscore conversion is performed).   modprobe
       looks  in the module directory /lib/modules/`uname -r` for all the mod‐
       ules and other files, except for the optional  /etc/modprobe.conf  con‐
       figuration  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 <module>.<option>.

       Note  that  unlike in 2.4 series Linux kernels (which are not supported
       by this tool) this version of modprobe does not do anything to the mod‐
       ule  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.bin file (or fallback human
       readable modules.dep file), as generated by  the	 corresponding	depmod
       utility	shipped	 along with modprobe (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.

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

       -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).

       -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.

       --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.

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

       --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  in  the
	      case that it actually didn't do anything.

       --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 unless you know what you're doing.

	      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 unless
	      you know what you're doing.

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

       -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 unless you know what you are doing.

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

       -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). Both
	      install and remove 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
	      --ignore-install or --ignore-remove.  See modprobe.conf(5).

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

       -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. For historical  reasons
	      both  --dry-run  and --show actually mean the same thing and are
	      interchangeable.

       -q --quiet
	      With this flag, modprobe 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 install/remove command).  However, it will still return  with
	      a	 non-zero  exit	 status. The kernel uses this to opportunisti‐
	      cally probe for modules which might exist using request_module.

       -R --resolve-alias
	      Print all module names matching an alias. This can be useful for
	      debugging module alias problems.

       -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 distribution kernel may not have  been
	      built to support removal of modules at all.

       -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" and is typ‐
	      ically  used  by	distributions  to  determine  which modules to
	      include when generating initrd/initramfs images.	 Install  com‐
	      mands  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.

       -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.

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

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

       -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.

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

COPYRIGHT
       This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corpora‐
       tion. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.

SEE ALSO
       modprobe.conf(5),  modprobe.d(5),  insmod(8),  rmmod(8), lsmod(8), mod‐
       info(8)

				30 October 2011			   MODPROBE(8)
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