modprobe(8) — Linux manual page
MODPROBE(8) modprobe MODPROBE(8)
NAME
modprobe - 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 [-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 modules and other files,
except for the optional configuration files in the
/etc/modprobe.d directory (see modprobe.d(5)). modprobe will
also use module options specified on the kernel command line in
the form of <module>.<option> and blacklists in the form of
modprobe.blacklist=<module>.
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 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.bin 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).
When loading modules, modulename can also be a path to the
module. If the path is relative, it must explicitly start with
"./". Note that this may fail when using a path to a module with
dependencies not matching the installed depmod database.
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
(/etc/modprobe.d).
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
Root directory for modules, / 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
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 using this 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
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 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.d(5).
-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
opportunistically 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
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 distribution kernel may not have
been built to support removal of modules at all.
-w, --wait=TIMEOUT_MSEC
This option causes modprobe -r to continue trying to remove a
module if it fails due to the module being busy, i.e. its
refcount is not 0 at the time the call is made. Modprobe
tries to remove the module with an incremental sleep time
between each tentative up until the maximum wait time in
milliseconds passed in this option.
-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
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. 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.
-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.
-V, --version
Show version of program and exit.
-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.
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
Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.
SEE ALSO
modprobe.d(5), insmod(8), rmmod(8), lsmod(8), modinfo(8)
depmod(8)
AUTHORS
Jon Masters <jcm@jonmasters.org>
Developer
Robby Workman <rworkman@slackware.com>
Developer
Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com>
Developer
COLOPHON
This page is part of the kmod (userspace tools for managing
kernel modules) project. Information about the project can be
found at [unknown -- if you know, please contact man-
pages@man7.org] If you have a bug report for this manual page,
send it to linux-modules@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained
from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git⟩ on
2024-06-14. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit
that was found in the repository was 2024-06-11.) If you
discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for
the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original
manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
kmod 06/14/2024 MODPROBE(8)
Pages that refer to this page: delete_module(2), init_module(2), sk98lin(4), modprobe.d(5), modules.dep(5), modules-load.d(5), sysctl.d(5), depmod(8), insmod(8), kmod(8), lsmod(8), modinfo(8), rmmod(8)