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.TH "MODPROBE" "8" "13 October 2008" "" ""

.SH NAME
modprobe \- program to add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel
.SH SYNOPSIS

\fBmodprobe\fR [ \fB-v\fR ] [ \fB-V\fR ] [ \fB-C \fIconfig-file\fB\fR ] [ \fB-n\fR ] [ \fB-i\fR ] [ \fB-q\fR ] [ \fB-o \fImodulename\fB\fR ] [ \fB\fImodulename\fB\fR ] [ \fB\fImodule parameters\fB\fR\fI ...\fR ]


\fBmodprobe\fR [ \fB-r\fR ] [ \fB-v\fR ] [ \fB-n\fR ] [ \fB-i\fR ] [ \fB\fImodulename\fB\fR\fI ...\fR ]


\fBmodprobe\fR [ \fB-l\fR ] [ \fB-t \fIdirname\fB\fR ] [ \fB\fIwildcard\fB\fR ]


\fBmodprobe\fR [ \fB-c\fR ]


\fBmodprobe\fR [ \fB--dump-modversions\fR ]

.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
\fBmodprobe\fR intelligently adds or removes a
module from the Linux kernel: note that for convenience, there
is no difference between _ and - in module names.
\fBmodprobe\fR looks in the module directory
\fI/lib/modules/`uname -r`\fR for all
the modules and other files, except for the optional
\fI/etc/modprobe.conf\fR configuration file and
\fI/etc/modprobe.d\fR directory
(see \fBmodprobe.conf\fR(5)). \fBmodprobe\fR will also use module
options specified on the kernel command line in the form of
<module>\&.option>\&.
.PP
Note that this version of \fBmodprobe\fR 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
\fBdmesg\fR(8)\&.
.PP
\fBmodprobe\fR expects an up-to-date
\fImodules.dep\fR file, as generated by
\fBdepmod\fR (see \fBdepmod\fR(8)).  This file lists what other modules each
module needs (if any), and \fBmodprobe\fR uses this
to add or remove these dependencies automatically.  See
\fBmodules.dep\fR(5)).
.PP
If any arguments are given after the
\fImodulename\fR, they are passed to the
kernel (in addition to any options listed in the configuration
file).
.SH "OPTIONS"
.TP
\fB-v --verbose \fR
Print messages about what the program is doing.  Usually
\fBmodprobe\fR only prints messages if
something goes wrong.

This option is passed through \fBinstall\fR
or \fBremove\fR commands to other
\fBmodprobe\fR commands in the
MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.
.TP
\fB-C --config \fR
This option overrides the default configuration file
(\fI/etc/modprobe.conf\fR or 
\fI/etc/modprobe.d/\fR if that isn't found).

This option is passed through \fBinstall\fR
or \fBremove\fR commands to other
\fBmodprobe\fR commands in the
MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.
.TP
\fB-c --showconfig \fR
Dump out the configuration file and exit.
.TP
\fB-n --dry-run \fR
This option does everything but actually insert or
delete the modules (or run the install or remove
commands).  Combined with \fB-v\fR, it is
useful for debugging problems.
.TP
\fB-i --ignore-install --ignore-remove \fR
This option causes \fBmodprobe\fR to
ignore \fBinstall\fR and
\fBremove\fR 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 \fBmodprobe.conf\fR(5)\&.
.TP
\fB-q --quiet \fR
Normally \fBmodprobe\fR will report an error
if you try to remove or insert a module it can't find (and
isn't an alias or
\fBinstall\fR/\fBremove\fR
command).  With this flag, \fBmodprobe\fR
will simply ignore any bogus names (the kernel uses this
to opportunistically probe for modules which might exist).
.TP
\fB-r --remove \fR
This option causes \fBmodprobe\fR to remove,
rather than insert a module.  If the modules it depends on
are also unused, \fBmodprobe\fR 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.
.TP
\fB-w --wait \fR
This option is applicable only with the -r or --remove option.
It causes modprobe to block in the kernel (within the kernel
module handling code itself) waiting for the specified modules'
reference count to reach zero. Default operation is for modprobe
to operate like rmmod, which exits with EWOULDBLOCK if the
modules reference count is non-zero.
.TP
\fB-V --version \fR
Show version of program, and exit.  See below for caveats when run on older kernels.
.TP
\fB-f --force \fR
Try to strip any versioning information from the module,
which might otherwise stop it from loading: this is the
same as using both \fB--force-vermagic\fR and
\fB--force-modversion\fR\&.  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.
.TP
\fB--force-vermagic \fR
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.
.TP
\fB--force-modversion \fR
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.
.TP
\fB-l --list \fR
List all modules matching the given wildcard (or "*"
if no wildcard is given).  This option is provided for
backwards compatibility: see
\fBfind\fR(1) and
\fBbasename\fR(1) for a more flexible alternative.
.TP
\fB-a --all \fR
Insert all module names on the command line.
.TP
\fB-t --type \fR
Restrict \fB-l\fR to modules
in directories matching the
\fIdirname\fR given.  This option
is provided for backwards compatibility: see
\fBfind\fR(1)
and
\fBbasename\fR(1) or a more flexible alternative.
.TP
\fB-s --syslog \fR
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 \fBinstall\fR
or \fBremove\fR commands to other
\fBmodprobe\fR commands in the
MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.
.TP
\fB--set-version \fR
Set the kernel version, rather than using
\fBuname\fR(2) to decide on the kernel version (which dictates where to
find the modules).  This also disables backwards
compatibility checks (so 
\fBmodprobe.old\fR(8) will never be run).
.TP
\fB--show-depends \fR
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
\fBmodinfo\fR(8)
can be used to extract dependencies of a module from the
module itself, but knows nothing of aliases or install commands.
.TP
\fB-o --name \fR
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.
.TP
\fB--first-time \fR
Normally, \fBmodprobe\fR 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 \fBmodprobe\fR really
did something: this option makes modprobe fail for that
case.
.TP
\fB--dump-modversions \fR
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 Linuxx kernel module using module versioning deps.
.TP
\fB--use-blacklist \fR
Apply a matchin blacklist entry also to a request by module name,
not only to a request by an alias.
.SH "BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY"
.PP
This version of \fBmodprobe\fR 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
\fBmodprobe.old\fR in its place, so it is
completely transparent to the user.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
.PP
The MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable can also be used to
pass arguments to \fBmodprobe\fR\&.
.SH "COPYRIGHT"
.PP
This manual page Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
\fBmodprobe.conf\fR(5),
\fBlsmod\fR(8),
\fBmodprobe.old\fR(8)