.\" Copyright (c) 1994, 1995 Jacques Gelinas (jacques@solucorp.qc.ca)
.\" Copyright (c) 1995 Bjorn Ekwall (bj0rn@blox.se)
.\" This program is distributed according to the Gnu General Public License.
.\" See the file COPYING in the kernel source directory /linux
.\" $Id: depmod.1,v 1.2 1998/01/07 08:43:52 rth Exp $
.\"
.TH DEPMOD 1 "March 17, 1996" Linux "Linux Module Support"
.SH NAME
depmod, modprobe \- handle loadable modules automatically
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B depmod
[ \-a ]
.br
.B depmod
[ \-a version ]
.br
.B depmod
module1.o module2.o ...
.PP
.B modprobe
module.o [symbol=value ...]
.br
.B modprobe
\-t tag pattern
.br
.B modprobe
\-a \-t tag pattern
.br
.B modprobe
\-l [ \-t tag ] pattern
.br
.B modprobe
\-r module
.br
.B modprobe
\-c
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
These utilities are intended
to make a Linux modular kernel manageable for all users,
administrators and distribution maintainers.
.PP
.B Depmod
creates a "Makefile"-like dependency file, based on the symbols it finds
in the set of modules mentioned on the command line (or in a default place).
This dependency file can later be used by
.B modprobe
to automatically load the relevant module(s).
.PP
.B Modprobe
is used to load a set of modules, either a single module,
a stack of dependant modules,
or all modules that are marked with a specified tag.
.PP
.B Modprobe
will automatically load all base modules needed in a module stack,
as described by the dependency file modules.dep.
If the loading of one of these modules fails, the whole current stack
of modules will be unloaded (by rmmod) automatically.
.PP
.B Modprobe
has two ways of loading modules. One way (the probe mode) will
try to load a module out of a list (defined by
.B pattern
).
It stops loading as soon as one module load successfully.
This can be used to autoload one ethernet driver out of a list for example.
The other way, is to load all modules from a list.
This can be used to load some modules at boot time.
.PP
With the option
.B -r,
modprobe will automatically unload a stack of modules,
similar to the way
.B rmmod -r
does.
.PP
Option -l combined with option -t list all available modules
of a certain type.
An enhanced
.B mount
command could use the command

	modprobe -l -t fs

to get the list of all file system drivers available and on
request load the proper one.
So, the mount command could become more generic as well...
(The kerneld solve this without changing the mount utility)
.PP
Option -c will print all configuration (default + configuration file).
.PP
The normal use of
.B depmod
is to include the line "/sbin/depmod -a" in one of the rc-files
in /etc/rc.d, so that the correct module dependencies will be available
immediately after booting the system.
.br
Note that it is also possible to create the dependency file immediately
after compiling a new kernel.
If you do "depmod -a 1.3.99" when you have compiled kernel 1.3.99 and
its modules the first time, while still running e.g. 1.3.98, the file will
be created in the correct place.
.br
Note however that the dependencies on the kernel will not be guaranteed
to be correct in this case!
.PP
Option
.B -d
put depmod in debug mode. It outputs all command it is issuing.
.Pp
Option
.B -e
output the list of unresolved symbol for each module, Normally depmod
only output the list of unloadable modules.
.Pp
Option
.B -v
output the list of all processed modules.
.Pp
Modules may be located at different place in the filesystem,
but there will always be some need to override this,
especially for module developers.
We expect some official standard will emerge, defined by the FSSTND.
Until that time you might as well use this suggested directory structure.
.SH CONFIGURATION
The behaviour of
.B depmod
and
.B modprobe
can be adjusted by the (optional) configuration file
.B /etc/conf.modules
.PP
The configuration file consists of a set of lines.
.br
All empty lines, and all text on a line after a '#', will be ignored.
.br
Lines may be continued by ending the line with a '\\'.
.br
The remaining lines should all conform to one of the following formats:

  keep
  parameter=value
  options module symbol=value ...
  alias module real_name
  pre-install module command ...
  install module command ...
  post-install module command ...
  pre-remove module command ...
  remove module command ...
  post-remove module command ...

All values in the "parameter" lines will be processed by a shell,
which means that "shell tricks" like wild-cards
and commands enclosed in back-quotes can be used:

  path[misc]=/lib/modules/1.1.5?
  path[net]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`

Parameters may be repeated multiple times.
.PP
These are the legal parameters:
.TP
keep
If this word is found on a line
.B before
any lines that contain the
.B path
descriptions, the default set of paths will be saved, and thus added to.
Otherwise the normal behaviour is that the default set will be
.B replaced
by the set of paths in the configuration file.
.TP
depfile=DEPFILE_PATH
This is the path to the dependency file that will be created by
.B depmod
and used by
.B modprobe.
.TP
path=SOME_PATH
The
.B path
parameter specifies a directory to search for the modules.
.TP
path[tag]=SOME_PATH
The path parameter can carry an optional tag.
This tells us a little more about the purpose of the modules in
this directory and allows some automated operations by
.B modprobe.
The tag is appended to the "path" keyword enclose in square brackets.
If the tag is missing, the tag "misc" is assumed.
.br
One very useful tag is
.B boot,
which can be used to mark all modules that should be loaded at boot-time.
.PP
If the configuration file '/etc/conf.modules' is missing,
or if any parameter is not overridden,
the following defaults are assumed:
.PP
  depfile=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/modules.dep
  path[boot]=/lib/modules

  path[fs]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[misc]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[net]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[scsi]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[cdrom]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[ipv4]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[ipv6]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`
  path[sound]=/lib/modules/`uname -r`

  path[fs]=/lib/modules/default
  path[misc]=/lib/modules/default
  path[net]=/lib/modules/default
  path[scsi]=/lib/modules/default
  path[cdrom]=/lib/modules/default
  path[ipv4]=/lib/modules/default
  path[ipv6]=/lib/modules/default
  path[sound]=/lib/modules/default

  path[fs]=/lib/modules
  path[misc]=/lib/modules
  path[net]=/lib/modules
  path[scsi]=/lib/modules
  path[cdrom]=/lib/modules
  path[ipv4]=/lib/modules
  path[ipv6]=/lib/modules
  path[sound]=/lib/modules
.PP
All "option" lines specify the default options that are needed for
a module, as in:

  modprobe de620 bnc=1

These options will be overridden by any options given on the
.B modprobe
command line.
.br
It is possible to have an "option" line for aliased module names as well
as for the non-aliased name.
This is useful for e.g. the dummy module:

  alias dummy0 dummy
  options dummy0 -o dummy0

.PP
The "alias" lines can be used to give alias names to modules.
A line in /etc/conf.modules that looks like this:

  alias iso9660 isofs

makes it possible to write
.B "modprobe iso9660"
although there is no such module available.
.br
Note that the line:

  alias some_module off

will make modprobe ignore requests to load that module.
This is usually used in conjunction with
.B kerneld.
.TP
Commands
The configuration lines
  pre-install module command ...
  install module command ...
  post-install module command ...
  pre-remove module command ...
  remove module command ...
  post-remove module command ...
.br
can be used when one wants some specific commands to be executed when
a module is inserted or removed.
All text after the module name will be interpreted as the command text.
.br
Note that the pre- and post-remove commands will \fBnot\fR be executed
if a module is "autocleaned" by kerneld!
Look for the up-coming support for persistent module storage instead.
.SH STRATEGY
The idea is that
.B modprobe
will look first at the directory containing
modules compiled for the current release of the kernel.
If the module is not found there,
.B modprobe
will look in the directory containing modules for a default release.
.PP
When you install a new linux, the modules should be moved to a directory
related to the release (and version) of the kernel you are installing.
Then you should do a symlink from this directory to the "default" directory.
.PP
Each time you compile a new kernel, the command
.B "make modules_install"
will create a new directory, but won't change the default.
.PP
When you get a module unrelated to the kernel distribution
you should place it in one of the version-independent directories
under /lib/modules.
.PP
This is the default strategy, which can be overridden in /etc/conf.modules.
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
modprobe -t net
Load one of the modules that are stored in the directory tagged "net".
Each module are tried until one succeed (default: /lib/modules/net).
.TP
modprobe -a -t boot
All modules that are stored in the directory tagged "boot" will
be loaded (default: /lib/modules/boot).
.TP
modprobe slip.o
This will attempt to load the module slhc.o if it was not previously loaded,
since the slip module needs the functionality in the slhc module.
This dependency will be described in the file "modules.dep" that was
created automatically by
.B depmod
.TP
modprobe -r slip.o
will unload slip.o. It will also unload slhc.o automatically,
unless it is used by some other module as well (like e.g. ppp.o).
.SH FILES
.nf
/etc/conf.modules, (and /etc/modules.conf)
/lib/modules/*/modules.dep,
/lib/modules/*
.fi
.SH SEE ALSO
lsmod(1),
kerneld(8),
ksyms(1),
modules(2),
.SH REQUIERED UTILITIES
insmod(1),
nm(1)
rmmod(1),
.SH NOTES
The pattern supplied to modprobe will often be escaped to ensure
that it is evaluated in the proper context

.SH AUTHOR
Jacques Gelinas (jack@solucorp.qc.ca)
.br
Bjorn Ekwall (bj0rn@blox.se)
.SH BUGS
Naah...