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 /usr/lib/`uname -r` for all the modules
and other files, except for the optional configuration files (see mod-
probe.d(5)). modprobe will also use module options specified on the ker-
nel 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 dep-
mod(8)). This file lists what other modules each module needs (if any),
and modprobe uses this to add or remove these dependencies automati-
cally.
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 directory, --config=directory
This option overrides the default configuration directory. See mod-
probe.d(5).
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 mod-
ule. This option is commonly used by distributions in order to pack-
age 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 informa-
tion, 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 un-
less 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 de-
tailing the versions of every interfaced used by (or supplied by)
the module is created. If a module fails to load and the kernel com-
plains that the module disagrees about a version of some interface,
you can use --force-modversion to remove the version information al-
together. Naturally, this check is there for your protection, so us-
ing 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.
-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 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 com-
mand line (any dependent modules are still subject to commands set
for them in the configuration file). Both install and remove com-
mands 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 mod-
ules (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 in-
stall/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 de-
bugging 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 spec-
ified 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 sup-
port removal of modules at all.
-w TIMEOUT_MSEC, --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 version, --set-version=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 pre-
fixed 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 com-
mands.
-s, --syslog
This option causes any error messages to go through the syslog mech-
anism (as LOG_DAEMON with level LOG_NOTICE) rather than to standard
error. This is also automatically enabled when stderr is unavail-
able.
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 com-
mand line arguments to modprobe. The format is intentionally left undoc-
umented, since the use by third-party tools and scripts is discouraged.
The environment variable originates with the implementation of the in-
stall rules.
COPYRIGHT
This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corpora-
tion.
SEE ALSO
modprobe.d(5), insmod(8), rmmod(8), lsmod(8), modinfo(8), depmod(8)
BUGS
Please direct any bug reports to kmod's issue tracker at
https://github.com/kmod-project/kmod/issues/ alongside with version
used, steps to reproduce the problem and the expected outcome.
AUTHORS
Numerous contributions have come from the linux-modules mailing list
<linux-modules@vger.kernel.org> and Github. If you have a clone of
kmod.git itself, the output of git-shortlog(1) and git-blame(1) can show
you the authors for specific parts of the project.
Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com> is the current maintainer of
the project.
kmod 2025-04-25 MODPROBE(8)
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