README
1kmod - Linux kernel module handling
2
3Information
4===========
5
6Build status:
7 [](https://semaphoreci.com/lucasdemarchi/kmod)
8
9Mailing list:
10 linux-modules@vger.kernel.org (no subscription needed)
11
12Patchwork:
13 https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-modules/
14
15Signed packages:
16 http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/
17
18Git:
19 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
20 http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
21 https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
22
23Gitweb:
24 http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
25
26Irc:
27 #kmod on irc.freenode.org
28
29License:
30 LGPLv2.1+ for libkmod, testsuite and helper libraries
31 GPLv2+ for tools/*
32
33
34OVERVIEW
35========
36
37kmod is a set of tools to handle common tasks with Linux kernel modules like
38insert, remove, list, check properties, resolve dependencies and aliases.
39
40These tools are designed on top of libkmod, a library that is shipped with
41kmod. See libkmod/README for more details on this library and how to use it.
42The aim is to be compatible with tools, configurations and indexes from
43module-init-tools project.
44
45Compilation and installation
46============================
47
48In order to compiler the source code you need following software packages:
49 - GCC compiler
50 - GNU C library
51
52Optional dependencies:
53 - ZLIB library
54 - LZMA library
55
56Typical configuration:
57 ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2" --prefix=/usr \
58 --sysconfdir=/etc --libdir=/usr/lib
59
60Configure automatically searches for all required components and packages.
61
62To compile and install run:
63 make && make install
64
65Hacking
66=======
67
68Run 'bootstrap' script before configure. If you want to accept the recommended
69flags, you just need to run 'bootstrap-configure'. Note that the recommended
70flags require cython be installed to compile successfully.
71
72Make sure to read the CODING-STYLE file and the other READMEs: libkmod/README
73and testsuite/README.
74
75Compatibility with module-init-tools
76====================================
77
78kmod replaces module-init-tools, which is end-of-life. Most of its tools are
79rewritten on top of libkmod so it can be used as a drop in replacements.
80Somethings however were changed. Reasons vary from "the feature was already
81long deprecated on module-init-tools" to "it would be too much trouble to
82support it".
83
84There are several features that are being added in kmod, but we don't
85keep track of them here.
86
87modprobe
88--------
89
90* 'modprobe -l' was marked as deprecated and does not exist anymore
91
92* 'modprobe -t' is gone, together with 'modprobe -l'
93
94* modprobe doesn't parse configuration files with names not ending in
95 '.alias' or '.conf'. modprobe used to warn about these files.
96
97* modprobe doesn't parse 'config' and 'include' commands in configuration
98 files.
99
100* modprobe from m-i-t does not honour softdeps for install commands. E.g.:
101 config:
102
103 install bli "echo bli"
104 install bla "echo bla"
105 softdep bla pre: bli
106
107 With m-i-t, the output of 'modprobe --show-depends bla' will be:
108 install "echo bla"
109
110 While with kmod:
111 install "echo bli"
112 install "echo bla"
113
114* kmod doesn't dump the configuration as is in the config files. Instead it
115 dumps the configuration as it was parsed. Therefore, comments and file names
116 are not dumped, but on the good side we know what the exact configuration
117 kmod is using. We did this because if we only want to know the entire content
118 of configuration files, it's enough to use find(1) in modprobe.d directories
119
120depmod
121------
122
123* there's no 'depmod -m' option: legacy modules.*map files are gone
124
125lsmod
126-----
127
128* module-init-tools used /proc/modules to parse module info. kmod uses
129 /sys/module/*, but there's a fallback to /proc/modules if the latter isn't
130 available
131
README.md
