1DEPMOD(8) depmod DEPMOD(8)
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6 depmod - Generate modules.dep and map files.
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9 depmod [-b basedir] [-e] [-E Module.symvers] [-F System.map] [-n] [-v]
10 [-A] [-P prefix] [-w] [version]
11 depmod [-e] [-E Module.symvers] [-F System.map] [-n] [-v] [-P prefix]
13 [-w] [version] [filename...]
14
16 Linux kernel modules can provide services (called "symbols") for other
17 modules to use (using one of the EXPORT_SYMBOL variants in the code).
18 If a second module uses this symbol, that second module clearly depends
19 on the first module. These dependencies can get quite complex.
20 depmod creates a list of module dependencies by reading each module
22 under /lib/modules/version and determining what symbols it exports and
23 what symbols it needs. By default, this list is written to modules.dep,
24 and a binary hashed version named modules.dep.bin, in the same
25 directory. If filenames are given on the command line, only those
26 modules are examined (which is rarely useful unless all modules are
27 listed). depmod also creates a list of symbols provided by modules in
28 the file named modules.symbols and its binary hashed version,
29 modules.symbols.bin. Finally, depmod will output a file named
30 modules.devname if modules supply special device names (devname) that
31 should be populated in /dev on boot (by a utility such as
32 systemd-tmpfiles).
33 If a version is provided, then that kernel version's module directory
35 is used rather than the current kernel version (as returned by uname
36 -r).
37
39 -a, --all
40 Probe all modules. This option is enabled by default if no file
41 names are given in the command-line.
42 -A, --quick
44 This option scans to see if any modules are newer than the
45 modules.dep file before any work is done: if not, it silently exits
46 rather than regenerating the files.
47 -b basedir, --basedir basedir
49 If your modules are not currently in the (normal) directory
50 /lib/modules/version, but in a staging area, you can specify a
51 basedir which is prepended to the directory name. This basedir is
52 stripped from the resulting modules.dep file, so it is ready to be
53 moved into the normal location. Use this option if you are a
54 distribution vendor who needs to pre-generate the meta-data files
55 rather than running depmod again later.
56 -C, --config file or directory
58 This option overrides the default configuration directory at
59 /etc/depmod.d/.
60 -e, --errsyms
62 When combined with the -F option, this reports any symbols which a
63 module needs which are not supplied by other modules or the kernel.
64 Normally, any symbols not provided by modules are assumed to be
65 provided by the kernel (which should be true in a perfect world),
66 but this assumption can break especially when additionally updated
67 third party drivers are not correctly installed or were built
68 incorrectly.
69 -E, --symvers
71 When combined with the -e option, this reports any symbol versions
72 supplied by modules that do not match with the symbol versions
73 provided by the kernel in its Module.symvers. This option is
74 mutually incompatible with -F.
75 -F, --filesyms System.map
77 Supplied with the System.map produced when the kernel was built,
78 this allows the -e option to report unresolved symbols. This option
79 is mutually incompatible with -E.
80 -h, --help
82 Print the help message and exit.
83 -n, --show, --dry-run
85 This sends the resulting modules.dep and the various map files to
86 standard output rather than writing them into the module directory.
87 -P
89 Some architectures prefix symbols with an extraneous character.
90 This specifies a prefix character (for example '_') to ignore.
91 -v, --verbose
93 In verbose mode, depmod will print (to stdout) all the symbols each
94 module depends on and the module's file name which provides that
95 symbol.
96 -V, --version
98 Show version of program and exit. See below for caveats when run on
99 older kernels.
100 -w
102 Warn on duplicate dependencies, aliases, symbol versions, etc.
103
105 This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM
106 Corporation. Portions Copyright Jon Masters, and others.
107
109 depmod.d(5), modprobe(8), modules.dep(5)
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112 Jon Masters <jcm@jonmasters.org>
113 Developer
114 Robby Workman <rworkman@slackware.com>
116 Developer
117 Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com>
119 Developer
120kmod 06/30/2022 DEPMOD(8)