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| <refentry> |
| <refentryinfo> |
| <address> |
| <email>jcm@jonmasters.org</email> |
| </address> |
| <author> |
| <firstname>Jon</firstname> |
| <surname>Masters</surname> |
| </author> |
| <date>2010-03-09</date> |
| </refentryinfo> |
| <refmeta> |
| <refentrytitle>modprobe.conf</refentrytitle> |
| <manvolnum>5</manvolnum> |
| </refmeta> |
| <refnamediv> |
| <refname>modprobe.d</refname><refname>modprobe.conf</refname> <refpurpose>Configuration directory/file for modprobe</refpurpose> |
| </refnamediv> |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>DESCRIPTION</title> |
| |
| <para>Because the <command>modprobe</command> command can add or |
| remove more than one module, due to modules having dependencies, |
| we need a method of specifying what options are to be used with |
| those modules. All files underneath the |
| <filename>/etc/modprobe.d</filename> directory which end with the |
| <filename>.conf</filename> extension specify those options as |
| required. (the <filename>/etc/modprobe.conf</filename> file can |
| also be used if it exists, but that will be removed in a future |
| version). They can also be used to create convenient aliases: |
| alternate names for a module, or they can override the normal |
| <command>modprobe</command> behavior altogether for those with |
| special requirements (such as inserting more than one module). |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| Note that module and alias names (like other module names) can |
| have - or _ in them: both are interchangable throughout all the |
| module commands as underscore conversion happens automatically. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| The format of and files under <filename>modprobe.d</filename> and |
| <filename>/etc/modprobe.conf</filename> is simple: one |
| command per line, with blank lines and lines starting with '#' |
| ignored (useful for adding comments). A '\' at the end of a line |
| causes it to continue on the next line, which makes the file a |
| bit neater. |
| </para> |
| </refsect1> |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>COMMANDS</title> |
| <variablelist> |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>alias <replaceable>wildcard</replaceable> <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> |
| </term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| This allows you to give alternate names for a module. For |
| example: "alias my-mod really_long_modulename" |
| means you can use "modprobe my-mod" instead of "modprobe |
| really_long_modulename". You can also use shell-style |
| wildcards, so "alias my-mod* really_long_modulename" |
| means that "modprobe my-mod-something" has the same |
| effect. You can't have aliases to other aliases (that |
| way lies madness), but aliases can have options, which |
| will be added to any other options. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| Note that modules can also contain their own aliases, |
| which you can see using <command>modinfo</command>. These |
| aliases are used as a last resort (ie. if there is no real |
| module, <command>install</command>, |
| <command>remove</command>, or <command>alias</command> |
| command in the configuration). |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>blacklist <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> |
| </term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| Modules can contain their own aliases: usually these are |
| aliases describing the devices they support, such as |
| "pci:123...". These "internal" aliases can be overridden |
| by normal "alias" keywords, but there are cases where two |
| or more modules both support the same devices, or a module |
| invalidly claims to support a devicei that it does not: the |
| <command>blacklist</command> keyword indicates that all of |
| that particular module's internal aliases are to be ignored. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>install <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> <replaceable>command...</replaceable> |
| </term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| This command instructs <command>modprobe</command> to run your |
| command instead of inserting the module in the kernel as normal. |
| The command can be any shell command: this allows you to do any |
| kind of complex processing you might wish. For example, if the |
| module "fred" works better with the module "barney" |
| already installed (but it doesn't depend on it, so |
| <command>modprobe</command> won't automatically load it), |
| you could say "install fred /sbin/modprobe barney; |
| /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install fred", which would do what |
| you wanted. Note the <option>--ignore-install</option>, |
| which stops the second <command>modprobe</command> from |
| running the same <command>install</command> command again. |
| See also <command>remove</command> below. |
| </para> |
| <para>The long term future of this command as a solution to the |
| problem of providing additional module dependencies is not assured |
| and it is intended to replace this command with a warning about |
| its eventual removal or deprecation at some point in a future |
| release. Its use complicates the automated determination of module |
| dependencies by distribution utilities, such as mkinitrd (because |
| these now need to somehow interpret what the |
| <command>install</command> commands might be doing. |
| In a perfect world, modules would provide all dependency |
| information without the use of this command and work is underway |
| to implement soft dependency support within the Linux kernel. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| If you use the string "$CMDLINE_OPTS" in the command, it |
| will be replaced by any options specified on the modprobe |
| command line. This can be useful because users expect |
| "modprobe fred opt=1" to pass the "opt=1" arg to the |
| module, even if there's an install command in the |
| configuration file. So our above example becomes "install |
| fred /sbin/modprobe barney; /sbin/modprobe |
| --ignore-install fred $CMDLINE_OPTS" |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>options <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> <replaceable>option...</replaceable> |
| </term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| This command allows you to add options to the module |
| <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> (which might be an |
| alias) every time it is inserted into the kernel: whether |
| directly (using <command>modprobe</command> |
| <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> or because the |
| module being inserted depends on this module. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| All options are added together: they can come from an |
| <command>option</command> for the module itself, for an |
| alias, and on the command line. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>remove <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> <replaceable>command...</replaceable> |
| </term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| This is similar to the <command>install</command> command |
| above, except it is invoked when "modprobe -r" is run. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>softdep <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> pre: <replaceable>modules...</replaceable> post: <replaceable>modules...</replaceable> |
| </term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| The <command>softdep</command> command allows you to specify soft, |
| or optional, module dependencies. <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> |
| can be used without these optional modules installed, but usually with |
| some features missing. For example, a driver for a storage HBA might |
| require another module be loaded in order to use management features. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| pre-deps and post-deps modules are lists of names and/or aliases of other |
| modules that modprobe will attempt to install (or remove) in order |
| before and after the main module given in the |
| <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> argument. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| Example: Assume "softdep c pre: a b post: d e" is provided in the |
| configuration. Running "modprobe c" is now equivalent to |
| "modprobe a b c d e" without the softdep. |
| Flags such as --use-blacklist are applied to all the specified |
| modules, while module parameters only apply to module c. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| Note: if there are <command>install</command> or |
| <command>remove</command> commands with the same |
| <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> argument, |
| <command>softdep</command> takes precedence. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| </variablelist> |
| </refsect1> |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>COMPATIBILITY</title> |
| <para> |
| A future version of module-init-tools will come with a strong warning |
| to avoid use of the <command>install</command> as explained above. This |
| will happen once support for soft dependencies in the kernel is complete. |
| That support will complement the existing softdep support within this |
| utility by providing such dependencies directly within the modules. |
| </para> |
| </refsect1> |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>COPYRIGHT</title> |
| <para> |
| This manual page originally Copyright 2004, Rusty Russell, IBM |
| Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others. |
| </para> |
| </refsect1> |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>SEE ALSO</title> |
| |
| <para><citerefentry> |
| <refentrytitle>modprobe</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum> |
| </citerefentry>, |
| <citerefentry> |
| <refentrytitle>modules.dep</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum> |
| </citerefentry> |
| </para> |
| </refsect1> |
| </refentry> |
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