README

   1 kmod - Linux kernel module handling
   2
   3 Information
   4 ===========
   5
   6 Build status:
   7         [![Build Status](https://semaphoreci.com/api/v1/projects/29d989ba-0f70-4006-be21-550f6692b73b/449920/shields_badge.svg)](https://semaphoreci.com/lucasdemarchi/kmod)
   8
   9 Mailing list:
  10         linux-modules@vger.kernel.org (no subscription needed)
  11         https://lore.kernel.org/linux-modules/
  12
  13 Patchwork:
  14         https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-modules/
  15
  16 Signed packages:
  17         http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/kmod/
  18
  19 Git:
  20         git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
  21         http://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
  22         https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
  23
  24 Gitweb:
  25         http://git.kernel.org/?p=utils/kernel/kmod/kmod.git
  26
  27 Irc:
  28         #kmod on irc.freenode.org
  29
  30 License:
  31         LGPLv2.1+ for libkmod, testsuite and helper libraries
  32         GPLv2+ for tools/*
  33
  34
  35 OVERVIEW
  36 ========
  37
  38 kmod is a set of tools to handle common tasks with Linux kernel modules like
  39 insert, remove, list, check properties, resolve dependencies and aliases.
  40
  41 These tools are designed on top of libkmod, a library that is shipped with
  42 kmod. See libkmod/README for more details on this library and how to use it.
  43 The aim is to be compatible with tools, configurations and indexes from
  44 module-init-tools project.
  45
  46 Compilation and installation
  47 ============================
  48
  49 In order to compiler the source code you need following software packages:
  50         - GCC compiler
  51         - GNU C library
  52
  53 Optional dependencies:
  54         - ZLIB library
  55         - LZMA library
  56
  57 Typical configuration:
  58         ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2" --prefix=/usr \
  59                         --sysconfdir=/etc --libdir=/usr/lib
  60
  61 Configure automatically searches for all required components and packages.
  62
  63 To compile and install run:
  64         make && make install
  65
  66 Hacking
  67 =======
  68
  69 Run 'autogen.sh' script before configure. If you want to accept the recommended
  70 flags, you just need to run 'autogen.sh c'. Note that the recommended
  71 flags require cython be installed to compile successfully.
  72
  73 Make sure to read the CODING-STYLE file and the other READMEs: libkmod/README
  74 and testsuite/README.
  75
  76 Compatibility with module-init-tools
  77 ====================================
  78
  79 kmod replaces module-init-tools, which is end-of-life. Most of its tools are
  80 rewritten on top of libkmod so it can be used as a drop in replacements.
  81 Somethings however were changed. Reasons vary from "the feature was already
  82 long deprecated on module-init-tools" to "it would be too much trouble to
  83 support it".
  84
  85 There are several features that are being added in kmod, but we don't
  86 keep track of them here.
  87
  88 modprobe
  89 --------
  90
  91 * 'modprobe -l' was marked as deprecated and does not exist anymore
  92
  93 * 'modprobe -t' is gone, together with 'modprobe -l'
  94
  95 * modprobe doesn't parse configuration files with names not ending in
  96   '.alias' or '.conf'. modprobe used to warn about these files.
  97
  98 * modprobe doesn't parse 'config' and 'include' commands in configuration
  99   files.
 100
 101 * modprobe from m-i-t does not honour softdeps for install commands. E.g.:
 102   config:
 103
 104         install bli "echo bli"
 105         install bla "echo bla"
 106         softdep bla pre: bli
 107
 108   With m-i-t, the output of 'modprobe --show-depends bla' will be:
 109         install "echo bla"
 110
 111   While with kmod:
 112         install "echo bli"
 113         install "echo bla"
 114
 115 * kmod doesn't dump the configuration as is in the config files. Instead it
 116   dumps the configuration as it was parsed. Therefore, comments and file names
 117   are not dumped, but on the good side we know what the exact configuration
 118   kmod is using. We did this because if we only want to know the entire content
 119   of configuration files, it's enough to use find(1) in modprobe.d directories
 120
 121 depmod
 122 ------
 123
 124 * there's no 'depmod -m' option: legacy modules.*map files are gone
 125
 126 lsmod
 127 -----
 128
 129 * module-init-tools used /proc/modules to parse module info. kmod uses
 130   /sys/module/*, but there's a fallback to /proc/modules if the latter isn't
 131   available