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