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   6  .TH "MODPROBE.CONF" "5" "13 October 2008" "" ""
   7  
   8  .SH NAME
   9  modprobe.conf, modprobe.d \- Configuration file/directory for modprobe
  10  .SH "DESCRIPTION"
  11  .PP
  12  Because the \fBmodprobe\fR command can add or
  13  remove extra more than one module, due to module dependencies,
  14  we need a method of specifying what options are to be used with
  15  those modules.  \fI/etc/modprobe.conf\fR (or, if that does not exist, all files under the \fI/etc/modprobe.d\fR directory) specifies
  16  those options, as required.  It can also be used to create
  17  convenient aliases: alternate names for a module.  Finally, it
  18  can override the normal \fBmodprobe\fR behavior
  19  altogether, for those with very special requirements (such as
  20  inserting more than one module).
  21  .PP
  22  Note that module and alias names (like other module names) can
  23  have - or _ in them: both are interchangable throughout all the
  24  module commands.
  25  .PP
  26  The format of \fImodprobe.conf\fR and files under \fImodprobe.d\fR is simple: one
  27  command per line, with blank lines and lines starting with #
  28  ignored (useful for adding comments).  A \\ at the end of a line
  29  causes it to continue on the next line, which makes the file a
  30  bit neater.
  31  .PP
  32  The syntax is a simplification of \fImodules.conf\fR, used in 2.4 kernels and earlier.
  33  .SH "COMMANDS"
  34  .TP
  35  \fBalias \fIwildcard\fB \fImodulename\fB \fR
  36  This allows you to give alternate names for a module.  For
  37  example: "alias my-mod really_long_modulename"
  38  means you can use "modprobe my-mod" instead of "modprobe
  39  really_long_modulename".  You can also use shell-style
  40  wildcards, so "alias my-mod* really_long_modulename"
  41  means that "modprobe my-mod-something" has the same
  42  effect.  You can't have aliases to other aliases (that
  43  way lies madness), but aliases can have options, which
  44  will be added to any other options.
  45  
  46  Note that modules can also contain their own aliases,
  47  which you can see using \fBmodinfo\fR\&.  These
  48  aliases are used as a last resort (ie. if there is no real
  49  module, \fBinstall\fR,
  50  \fBremove\fR, or \fBalias\fR
  51  command in the configuration).
  52  .TP
  53  \fBoptions \fImodulename\fB \fIoption...\fB \fR
  54  This command allows you to add options to the module
  55  \fImodulename\fR (which might be an
  56  alias) every time it is inserted into the kernel: whether
  57  directly (using \fBmodprobe\fR 
  58  \fImodulename\fR, or because the
  59  module being inserted depends on this module.
  60  
  61  All options are added together: they can come from an
  62  \fBoption\fR for the module itself, for an
  63  alias, and on the command line.
  64  .TP
  65  \fBinstall \fImodulename\fB \fIcommand...\fB \fR
  66  This is the most powerful primitive in
  67  \fImodprobe.conf\fR: it tells
  68  \fBmodprobe\fR to run your command instead of
  69  inserting the module in the kernel as normal.  The command
  70  can be any shell command: this allows you to do any kind
  71  of complex processing you might wish.  For example, if the
  72  module "fred" worked better with the module "barney"
  73  already installed (but it didn't depend on it, so
  74  \fBmodprobe\fR won't automatically load it),
  75  you could say "install fred /sbin/modprobe barney;
  76  /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install fred", which would do what
  77  you wanted.  Note the \fB--ignore-install\fR,
  78  which stops the second \fBmodprobe\fR from
  79  re-running the same \fBinstall\fR command.
  80  See also \fBremove\fR below.
  81  
  82  You can also use \fBinstall\fR to make up
  83  modules which don't otherwise exist.  For example:
  84  "install probe-ethernet /sbin/modprobe e100 ||
  85  /sbin/modprobe eepro100", which will try first the e100
  86  driver, then the eepro100 driver, when you do "modprobe
  87  probe-ethernet".
  88  
  89  If you use the string "$CMDLINE_OPTS" in the command, it
  90  will be replaced by any options specified on the modprobe
  91  command line.  This can be useful because users expect
  92  "modprobe fred opt=1" to pass the "opt=1" arg to the
  93  module, even if there's an install command in the
  94  configuration file.  So our above example becomes "install
  95  fred /sbin/modprobe barney; /sbin/modprobe
  96  --ignore-install fred $CMDLINE_OPTS"
  97  .TP
  98  \fBremove \fImodulename\fB \fIcommand...\fB \fR
  99  This is similar to the \fBinstall\fR command
 100  above, except it is invoked when "modprobe -r" is run.
 101  The removal counterparts to the two examples above would
 102  be: "remove fred /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove fred &&
 103  /sbin/modprobe -r barney", and "remove probe-ethernet
 104  /sbin/modprobe -r eepro100 || /sbin/modprobe -r e100".
 105  .TP
 106  \fBinclude \fIfilename\fB \fR
 107  Using this command, you can include other configuration
 108  files, or whole directories, which is occasionally useful.  Note that aliases in
 109  the included file will override aliases previously
 110  declared in the current file.
 111  .TP
 112  \fBblacklist \fImodulename\fB \fR
 113  Modules can contain their own aliases: usually these are
 114  aliases describing the devices they support, such as
 115  "pci:123...".  These "internal" aliases can be overridden
 116  by normal "alias" keywords, but there are cases where two
 117  or more modules both support the same devices, or a module
 118  invalidly claims to support a device: the
 119  \fBblacklist\fR keyword indicates that all of
 120  that particular module's internal aliases are to be ignored.
 121  .SH "BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY"
 122  .PP
 123  There is a \fBgenerate_modprobe.conf\fR program
 124  which should do a reasonable job of generating
 125  \fImodprobe.conf\fR from your current (2.4 or
 126  2.2) modules setup.
 127  .PP
 128  Although the syntax is similar to the older
 129  \fI/etc/modules.conf\fR, there are many features
 130  missing.  There are two reasons for this: firstly, install and
 131  remove commands can do just about anything, and secondly, the
 132  module-init-tools modprobe is designed to be simple enough that
 133  it can be easily replaced.
 134  .PP
 135  With the complexity of actual module insertion reduced to three
 136  system calls (open, read, init_module), and the
 137  \fImodules.dep\fR file being simple and open,
 138  producing a more powerful modprobe variant can be done
 139  independently if there is a need.
 140  .SH "COPYRIGHT"
 141  .PP
 142  This manual page Copyright 2004, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.
 143  .SH "SEE ALSO"
 144  .PP
 145  \fBmodprobe\fR(8),
 146  \fBmodules.dep\fR(5)