doc/modprobe.conf.sgml

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<refentry>
  <refentryinfo>
    <address>
      <email>rusty@rustcorp.com.au</email>
    </address>
    <author>
      <firstname>Rusty</firstname>
      <surname>Russell</surname>
    </author>
    <date>2005-06-01</date>
  </refentryinfo>
  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>modprobe.d</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
    <refentrytitle>modprobe.conf</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>
  <refnamediv>
    <refname>modprobe.conf</refname><refname>modprobe.d</refname> <refpurpose>Configuration file/directory for modprobe</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>
  <refsect1>
    <title>DESCRIPTION</title>

    <para>Because the <command>modprobe</command> command can add or
      remove extra more than one module, due to module dependencies,
      we need a method of specifying what options are to be used with
      those modules.  <filename>/etc/modprobe.conf</filename> (or, if that does not exist, all files under the <filename>/etc/modprobe.d</filename> directory) specifies
      those options, as required.  It can also be used to create
      convenient aliases: alternate names for a module.  Finally, it
      can override the normal <command>modprobe</command> behavior
      altogether, for those with very 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.
    </para>
    <para>
      The format of <filename>modprobe.conf</filename> and files under <filename>modprobe.d</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>
    <para>
      The syntax is a simplification of <filename>modules.conf</filename>, used in 2.4 kernels and earlier.
    </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>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>install <replaceable>modulename</replaceable> <replaceable>command...</replaceable>
        </term>
	<listitem>
	  <para>
	    This is the most powerful primitive in
	    <filename>modprobe.conf</filename>: it tells
	    <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" worked better with the module "barney"
	    already installed (but it didn'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
	    re-running the same <command>install</command> command.
	    See also <command>remove</command> below.
	  </para>
	  <para>
	    You can also use <command>install</command> to make up
	    modules which don't otherwise exist.  For example:
	    "install probe-ethernet /sbin/modprobe e100 ||
	    /sbin/modprobe eepro100", which will try first the e100
	    driver, then the eepro100 driver, when you do "modprobe
	    probe-ethernet".
	  </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>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.
	    The removal counterparts to the two examples above would
	    be: "remove fred /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove fred &&
	    /sbin/modprobe -r barney", and "remove probe-ethernet
	    /sbin/modprobe -r eepro100 || /sbin/modprobe -r e100".
	  </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>include <replaceable>filename</replaceable>
        </term>
	<listitem>
	  <para>
	    Using this command, you can include other configuration
	    files, or whole directories, which is occasionally useful.  Note that aliases in
	    the included file will override aliases previously
	    declared in the current file.
	  </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 device: the
	    <command>blacklist</command> keyword indicates that all of
	    that particular module's internal aliases are to be ignored.
	  </para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </refsect1>
  <refsect1>
    <title>Backwards Compatibility</title>

    <para>
      There is a <command>generate_modprobe.conf</command> program
      which should do a reasonable job of generating
      <filename>modprobe.conf</filename> from your current (2.4 or
      2.2) modules setup.
    </para>
    <para>
      Although the syntax is similar to the older
      <filename>/etc/modules.conf</filename>, there are many features
      missing.  There are two reasons for this: firstly, install and
      remove commands can do just about anything, and secondly, the
      module-init-tools modprobe is designed to be simple enough that
      it can be easily replaced.
    </para>
    <para>
      With the complexity of actual module insertion reduced to three
      system calls (open, read, init_module), and the
      <filename>modules.dep</filename> file being simple and open,
      producing a more powerful modprobe variant can be done
      independently if there is a need.
    </para>
  </refsect1>
  <refsect1>
    <title>COPYRIGHT</title>
    <para>
      This manual page Copyright 2004, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.
    </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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