DEPMOD(8)																 DEPMOD(8)

NAME

       depmod - program to generate modules.dep and map files.

SYNOPSIS

       depmod [ -b basedir ]  [ -e ]  [ -F System.map ]  [ -n ]  [ -v ]  [ version ]  [ -A ]

       depmod [ -e ]  [ -FSystem.map ]	[ -n ]	[ -v ]	[ version ]  [ filename... ]

DESCRIPTION

       Linux  kernel  modules  can  provide  services  (called "symbols") for other modules to use (using one of the EXPORT_SYMBOL variants in the
       code). If a second module uses this symbol, that second module clearly depends on the first module. These dependencies can get  quite  com-
       plex.

       depmod  creates a list of module dependencies by reading each module under /lib/modules/version and determining what symbols it exports and
       what symbols it needs. By default, this list is written to modules.dep, and a binary hashed version  named  modules.dep.bin,  in  the  same
       directory.  If  filenames  are  given  on  the command line, only those modules are examined (which is rarely useful unless all modules are
       listed).  depmod also creates a list of symbols provided by modules in the file named modules.symbols and its binary hashed  version,  mod-
       ules.symbols.bin.

       If  a version is provided, then that kernel version's module directory is used rather than the current kernel version (as returned by uname
       -r).

       depmod will also generate various legacy map files in the output directory for use by the older hotplug infrastructure. These map files are
       largely deprecated.

OPTIONS

       -a --all
	      Probe all modules. This option is enabled by default if no file names are given in the command-line.

       -A --quick
	      This  option  scans  to  see  if	any modules are newer than the modules.dep file before any work is done: if not, it silently exits
	      rather than regenerating the files.

       -b basedir --basedir basedir
	      If your modules are not currently in the (normal) directory /lib/modules/version, but in a staging area, you can specify	a  basedir
	      which  is  prepended to the directory name. This basedir is stripped from the resulting modules.dep file, so it is ready to be moved
	      into the normal location. Use this option if you are a distribution vendor who needs to pre-generate the meta-data files rather than
	      running depmod again later.

       -C --config file or directory
	      This option overrides the default configuration file at /etc/depmod.conf (or the /etc/depmod.d/ directory if that is not found).

       -e --errsyms
	      When  combined with the -F option, this reports any symbols which a module needs which are not supplied by other modules or the ker-
	      nel. Normally, any symbols not provided by modules are assumed to be provided by the kernel (which  should  be  true  in	a  perfect
	      world),  but this assumption can break espencially when additionally updated third party drivers are not correctly installed or were
	      built incorrectly.

       -F --filesyms System.map
	      Supplied with the System.map produced when the kernel was built, this allows the -e option to report unresolved symbols.

       -h --help
	      Print the help message and exit.

       -n --dry-run
	      This sends the resulting modules.dep and the various map files to standard output rather than writing them into  the  module  direc-
	      tory.

       -v --verbose
	      In verbose mode, depmod will print (to stdout) all the symbols each module depends on and the module's file name which provides that
	      symbol.

       -V --version
	      Show version of program and exit. See below for caveats when run on older kernels.

COPYRIGHT

       This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.

SEE ALSO

       depmod.conf(5), depmod.d(5), modprobe(8), modules.dep(5)

								    2010-03-01								 DEPMOD(8)