modprobe.conf(5)						File Formats Manual						  modprobe.conf(5)

NAME

       modprobe.d, modprobe.confmodprobe.conf -- Configuration directory/file for modprobe

DESCRIPTION

       Because	the  modprobe  command	can add or remove more than one module, due to modules having dependencies, we need a method of specifying
       what options are to be used with those modules.	All files underneath the /etc/modprobe.d directory which  end  with  the  .conf  extension
       specify	those  options	as required. (the /etc/modprobe.conf file can also be used if it exists, but that will be removed in a future ver-
       sion).  They can also be used to create convenient aliases: alternate names for a module, or they can override the normal modprobe behavior
       altogether for those with special requirements (such as inserting more than one module).

       Note  that module and alias names (like other module names) can have - or _ in them: both are interchangable throughout all the module com-
       mands as underscore conversion happens automatically.

       The format of and files under modprobe.d and /etc/modprobe.conf 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.

COMMANDS

       alias wildcard modulename
		 This allows you to give alternate names for a module.	For example: "alias my-mod really_long_modulename" means you can use "mod-
		 probe	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.

		 Note  that  modules can also contain their own aliases, which you can see using modinfo.  These aliases are used as a last resort
		 (ie. if there is no real module, install, remove, or alias	   command in the configuration).

       blacklist modulename
		 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 that it does not: the blacklist keyword indicates that all	of
		 that particular module's internal aliases are to be ignored.

       install modulename command...
		 This  command instructs modprobe 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"  works
		 better  with  the  module  "barney" already installed (but it doesn't depend on it, so modprobe 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
		 --ignore-install, which stops the second modprobe from running the same install command again.  See also remove below.

		 The  long term future of this command as a solution to the problem of providing additional module dependencies is not assured and
		 it is intended to replace this command with a warning about its eventual removal  or  deprecation  at	some  point  in  a  future
		 release.  Its	use  complicates  the  automated  determination of module dependencies by distribution utilities, such as mkinitrd
		 (because these now need to somehow interpret what the install commands might be doing.  In a perfect world, modules would provide
		 all  dependency  information without the use of this command and work is underway to implement soft dependency support within the
		 Linux kernel.

		 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"

       options modulename option...
		 This command allows you to add options to the module modulename (which might be an alias) every time it is inserted into the ker-
		 nel: whether directly (using modprobe modulename or because the module being inserted depends on this module.

		 All options are added together: they can come from an option for the module itself, for an alias, and on the command line.

       remove modulename command...
		 This is similar to the install command above, except it is invoked when "modprobe -r" is run.

       softdep modulename pre: modules... post: modules...
		 The softdep command allows you to specify soft, or optional, module dependencies.  modulename		    can  be  used  without
		 these	optional  modules installed, but usually with some features missing. For example, a driver for a storage HBA might require
		 another module be loaded in order to use management features.

		 pre-deps and post-deps modules are lists of names and/or aliases of other modules that  modprobe  will  attempt  to  install  (or
		 remove) in order before and after the main module given in the modulename argument.

		 Example:  Assume "softdep c pre: a b post: d e" is provided in the configuration. Running "modprobe c" is now equivalent to "mod-
		 probe a b c d e" without the softdep.	Flags such as --use-blacklist are applied to  all  the	specified  modules,  while  module
		 parameters only apply to module c.

		 Note: if there are install or remove commands with the same modulename argument, softdep takes precedence.

COMPATIBILITY

       A future version of module-init-tools will come with a strong warning to avoid use of the install as explained above. This will happen once
       support for soft dependencies in the kernel is complete.  That support will complement the existing softdep support within this utility	by
       providing such dependencies directly within the modules.

COPYRIGHT

       This manual page originally Copyright 2004, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.

SEE ALSO

       modprobe(8), modules.dep(5)

																  modprobe.conf(5)