RMMOD(8)						       Linux Module Support							  RMMOD(8)

NAME

       rmmod - unload loadable modules

SYNOPSIS

       rmmod [ -aehrsvV ] module ...

DESCRIPTION

       rmmod unloads loadable modules from the running kernel.

       rmmod  tries to unload a set of modules from the kernel, with the restriction that they are not in use and that they are not referred to by
       other modules.

       If more than one module is named on the command line, the modules will be removed in the given order. This supports  unloading  of  stacked
       modules.

       With the option '-r', a recursive removal of modules will be attempted.	This means that if a top module in a stack is named on the command
       line, all modules that are used by this module will be removed as well, if possible.

   OPTIONS
       -a, --all
	      Do autoclean: tag unused modules as "to be cleaned", and also remove already tagged modules.   Modules  stay  tagged  if	they  stay
	      unused since previous autoclean.	These two passes avoid removing transiently unused modules.

       -e, --persist
	      Save  persistent data for the named modules, without unloading any modules.  If no module names are specified then data is saved for
	      all modules that have persistent data.  Data is only saved if both the kernel and modutils support persistent data  and  /proc/ksyms
	      contains an entry
	      __insmod_modulename_Ppersistent_filename

       -h, --help
	      Display a summary of options and immediately exit.

       -r, --stacks
	      Remove a module stack.

       -s, --syslog
	      Output everything to syslog(3) instead of the terminal.

       -v, --verbose
	      Be verbose.

       -V, --version
	      Print the version of modutils.

PERSISTENT DATA

       If  a module contains persistent data (see insmod(8) and modules.conf(5)) then removing the module always writes the persistent data to the
       filename in the __insmod _P symbol entry.  You can also save the persistent data at any time by rmmod -e, this will not unload any modules.

       When the persistent data is written to file, it is preceded by a generated comment line,
       #% kernel_version timestamp
       Generated comment lines start with '#%', all generated comments are stripped from the existing file, other  comments  are  preserved.   The
       saved  data  values are written to the file, preserving the existing order of comments and assignments.	New values are added at the end of
       the file.  If the file contains values that do not exist in the module then these values are preserved but  are	preceded  by  a  generated
       comment	warning that they are not being used.  The latter operation allows a user to switch between kernels without losing persistent data
       and without getting any error messages.

       Note: Comments are only supported when the first non-space character on a line is '#'.  Any non-blank lines that do not start with '#'  are
       module  options,  one  per line.  The option lines have leading spaces removed, the remainder of the line is passed to insmod as an option,
       including any trailing characters.

SEE ALSO

       insmod(8), lsmod(8), ksyms(8), modprobe(8).

BUGS

       rmmod [-V | --version] should display version information and then exit immediately.   Instead,	it  prints  the  version  information  and
       behaves as if no options were given.

HISTORY

       Module support was first conceived by Anonymous
       Initial Linux version by Bas Laarhoven <bas@vimec.nl>
       Version 0.99.14 by Jon Tombs <jon@gtex02.us.es>
       Extended by Bjorn Ekwall <bj0rn@blox.se>
       Updated for 2.1.17 by Richard Henderson <rth@tamu.edu>
       Updated for 2.2.2 by by Bjorn Ekwall <bj0rn@blox.se>
       Updated for modutils 2.3.20 by by Keith Owens <kaos@ocs.com.au>
       Persistent data for modutils 2.3.22 by by Keith Owens <kaos@ocs.com.au>

Linux								 February 6, 2002							  RMMOD(8)