RMMOD(8) rmmod RMMOD(8)NAME
rmmod - Simple program to remove a module from the Linux Kernel
SYNOPSIS
rmmod [-f] [-w] [-s] [-v] [modulename]
DESCRIPTION
rmmod is a trivial program to remove a module (when module unloading support is provided) from the kernel. Most users will want to use
modprobe(8) with the -r option instead.
OPTIONS -v --verbose
Print messages about what the program is doing. Usually rmmod prints messages only if something goes wrong.
-f --force
This option can be extremely dangerous: it has no effect unless CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD was set when the kernel was compiled. With
this option, you can remove modules which are being used, or which are not designed to be removed, or have been marked as unsafe (see
lsmod(8)).
-w --wait
Normally, rmmod will refuse to unload modules which are in use. With this option, rmmod will isolate the module, and wait until the
module is no longer used. Nothing new will be able to use the module, but it's up to you to make sure the current users eventually
finish with it. See lsmod(8)) for information on usage counts.
-s --syslog
Send errors to syslog instead of standard error.
-V --version
Show version of program and exit.
COPYRIGHT
This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.
SEE ALSO modprobe(8), insmod(8), lsmod(8)modinfo(8)AUTHORS
Jon Masters <jcm@jonmasters.org>
Developer
Lucas De Marchi <lucas.demarchi@profusion.mobi>
Developer
kmod 06/19/2012 RMMOD(8)
Check Out this Related Man Page
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)