osx man page for kextunload

KEXTUNLOAD(8)						    BSD System Manager's Manual 					     KEXTUNLOAD(8)

NAME
     kextunload -- terminate driver I/O Kit driver instances and unload kernel extensions (kexts)

SYNOPSIS
     kextunload [options] [--] [kext ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The kextunload program is used to terminate and unregister I/O Kit objects associated with a kernel extension (kext) and to unload the code
     and personalities for that kext.  kextunload must run with superuser privileges.

     If another loaded kext has a dependency on the kext being unloaded, the unload will fail.	You can determine whether a kext has dependents
     using the kextstat(8) tool.

     kextunload is a formal interface for unloading kexts in the Darwin OS and in Mac OS X.  Software and installers can rely on its presence and
     invoke it in order to unload kexts.  Note that long options are present as of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

     The arguments and options are:

     kext     Unload the loaded kext whose bundle identifier matches the CFBundleIdentifier of kext.  All instances of IOService subclasses
	      defined by the loaded kext and in the IOService plane of the I/O Registry are terminated; the kext is checked to make sure no
	      instances of its libkern C++ classes remain; the kext's C++ static destructores and module stop routine are invoked; then the kext's
	      executable and IOKitPersonalities are unloaded from the kernel.  Failure at any stage prevents kext unload.

     -b identifier, -bundle-id identifier
	      Unload executable and IOKitPersonalities (as described immediately above) for the kext whose CFBundleIdentifier is identifier.

     -c classname, -class classname
	      Terminate all instances of class classname that are in the IOService plane of the I/O Registry, if possible, but do not unload the
	      defining kext or its IOKitPersonalities.	New load requests for devices that were driven by these terminated instances may result in
	      the same class being instantiated at any time.

     -h, -help
	      Print a help message describing each option flag and exit with a success result, regardless of any other options on the command
	      line.

     -m identifier
	      Same as -b (remains for backward compatibility).

     -p, -personalities-only
	      Terminate services and remove personalities only; do not unload kexts.

     -q, -quiet
	      Quiet mode; print no informational or error messages.

     -v [0-6 | 0x####], -verbose [0-6 | 0x####]
	      Verbose mode; print information about program operation.	Higher levels of verbosity include all lower levels.  By default
	      kextunload prints only warnings and errors.  You can specify a level from 0-6, or a hexadecimal log specification (as described in
	      kext_logging(8)). The levels of verbose output are:

	      0 	   Print only errors (that is, suppress warnings); see also -quiet.

	      1 (or none)  Print basic information about program operation.

	      2 	   Prints information about unload stages.

	      3 	   Prints information about removal of personalities.

	      4 	   Prints information about module stop functions and C++ class destruction.

	      5 	   Prints detailed information internal operations such as bookkeping.

	      6 	   Identical to level 5 for kextunload.

	      Unlike in other kext tools, the -verbose flag in kextunload applies to all kexts (that is, it turns on hexadecimal bit 0x8 by
	      default).  See kext_logging(8) for more information on verbose logging.

DIAGNOSTICS
     kextunload exits with a zero status upon success, or prints an error message and exits with a nonzero status upon failure.

BUGS
     Many single-letter options are inconsistent in meaning with (or directly contradictory to) the same letter options in other kext tools.

SEE ALSO
     kextcache(8), kextd(8), kextload(8), kextstat(8), kext_logging(8)

Darwin								   March 6, 2009							    Darwin