LINUX: "modprobe" Command Line Options and Usage (Cheat Sheet)

modprobe uses the dependency lists and hardware maps generated by depmod to intelligently load or unload modules into the kernel. It performs the actual insertion and removal using the lower-level programs insmod an rmmod respectively.

Syntax

modprobe [-v] [-V] [-C config-file] [-n] [-i] [-q] [-b] [modulename] 
         [module parameters...]

modprobe [-r] [-v] [-n] [-i] [modulename...]

modprobe [-c]

modprobe [--dump-modversions] [filename]

Options

-a, --all	Insert all module names on the command line.
-b, --use-blacklist	This option causes modprobe to apply the blacklist commands in the configuration files (if any) to module names as well. (Any module which has been blacklisted will not be automatically loaded.)
-C, --config	This option overrides the default configuration directory (/etc/modprobe.d). This option is passed through install or remove commands to other modprobe commands in the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variables
-c, --showconfig	Dump out the effective configuration from the config directory and exit.
--dump-modversions	Print out a list of module versioning information required by a module. This option is commonly used by distributions to package up a Linux kernel module using module versioning deps.
-d, --dirname	Directory where modules can be found (/lib/modules/`uname -r` by default).
--first-time	Normally, modprobe will succeed (and do nothing) if told to insert a module that is already present or to remove a module which isn't present. This is ideal for simple scripts; however, more complicated scripts often want to know whether modprobe really did something: this option makes modprobe fail in the case that it actually didn't do anything.
--force-vermagic	Every module contains a small string containing important information, such as the kernel and compiler versions. If a module fails to load and the kernel complains that the "version magic" doesn't match, you can use this option to remove it. This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on the command line and any modules on which it depends. This check is there for your protection, so this using option is dangerous unless you know what you're doing.
--force-modversion	When modules are compiled with CONFIG_MODVERSIONS set, a section detailing the versions of every interfaced used by (or supplied by) the module is created. If a module fails to load and the kernel complains that the module disagrees about a version of some interface, you can use --force-modversion to remove the version information altogether. This applies any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on the command line and any modules on which it depends. This check is there for your protection, so using this option is dangerous unless you know what you're doing.
-f, --force	Try to strip any versioning information from the module which might otherwise stop it from loading: this is the same as using both --force-vermagic and --force-modversion. This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on the command line and any modules it on which it depends. These checks are there for your protection, so using this option is dangerous unless you know what you are doing.
-i, --ignore-install, --ignore-remove	This option causes modprobe to ignore install and remove commands in the configuration file (if any) for the module specified on the command line (any dependent modules are still subject to commands set for them in the configuration file). Both install and remove commands will currently be ignored when this option is used regardless of whether the request was more specifically made with only one or other (and not both) of --ignore-install or --ignore-remove.
-n, --dry-run, --show	This option does everything but actually insert or delete the modules (or run the install or remove commands). Combined with -v, it is useful for debugging. For historical reasons both --dry-run and --show actually mean the same thing and are interchangeable.
-q, --quiet	With this flag, modprobe won't print an error message if you try to remove or insert a module it can't find (and isn't an alias or install/remove command). However, it will still return with a non-zero exit status. The kernel uses this to opportunistically probe for modules which might exist using request_module.
-R, --resolve-alias	Print all module names matching an alias. This can be useful for debugging module alias problems.
-r --remove	This option causes modprobe to remove rather than insert a module. If the modules it depends on are also unused, modprobe will try to remove them too. Unlike insertion, more than one module can be specified on the command line (it does not make sense to specify module parameters when removing modules). There is usually no reason to remove modules, but some buggy modules require it. Your distribution kernel may not have been built to support removal of modules at all.
-S, --set-version	Set the kernel version, rather than using uname to decide on the kernel version (which dictates where to find the modules).
--show-depends	List the dependencies of a module (or alias), including the module itself. This produces a (possibly empty) set of module filenames, one per line, each starting with "insmod" and is typically used by distributions to determine which modules to include when generating initrd/initramfs images. Install commands which apply are shown prefixed by "install". It does not run any of the install commands. Note that modinfo can be used to extract dependencies of a module from the module itself, but knows nothing of aliases or install commands.
-s, --syslog	This option causes any error messages to go through the syslog mechanism (as LOG_DAEMON with level LOG_NOTICE) rather than to standard error. This is also automatically enabled when stderr is unavailable. This option is passed through install or remove commands to other modprobe commands in the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.
-V, --version	Show modprobe's version information and exit.
-v, --verbose

Products to which Article Applies

All Linux Operating Systems using modprobe.

tarun boyella