DEPMOD(8)                                                                                                              DEPMOD(8)



NAME
       depmod - program to generate modules.dep and map files.

SYNOPSIS
       depmod [ -b basedir ]  [ -e ]  [ -F System.map ]  [ -n ]  [ -v ]  [ version ]  [ -A ]

       depmod [ -e ]  [ -FSystem.map ]  [ -n ]  [ -v ]  [ version ]  [ filename... ]

DESCRIPTION
       Linux  kernel modules can provide services (called "symbols") for other modules to use (using EXPORT_SYMBOL in the code).
       If a second module uses this symbol, that second module clearly depends on the first module. These dependencies  can  get
       quite complex.

       depmod  creates a list of module dependencies by reading each module under /lib/modules/version and determining what sym-
       bols it exports and what symbols it needs. By default, this list is written to modules.dep  in  the  same  directory.  If
       filenames  are  given on the command line, only those modules are examined (which is rarely useful unless all modules are
       listed).

       If a version is provided, then that kernel version's module directory is used rather than the current kernel version  (as
       returned by uname -r).

       depmod will also generate various map files in this directory for use by the hotplug infrastructure.

OPTIONS
       -a --all
              Probe all modules. This option is enabled by default if no file names are given in the command-line.

       -A --quick
              This  option  scans  to see if any modules are newer than the modules.dep file before any work is done: if not, it
              silently exits rather than regenerating the files.

       -b basedir --basedir basedir
              If your modules are not currently in the (normal) directory /lib/modules/version, but in a staging area,  you  can
              specify  a  basedir  which  is  prepended  to the directory name. This basedir is stripped from the resulting mod-
              ules.dep file, so it is ready to be moved into the normal location.

       -C --config file or directory
              This option overrides the default configuration file at /etc/depmod.conf (or the /etc/depmod.d/ directory if  that
              is not found).

       -e --errsyms
              When  combined  with  the -F option, this reports any symbols which a module needs which are not supplied by other
              modules or the kernel. Normally, any symbols not provided by modules are assumed to  be  provided  by  the  kernel
              (which should be true in a perfect world).

       -F --filesyms System.map
              Supplied  with  the  System.map produced when the kernel was built, this allows the -e option to report unresolved
              symbols.

       -h --help
              Print the help message and exit.

       -n --dry-run
              This sends the resulting modules.dep and the various map files to standard output rather than  writing  them  into
              the module directory.

       -v --verbose
              In  verbose  mode, depmod will print (to stdout) all the symbols each module depends on and the module's file name
              which provides that symbol.

       -V --version
              Show version of program and exit. See below for caveats when run on older kernels.

COPYRIGHT
       This manual page Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.

SEE ALSO
       depmod.conf(5), modprobe(8), modules.dep(5)



                                                           2007-03-21                                                  DEPMOD(8)