KMOD(8)

💖 KMOD — bestie's guide to wrangling Linux kernel modules 💖

okay so this page? it's the kmod manual, from the kmod project (that's the manual name right there, section 8, system admin zone 🛠️). Sit down, grab a strawberry something, and let's get into it. 🍓

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

kmod [OPTIONS...] [COMMAND] [COMMAND_OPTIONS...]

that's it. that's the whole shape of it. options, then a command, then that command's own little options. slay. 💅

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so kmod is a multi-call binary — which is basically the Swiss Army knife of the Linux kernel module world. One binary, but it lowkey contains a whole bunch of programs inside it, and it implements all the tools you use to control Linux Kernel modules. Like, they're all just aliases pointing back at this one icon. 👑

here's the thing tho: most users will only ever run it using its other names. Nobody's out here typing kmod directly, bestie. You type lsmod, you type modprobe, and the vibes are immaculate. iykyk. 🦋

---

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -V, --version — shows the program version and then dips out (exits). short and sweet fr fr. ✌️
• -h, --help — shows the help message. your lil safety net when you forget everything. we've all been there. 🫶

---

💜 COMMANDS 💜

• help — shows the help message. yes it's just the help message again. yes that's fine. iconic behaviour actually. 💖
• list — lists the modules that are currently loaded. your "who's here right now" check. 🌈
• static-nodes — outputs the static device nodes info that's provided by the modules of the currently running kernel version. very specific, very demure, very mindful. 🧚

---

💀 COPYRIGHT 💀

this manual page originally Copyright 2014, Marco d'Itri. respect the elders. 🙏

---

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

the whole friend group, go say hi:

• lsmod(8)
• rmmod(8)
• insmod(8)
• modinfo(8)
• modprobe(8)
• depmod(8)

---

😭 BUGS 😭

found a problem bestie? please direct any bug reports to kmod's issue tracker at https://github.com/kmod-project/kmod/issues/ — and don't just drop "it's broken 💀", because that helps literally nobody. bring:

• the version you used
• the steps to reproduce the problem
• the expected outcome

that's the trio. that's the recipe. the maintainers will love you for it. 🫶

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

okay so storytime: the kmod project was started by Lucas De Marchi as a drop-in replacement to module-init-tools (which was maintained by Jon Masters), and along the way it added a library (libkmod) and a bunch of additional features. glow up fr. ✨

Numerous contributions have come from the linux-modules mailing list <linux-modules@vger.kernel.org> and Github. and if you happen to have a clone of kmod.git itself? the output of git-shortlog(1) and git-blame(1) can show you exactly who the authors were for specific parts of the project. forensic bestie energy. 🔍

Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com> is the current maintainer of the project. bow down. 👑

---

psa: this whole thing is section 8 of the manual, KMOD(8), and this version is from 2026-10-30, brought to you by kmod. thanks for coming to my ted talk, go modprobe something responsibly 💖✨🎀