MODINFO(8)

🌸 MODINFO(8) — the modinfo page, bestie edition 🌸

okay so real quick, the manual name is modinfo and it lives in section 8 of your man pages. she's a system-administration girlie. let's get into it 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

modinfo — show info about a Linux Kernel module 🧚

📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

modinfo [-0] [-F field] [-k kernel] [modulename|filename...]

modinfo -V

modinfo -h

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so basically modinfo extracts information from the Linux Kernel modules you hand it on the command line. if the module name isn't a filename, then the /lib/modules/ version directory gets searched — exactly like modprobe(8) does when it's loading kernel modules. same energy, fr fr 🫶

by default modinfo lists each attribute of the module in the form fieldname : value, because she wants it to be easy to read, she's thoughtful like that. the filename gets listed the same way (even though technically it's not really an attribute, lowkey a liar but we love her anyway 💀).

This version of modinfo can understand modules of ANY Linux Kernel architecture. no cap. every single one. iconic 👑

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

• -V, --version — print the modinfo version. that's it, that's the whole job.
• -F field, --field=field — only print THIS field value, one per line. this one is highkey made for scripts. field names are case-insensitive. the common fields (which, warning, may not be in every module) include author, description, license, parm, depends, and alias. there are often multiple parm, alias and depends fields, so don't come for her when you get more than one line. and the special field filename lists the filename of the module ✨
• -b basedir, --basedir=basedir — root directory for modules, / by default. like, where she starts looking.
• -k kernel — provide information about a kernel other than the running one. this is particularly useful for distros that need to extract info from a newly installed (but not yet running) set of kernel modules. for example: you wanna find which firmware files are needed by various modules in a new kernel, because you have to make an initrd/initramfs image prior to booting. yes bestie, before. plan ahead 💅
• -0, --null — use the ASCII zero character to separate field values, instead of a new line. useful for scripts, since a new line can theoretically appear inside a field. sneaky little newline 🙈
• -a --author, -d --description, -l --license, -p --parameters, -n --filename — these are shortcuts for the --field flag's author, description, license, parm and filename arguments, to ease the transition from the old modutils modinfo. legacy support, she's respectful like that 🫡
• -h, --help — print the help message and exit. bye bestie 👋

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©️ COPYRIGHT ©️

this manual page originally Copyright 2003, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. periodt. 📝

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• modprobe(8)

🐛 BUGS 🐛

please direct any bug reports to kmod's issue tracker at https://github.com/kmod-project/kmod/issues/ — and girl, bring receipts: include the version used, the steps to reproduce the problem, and the expected outcome. no vague posting, we need the full story 📋✨

🌟 AUTHORS 🌟

numerous contributions have come from the linux-modules mailing list <linux-modules@vger.kernel.org> and Github. if you have a clone of kmod.git itself, the output of git-shortlog(1) and git-blame(1) can show you the authors for specific parts of the project. detective work, honestly 🔍

Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com> is the current maintainer of the project. crown stays on 👑

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cute lil sign-off: this page is from kmod, dated 2026-10-30. go read your kernel modules, bestie, you got this 💜🦋⭐