usbmodules

usbmodules(8)                 Linux USB Utilities                usbmodules(8)



NAME
       usbmodules  - List kernel driver modules available for a plugged in USB
       device

SYNOPSIS
       usbmodules  [--device   /proc/bus/bus/NNN/NNN]   [--check   modulename]
       [--help] [--mapfile pathname] [--version pathname]

DESCRIPTION
       usbmodules  lists  driver modules that may be able to manage interfaces
       on currently plugged  in  USB  devices.   usbmodules  may  be  used  by
       /sbin/hotplug  or  one  of its agents (normally /etc/hotplug/usb.agent)
       when USB devices are "hot plugged" into the system.  This can  be  done
       by the following Bourne shell syntax:

                   for module in $(usbmodules --device $DEVICE) ; do

                        modprobe -s -k "$module"

                   done

       The DEVICE environment variable is passed from the kernel to /sbin/hot-
       plug during USB hotplugging if the kernel was configured  using  usbde-
       vfs.  usbmodules currently requires usbdevfs to operate.

       When  a  USB  device  is removed from the system, the Linux kernel will
       decrement a usage count on USB driver module.  If this count  drops  to
       zero  (i.e.,  there are no clients for the USB device driver), then the
       modprobe -r process that is normally configured to run from cron  every
       few minutes will eventually remove the unneeded module.


OPTIONS
       --check modulename
              Instead  of  listing the relevant modules, just exit with code 0
              (success)  if  the  given  module's  exported  USB  ID  patterns
              matches.  Otherwise, return failure.  usbmodules emits no output
              either way.

       --device /proc/bus/usb/MMM/NNN
              Selects which device usbmodules will examine.  The  argument  is
              currently mandatory.

       --help, -h
              Print a help message

       --mapfile /etc/hotplug/usb.handmap
              Use  the  specified  file  instead  of the /lib/modules/.../mod-
              ules.usbmap file corresponding to the running kernel.

       --version
              Identifies the version of usbutils this tool was built with.

FILES
       /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/modules.usbmap
              This file is automatically generated by depmod,  versions  2.4.2
              and  later, and is used by usbmodules to determine which modules
              correspond to which USB ID's.

       /proc/bus/usb
              An optional interface to USB devices provided by  Linux  kernels
              with   versions   of  the  2.4  USB  support.  Contains  per-bus
              subdirectories with per-device files (offering a usermode driver
              API  as well as access to device and configuration descriptors),
              a devices file containing a list  of  all  USB  devices,  and  a
              drivers file listing USB device drivers known to the USB subsys-
              tem.


SEE ALSO
       lsusb(8), http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net


AUTHOR
       usbmodules was written by Adam J. Richter <adam@yggdrasil.com>, and  is
       based   partly   on   lsusb,   which   was  written  by  Thomas  Sailer
       <sailer@ife.ee.ethz.ch>.




COPYRIGHT
       usbmodules is copyright 2000, Yggdrasil  Computing,  Incorporated,  and
       copyright  1999, Thomas Sailer.  usbmodules may may be copied under the
       terms and conditions of version 2 of the GNU General Public License  as
       published  by  the  Free  Software Foundation (Cambrige, Massachusetts,
       United States of America).



usbutils-0.8                     12 June 2001                    usbmodules(8)