---
name: "insmod"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "kmod"
version: "34.3-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/insmod/8"
---

# insmod(8)

Simple program to insert a module into the Linux Kernel

## NAME

insmod - Simple program to insert a module into the Linux Kernel

## SYNOPSIS

**insmod** \[*OPTIONS*\] \[*filename*\] \[*module options*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**insmod** is a trivial program to insert a module into the kernel. Most users will want to use [**modprobe**(8)](/modprobe/8.md) instead, which is more clever and can handle module dependencies.

Only the most general of error messages are reported: as the work of trying to link the module is now done inside the kernel, the [**dmesg**(1)](/dmesg/1.md) usually gives more information about errors.

## OPTIONS

- **-f**, **--force**

  This option can be extremely dangerous: it tells the kernel to ignore the module version and vermagic fields when loading. With this option, you can load modules build locally or by third parties, although this can lead to memory corruption, system crashes and data loss.

- **-s**, **--syslog**

  Send errors to syslog instead of standard error.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Print messages about what the program is doing. Usually **insmod** prints messages only if something goes wrong.

- **-V**, **--version**

  Show version of program and exit.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Print the help message and exit.

## COPYRIGHT

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

## SEE ALSO

[**modprobe**(8)](/modprobe/8.md), [**rmmod**(8)](/rmmod/8.md), [**lsmod**(8)](/lsmod/8.md), [**modinfo**(8)](/modinfo/8.md), [**depmod**(8)](/depmod/8.md)

## BUGS

Please direct any bug reports to kmod's issue tracker at https://github.com/kmod-project/kmod/issues/ alongside with version used, steps to reproduce the problem and the expected outcome.

## 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)](/git-shortlog/1.md) and [**git-blame**(1)](/git-blame/1.md) can show you the authors for specific parts of the project.

**Lucas De Marchi** \<lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com\> is the current maintainer of the project.