Reference

kldxref(8)

generate hints for the kernel loader

NAME

kldxref – generate hints for the kernel loader

SYNOPSIS

kldxref [-Rdv] [-f hintsfile] path ...

kldxref -m module

DESCRIPTION

The kldxref utility is used to generate hint files which list modules, their version numbers, and the files that contain them. These hints are used by the kernel loader to determine where to find a particular KLD module.

A separate hint file is generated for each directory listed on the command line that contains modules. If no hint records are generated for a particular directory, no hint file is created, and the preexisting hint file (if there was one in that directory) is removed.

kldxref only processes files that either have no dots in their name like kernel or that end in “.ko” like foo.ko.

The following options are available:

-R

Recurse into subdirectories.

-d

Do not generate a hint file, but print module metadata on standard output.

-f hintsfile

Specify a different name for the hints files than linker.hints.

-m module

Print information about the modules in the file module.

-v

Operate in verbose mode.

EXAMPLES

To build hint files for both standard and add-on modules:

kldxref /boot/kernel /boot/modules

To build hint files for all installed kernels:

kldxref -R /boot

SEE ALSO

kld(4), kldconfig(8), kldload(8), kldstat(8), kldunload(8)

HISTORY

The kldxref utility first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.

AUTHORS

The kldxref utility was implemented by Boris Popov ⟨[email protected]⟩. This manual page was written by Boris Popov ⟨[email protected]⟩ and Dag-Erling Smørgrav ⟨[email protected]⟩.

History

-m since FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27).