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

# rmmod(8)

Simple program to remove a module from the Linux Kernel

## NAME

rmmod - Simple program to remove a module from the Linux Kernel

## SYNOPSIS

**rmmod** \[*OPTIONS*\] \[*list of modulenames*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**rmmod** is a trivial program to remove a module or a list of modules from the kernel (when module unloading support is provided). Most users will want to use [**modprobe**(8)](/modprobe/8.md) with the **-r** option instead since it removes unused dependent modules as well.

When a list of modules is provided, the program will process them one at a time. If a module is not found, **rmmod** will immediately exit with an error code. Should the module removal fail, the program will log an error AND continue with the next module. This behaviour is NOT controlled by the **--force** option.

## OPTIONS

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

  This option can be extremely dangerous: it has no effect unless CONFIG\_MODULE\_FORCE\_UNLOAD was set when the kernel was compiled. With this option, you can remove modules which are being used, or which are not designed to be removed, or have been marked as unsafe (see [**lsmod**(8)](/lsmod/8.md)).

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

  Send errors to syslog instead of standard error.

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

  Print messages about what the program is doing. Usually **rmmod** 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), [**insmod**(8)](/insmod/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.