modprobe missing -l option

[Marian Marinov]

Hello,
I'm system administrator for 14 years and I have been using the -l option since I first found it.

In a recent Fedora update I saw that module-init-tools was replaced by the kmod package.

I'm really disappointed by the deprecation of the list option, since it was was very useful to me.

I have already patched my kmod with the -l option, would you be willing to add this option to kmod?

If so, I can polish the patch and send a pull request for it.

Marian

[Lucas De Marchi]

Hi Marian,

Post by Marian Marinov
Hello,
I'm system administrator for 14 years and I have been using the -l option
since I first found it.
In a recent Fedora update I saw that module-init-tools was replaced by the kmod package.
I'm really disappointed by the deprecation of the list option, since it was
was very useful to me.

First of all, we didn't deprecate -l. It was already deprecated a long
time ago (as far as I checked, back to 2006).

Post by Marian Marinov
I have already patched my kmod with the -l option, would you be willing to
add this option to kmod?
If so, I can polish the patch and send a pull request for it.

The problem with the previous implementation is that it's not really
listing the available modules. It's listing the modules known in the
index. It's kind of misleading. As stated in module-init-tools' man
page, it'd be better to use 'find' in the modules dir.


However since you are not the first person asking for it, I think
there's some demand for this functionality. So, I'm thinking about
having it with another name just to avoid confusion.

Lucas De Marchi

[Alan Jenkins]

Post by Lucas De Marchi
Hi Marian,

Post by Marian Marinov
I have already patched my kmod with the -l option, would you be willing to
add this option to kmod?
If so, I can polish the patch and send a pull request for it.

The problem with the previous implementation is that it's not really
listing the available modules. It's listing the modules known in the
index. It's kind of misleading. As stated in module-init-tools' man
page, it'd be better to use 'find' in the modules dir.

Why is it misleading if "modprobe --list" only shows results from the
index? That's consistent with the normal operation of modprobe.

Post by Lucas De Marchi
However since you are not the first person asking for it, I think
there's some demand for this functionality. So, I'm thinking about
having it with another name just to avoid confusion.

I doubt the objection was to the name... I think it was just seen as
superfluous, not worth the effort of maintaining.

The libkmod API expands slightly on the old implementation, so it could
be more natural to have --list now. (And maybe easier to implement?)

Alan

[Lucas De Marchi]

On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 3:13 PM, Alan Jenkins

Post by Lucas De Marchi
Hi Marian,

Post by Marian Marinov
I have already patched my kmod with the -l option, would you be willing to
add this option to kmod?
If so, I can polish the patch and send a pull request for it.

The problem with the previous implementation is that it's not really
listing the available modules. It's listing the modules known in the
index. It's kind of misleading. As stated in module-init-tools' man
page, it'd be better to use 'find' in the modules dir.

Why is it misleading if "modprobe --list" only shows results from the index?
That's consistent with the normal operation of modprobe.

Post by Lucas De Marchi
However since you are not the first person asking for it, I think
there's some demand for this functionality. So, I'm thinking about
having it with another name just to avoid confusion.

I doubt the objection was to the name... I think it was just seen as
superfluous, not worth the effort of maintaining.

Yep, that was the original reason for removing a deprecated option.

The libkmod API expands slightly on the old implementation, so it could be
more natural to have --list now. (And maybe easier to implement?)

It's the same thing there's in module-init-tools. Not easier, not
harder. Just copy and paste.

One of the reasons I'm reluctant about "modprobe --list" is that I
don't want to expand the options to modprobe/insmod/lsmod and instead
treat they as the old interface, focusing on kmod commands/options.


Lucas De Marchi

[Marian Marinov]

Post by Lucas De Marchi
On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 3:13 PM, Alan Jenkins

Post by Lucas De Marchi
Hi Marian,

Post by Marian Marinov
I have already patched my kmod with the -l option, would you be willing to
add this option to kmod?
If so, I can polish the patch and send a pull request for it.

The problem with the previous implementation is that it's not really
listing the available modules. It's listing the modules known in the
index. It's kind of misleading. As stated in module-init-tools' man
page, it'd be better to use 'find' in the modules dir.

Why is it misleading if "modprobe --list" only shows results from the index?
That's consistent with the normal operation of modprobe.

I really don't care if modprobe reads its data from modules.dep or lists the files in the actual dirs.
The reason is simple, after building a kernel it is generally considered 'best practice' to run depmod -a.
If you prefer to read the contents of the dirs, just tell me. I can write that also.

Post by Lucas De Marchi

Post by Lucas De Marchi
However since you are not the first person asking for it, I think
there's some demand for this functionality. So, I'm thinking about
having it with another name just to avoid confusion.

I doubt the objection was to the name... I think it was just seen as
superfluous, not worth the effort of maintaining.

Yep, that was the original reason for removing a deprecated option.

The libkmod API expands slightly on the old implementation, so it could be
more natural to have --list now. (And maybe easier to implement?)

It's the same thing there's in module-init-tools. Not easier, not
harder. Just copy and paste.
One of the reasons I'm reluctant about "modprobe --list" is that I
don't want to expand the options to modprobe/insmod/lsmod and instead
treat they as the old interface, focusing on kmod commands/options.

I understand your point guys, but as a system administrator I really like that I have 'one tool to rule them all'.

This is something that I have in quite a few auto configuration scripts. When I found out that -l was deprecated, the
first thing that came to my mind is wrap it in a shell script and introduce it again with find.

But I believe that this is a bad solution to my problem, this is why I patched kmod and distributed a new RPM to my
Fedora machines that reintroduced the option.


Marian

Post by Lucas De Marchi
Lucas De Marchi
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[Marian Marinov]

Post by Lucas De Marchi
On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 3:13 PM, Alan Jenkins

Post by Lucas De Marchi
Hi Marian,

Post by Marian Marinov
I have already patched my kmod with the -l option, would you be willing to
add this option to kmod?
If so, I can polish the patch and send a pull request for it.

The problem with the previous implementation is that it's not really
listing the available modules. It's listing the modules known in the
index. It's kind of misleading. As stated in module-init-tools' man
page, it'd be better to use 'find' in the modules dir.

Why is it misleading if "modprobe --list" only shows results from the index?
That's consistent with the normal operation of modprobe.

Post by Lucas De Marchi
However since you are not the first person asking for it, I think
there's some demand for this functionality. So, I'm thinking about
having it with another name just to avoid confusion.

I doubt the objection was to the name... I think it was just seen as
superfluous, not worth the effort of maintaining.

Yep, that was the original reason for removing a deprecated option.

The libkmod API expands slightly on the old implementation, so it could be
more natural to have --list now. (And maybe easier to implement?)

It's the same thing there's in module-init-tools. Not easier, not
harder. Just copy and paste.
One of the reasons I'm reluctant about "modprobe --list" is that I
don't want to expand the options to modprobe/insmod/lsmod and instead
treat they as the old interface, focusing on kmod commands/options.

Guys, would you please accept a patch to kmod, which reintroduce the -l/--list option?

Please, say yes.. I have machines that run Slackware and there the RPM solution I have for the Fedora does not work :(

Marian