kextunload.8   [plain text]


.Dd April 17, 2002 
.Dt KEXTUNLOAD 8
.Os Darwin
.Sh NAME
.Nm kextunload
.Nd terminates objects and unloads code associated with a kernel extension
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl b Ar bundle_id
\&.\|.\|.
.Op Fl c Ar class_name
\&.\|.\|.
.Op Fl h
.Op Fl p
[
.Fl v Op 0-6
|
.Fl q
]
[
extension
]
\&.\|.\|.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
program is used to terminate and unregister I/O Kit objects
associated with a kernel extension (kext)
and to unload the code and personalities for that kext.
In order to unload a kext
.Nm
must be invoked as the superuser.
.Pp
If another loaded kext has a dependency on a kext being unloaded,
the unload will fail.
You can determine whether a kext has dependents using the
.Xr kextstat 8
tool.
.Pp
.Nm
is a formal interface for unloading kexts in the Darwin OS and
in Mac OS X.
Software and installers can rely on its presence
and invoke it in order to unload kexts.
.Pp
The arguments and options available are these:
.Bl -tag -width -indent
.It Ar extension
The pathname of a kext to unload.
All instances of classes associated with the kext are terminated,
and personalities and code are unloaded from the kernel.
.It Fl b Ar bundle_id
Unload code and personalities for the kext
whose CFBundleIdentifier is
.Ar bundle_id .
.It Fl c Ar class_name
Terminate all instances of class
.Ar class_name
if possible but do not unload code or personalities.
New load requests for devices driven by these instances
may result in the same class being instantiated at any time.
.It Fl h
Print a help message describing each option flag.
.It Fl m Ar bundle_id
Same as
.Fl m
(remains for backward compatibility).
.It Fl p
Don't remove personalities when unloading
(unnecessary when using the
.Fl c
option).
New load requests for devices driven by the kext
may result in the same kext being loaded at any time.
.It Fl q
Quiet mode; print no informational or error messages.
This option excludes
.Fl v .
.It Fl v Op 0-6
Verbose mode; print information about the kext scanning and loading
process (note that this is generally not useful when unloading).
See the man page for
.Xr kextload 8
to see what each verbose level prints.
This option excludes
.Fl
q .
.El
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
.Nm
exits with a zero status upon success,
or prints an error message and exits with a nonzero status upon failure.
An error when multiple kexts are being unloaded causes
.Nm
to exit immediately, so that some kexts may remain unloaded
even if they could have been unloaded without error.
.Sh BUGS
The results of unload requests as given by the kernel
don't allow for determining the reason for a failure,
such as that the kext wasn't loaded
or that another kext has a dependency on it.
You can check these conditions using
.Xr kextstat 8 .
.Sh SEE ALSO 
.Xr kextcache 8 ,
.Xr kextd 8 ,
.Xr kextload 8 ,
.Xr kextstat 8