Managing and Developing Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules

Managing Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules

Chapter 12496

Static

Modularly

Packaged

Module

A Static Modularly Packaged Module is a modularly

packaged module that can only be linked statically to

the kernel.

In the kernel conﬁguration context, this means that

the module uses its own master and system ﬁles but

does not contain the module wrapper code and

additional data structures that provide the dynamic

loading and unloading ability.

Loadable

Module

(DLKM

Module)

A Loadable Module (or DLKM Module) isa modularly

packaged module with the capability to be

dynamically loaded into a running kernel.

In the kernel conﬁguration context, this means that

the DLKM module uses its own master and system

ﬁles and contains the module wrapper code and

additional data structures that provide the dynamic

loading and unloading ability.

However, even though a DLKM module is written

with self-contained module wrapper code and

packaged with module-speciﬁc master and system

ﬁles, it can still be statically conﬁgured into the

kernel.

For this reason, we place loadable modules in two

categories:

• Statically Conﬁgured Loadable Module

• Dynamically Conﬁgured Loadable Module

Table 12-1 Important Terms and Concepts

Term /

Concept

Deﬁnition