Welcome to the Linux Foundation Forum!
Doubt in linux file management?
chekkizhar
Posts: 182
in Slackware
Hai,
Am using slackware,fedora. In both cases , there are two dirs,
1. /usr/src/linux-{Kernerl version}/
2. /lib/modules/{kernel-version}/
what is the difference b/w these two? Actually , these two dir content are totally different, I agree. But, which one is the Kernel source ? :huh:
For writing device drivers, I am using the second one. But, actually, the first one only is in "src" dir .
I am not sure , this question is meaningfull or not, may this is so naive. But , want to know the difference. thank you
0
Comments
-
/usr/src/linux-{version} is where the linux kernel source code is stored for you to make new modules or compile a new kernel.
/lib/modules is where your compiled kernel modules are stored to be used by your system, if you make a custom kernel this directory will only contain the modules that you have selected as modules in the kernel configuration.0 -
got it. thank you fillpot. :-)0
-
linustorvalds wrote:Hai,
Am using slackware,fedora. In both cases , there are two dirs,
1. /usr/src/linux-{Kernerl version}/
2. /lib/modules/{kernel-version}/
what is the difference b/w these two? Actually , these two dir content are totally different, I agree. But, which one is the Kernel source ? :huh:
For writing device drivers, I am using the second one. But, actually, the first one only is in "src" dir .
I am not sure , this question is meaningfull or not, may this is so naive. But , want to know the difference. thank you
/usr/src/kernels/{kernel_version}/
and like mfillpot said, the kernel modules, etc. are installed to:
/lib/modules/{kernel_version}/
In this directory is a directory named "source" which is actuall a symbolic link to "build" in the same dir and "build" is actually a symbolic link to the above kernel source dir (/usr/src/kernels/{kernel_version}/).0 -
The kernel source can be wherever you want.
The modules, on the otherhand, must be in /lib/modules (or you symlink/hardlink it somehow)
Regards0 -
thanks Marc and atreyu .
@ atreyu : " In this directory is a directory named "source" which is actuall a symbolic link to "build" in the same dir and "build" is actually a symbolic link to the above kernel source dir (/usr/src/kernels/{kernel_version}/). "
Having a Kernel Source is optinal[ I guess]. If that is true, If I dont have kernel source, where these symlinks in lib/modules points to?
And, as Matt told, if we change modules[load/unload], those changes will be in "lib/modules" ,If they are symlinks, will it affect[it has to, I think], the ORIGINAL Kernel source ?0 -
You only need the kernel sources if you are compiling modules for it ( Nvidia drivers or Vritualbox are good examples for things you need the kernel sources)
/lib/modules does not change because of loading or unloading modules, at all. That's only the place to look upon for modules to load, that's all. Loading a modules reads it from disk, that is /lib/modules, and loads it into memory. When unloading... you get the thing, right?
As for the symlinks: you can have symlinks pointing nowhere.
You can check where a symlink is pointing to withls -l
Regards0 -
When unloading... you get the thing, right?you can have symlinks pointing nowherels -l
ya. thanks marc0
Categories
- All Categories
- 229 LFX Mentorship
- 229 LFX Mentorship: Linux Kernel
- 810 Linux Foundation IT Professional Programs
- 363 Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 183 Advanced Cloud Engineer IT Professional Program
- 82 DevOps Engineer IT Professional Program
- 151 Cloud Native Developer IT Professional Program
- 138 Express Training Courses & Microlearning
- 138 Express Courses - Discussion Forum
- Microlearning - Discussion Forum
- 6.3K Training Courses
- 48 LFC110 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 71 LFC131 Class Forum
- 44 LFD102 Class Forum
- 228 LFD103 Class Forum
- 19 LFD110 Class Forum
- 41 LFD121 Class Forum
- 18 LFD133 Class Forum
- 8 LFD134 Class Forum
- 18 LFD137 Class Forum
- 71 LFD201 Class Forum
- 5 LFD210 Class Forum
- 5 LFD210-CN Class Forum
- 2 LFD213 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 128 LFD232 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 2 LFD233 Class Forum
- 4 LFD237 Class Forum
- 24 LFD254 Class Forum
- 701 LFD259 Class Forum
- 111 LFD272 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 4 LFD272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 13 LFD273 Class Forum
- 179 LFS101 Class Forum
- 1 LFS111 Class Forum
- 3 LFS112 Class Forum
- 3 LFS116 Class Forum
- 7 LFS118 Class Forum
- LFS120 Class Forum
- 9 LFS142 Class Forum
- 8 LFS144 Class Forum
- 4 LFS145 Class Forum
- 3 LFS146 Class Forum
- 2 LFS148 Class Forum
- 15 LFS151 Class Forum
- 4 LFS157 Class Forum
- 44 LFS158 Class Forum
- LFS158-JP クラス フォーラム
- 10 LFS162 Class Forum
- 2 LFS166 Class Forum
- 4 LFS167 Class Forum
- 3 LFS170 Class Forum
- 2 LFS171 Class Forum
- 3 LFS178 Class Forum
- 3 LFS180 Class Forum
- 2 LFS182 Class Forum
- 5 LFS183 Class Forum
- 32 LFS200 Class Forum
- 737 LFS201 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 3 LFS201-JP クラス フォーラム - Discontinued
- 19 LFS203 Class Forum
- 135 LFS207 Class Forum
- 2 LFS207-DE-Klassenforum
- 1 LFS207-JP クラス フォーラム
- 302 LFS211 Class Forum
- 56 LFS216 Class Forum
- 52 LFS241 Class Forum
- 48 LFS242 Class Forum
- 38 LFS243 Class Forum
- 15 LFS244 Class Forum
- 5 LFS245 Class Forum
- LFS246 Class Forum
- LFS248 Class Forum
- 52 LFS250 Class Forum
- 2 LFS250-JP クラス フォーラム
- 1 LFS251 Class Forum
- 156 LFS253 Class Forum
- 1 LFS254 Class Forum
- 1 LFS255 Class Forum
- 9 LFS256 Class Forum
- 1 LFS257 Class Forum
- 1.3K LFS258 Class Forum
- 10 LFS258-JP クラス フォーラム
- 129 LFS260 Class Forum
- 160 LFS261 Class Forum
- 43 LFS262 Class Forum
- 82 LFS263 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 15 LFS264 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 11 LFS266 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 24 LFS267 Class Forum
- 25 LFS268 Class Forum
- 32 LFS269 Class Forum
- 6 LFS270 Class Forum
- 202 LFS272 Class Forum - Discontinued
- 2 LFS272-JP クラス フォーラム
- 4 LFS147 Class Forum
- 1 LFS274 Class Forum
- 4 LFS281 Class Forum
- 12 LFW111 Class Forum
- 262 LFW211 Class Forum
- 184 LFW212 Class Forum
- 15 SKF100 Class Forum
- 1 SKF200 Class Forum
- 1 SKF201 Class Forum
- 797 Hardware
- 199 Drivers
- 68 I/O Devices
- 37 Monitors
- 104 Multimedia
- 174 Networking
- 91 Printers & Scanners
- 85 Storage
- 759 Linux Distributions
- 82 Debian
- 67 Fedora
- 17 Linux Mint
- 13 Mageia
- 23 openSUSE
- 148 Red Hat Enterprise
- 31 Slackware
- 13 SUSE Enterprise
- 354 Ubuntu
- 470 Linux System Administration
- 39 Cloud Computing
- 71 Command Line/Scripting
- Github systems admin projects
- 95 Linux Security
- 78 Network Management
- 102 System Management
- 47 Web Management
- 69 Mobile Computing
- 18 Android
- 38 Development
- 1.2K New to Linux
- 1K Getting Started with Linux
- 374 Off Topic
- 115 Introductions
- 174 Small Talk
- 24 Study Material
- 807 Programming and Development
- 304 Kernel Development
- 485 Software Development
- 1.8K Software
- 263 Applications
- 183 Command Line
- 3 Compiling/Installing
- 987 Games
- 317 Installation
- 102 All In Program
- 102 All In Forum
Upcoming Training
-
August 20, 2018
Kubernetes Administration (LFS458)
-
August 20, 2018
Linux System Administration (LFS301)
-
August 27, 2018
Open Source Virtualization (LFS462)
-
August 27, 2018
Linux Kernel Debugging and Security (LFD440)