.\" Copyright (C) 1996 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
.\" This file is distributed according to the GNU General Public License.
.\" See the file COPYING in the top level source directory for details.
.\"
.\" 2006-02-09, some reformatting by Luc Van Oostenryck; some
.\" reformatting and rewordings by mtk
.\"
.TH INIT_MODULE 2 "2002" "Linux" "Linux Module Support"
.SH NAME
init_module \- initialize a loadable module entry
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <linux/module.h>
.sp
.BI "int init_module(const char *" name ", struct module *" image );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR init_module ()
loads the relocated module image into kernel space and runs the
module's
.I init
function.
.PP
The module image begins with a module structure and is followed by
code and data as appropriate.
The module structure is defined as follows:
.PP
.RS
.nf
struct module {
    unsigned long         size_of_struct;
    struct module        *next;
    const char           *name;
    unsigned long         size;
    long                  usecount;
    unsigned long         flags;
    unsigned int          nsyms;
    unsigned int          ndeps;
    struct module_symbol *syms;
    struct module_ref    *deps;
    struct module_ref    *refs;
    int                 (*init)(void);
    void                (*cleanup)(void);
    const struct exception_table_entry *ex_table_start;
    const struct exception_table_entry *ex_table_end;
#ifdef __alpha__
    unsigned long gp;
#endif
};
.fi
.RE
.PP
All of the pointer fields, with the exception of
.I next
and
.IR refs ,
are expected to point within the module body and be
initialized as appropriate for kernel space, i.e., relocated with
the rest of the module.
.PP
This system call requires privilege.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
On success, zero is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EBUSY
The module's initialization routine failed.
.TP
.B EFAULT
.I name
or
.I image
is outside the program's accessible address space.
.TP
.B EINVAL
Some
.I image
slot is filled in incorrectly,
.I image->name
does not correspond to the original module name, some
.I image->deps
entry does not correspond to a loaded module,
or some other similar inconsistency.
.TP
.B ENOENT
No module by that name exists.
.TP
.B EPERM
The caller was not privileged
(did not have the
.B CAP_SYS_MODULE
capability).
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
.BR init_module ()
is Linux specific.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR create_module (2),
.BR delete_module (2),
.BR query_module (2)