KEXTUNLOAD(8) BSD System Manager's Manual KEXTUNLOAD(8)

NAME
     kkeexxttuunnllooaadd - terminates and unloads kernel extensions

SYNOPSIS
     kkeexxttuunnllooaadd [-bb bundleid] ...  [-cc classname] ...  [-hh] [-pp] [ -vv [0-6]
                | -qq ] [ extension ] ...

DESCRIPTION
     The kkeexxttuunnllooaadd 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, kkeexxttuunnllooaadd
     must be invoked with superuser privileges.

     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 kextstat(8) tool.

     kkeexxttuunnllooaadd 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.

     The arguments and options are:

     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.

     -bb bundleid
              Unload code and personalities for the kext whose CFBundleIdenti-
              fier is bundleid.

     -cc classname
              Terminate all instances of class classname 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.

     -hh       Print a help message describing each option flag.

     -mm bundleid
              Same as -bb (remains for backward compatibility).

     -pp       Don't remove personalities when unloading (unnecessary when
              using the -cc option).  New load requests for devices driven by
              the kext may result in the same kext being loaded at any time.

     -qq       Quiet mode; print no informational or error messages.  This
              option excludes -vv.

     -vv [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 kextload(8) to see what each
              verbose level prints.  This option excludes -qq.

DIAGNOSTICS
     kkeexxttuunnllooaadd exits with a zero status upon success, or prints an error mes-
     sage and exits with a nonzero status upon failure.  An error when multi-
     ple kexts are being unloaded causes kkeexxttuunnllooaadd to exit immediately, so
     that some kexts may remain loaded even if they could have been unloaded
     without error.

BUGS
     The kernel's kext unloading facility does not provide detailed failure
     information.  Thus it is impossible to tell whether the problem was that
     the kext wasn't loaded or that another kext has a dependency on it, etc.
     These conditions can be checked using kextstat(8).

SEE ALSO
     kextcache(8), kextd(8), kextload(8), kextstat(8)

Darwin                          April 17, 2002                          Darwin