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

NAME
     kextunload -- terminates and unloads kernel extensions

SYNOPSIS
     kextunload [-b bundle_id] ...  [-c class_name] ...  [-h] [-p] [ -v [0-6] | -q ] [ extension ] ...

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

     If another loaded kext has a dependency on a kext being unloaded, the unload will fail.  You can deter-mine determine
     mine whether a kext has dependents using the kextstat(8) tool.

     kextunload 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 ter-minated, terminated,
              minated, and personalities and code are unloaded from the kernel.

     -b bundle_id
              Unload code and personalities for the kext whose CFBundleIdentifier is bundle_id.

     -c class_name
              Terminate all instances of class class_name if possible but do not unload code or personali-ties. personalities.
              ties.  New load requests for devices driven by these instances may result in the same class
              being instantiated at any time.

     -h       Print a help message describing each option flag.

     -m bundle_id
              Same as -b (remains for backward compatibility).

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

     -q       Quiet mode; print no informational or error messages.  This option excludes -v.

     -v [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 ver-bose verbose
              bose level prints.  This option excludes -q.

DIAGNOSTICS
     kextunload 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 kextunload to exit immedi-ately, immediately,
     ately, 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 impos-sible impossible
     sible 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