KLDLOAD(2)                FreeBSD System Calls Manual               KLDLOAD(2)

NAME

     kldload - load KLD files into the kernel

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/linker.h>

     int
     kldload(const char *file);

DESCRIPTION

     The kldload() system call loads a kld file specified by file into the
     kernel using the kernel linker (see kld(4)).  The file can be specified
     as a full or relative path, or otherwise is searched within the module
     path as defined by the loader tunable and sysctl variable
     kern.module_path.  The .ko extension for file is not mandatory.

RETURN VALUES

     The kldload() system call returns the fileid of the kld file which was
     loaded into the kernel.  If an error occurs, kldload() will return -1 and
     set errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS

     The named file is loaded unless:

     [EPERM]            You do not have access to read the file or link it
                        with the kernel.  You should be the root user to be
                        able to use the kld system calls.

     [EFAULT]           Bad address encountered when adding kld info into the
                        kernel space.

     [ENOMEM]           There is no memory to load the file into the kernel.

     [ENOENT]           The file was not found.

     [ENOEXEC]          The file format of file was unrecognized.

     [EEXIST]           The supplied file has already been loaded.

SEE ALSO

     kldfind(2), kldfirstmod(2), kldnext(2), kldstat(2), kldsym(2),
     kldunload(2), modfind(2), modfnext(2), modnext(2), modstat(2), kld(4),
     kldload(8)

HISTORY

     The kld interface first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0.

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD        March 26, 2026                      KLDLOAD(2)