Is it meaningful to execute “make modules_install” without executing “make modules”?

Question

From KernelBuild tutorial from http://kernelnewbies.org , I don't see " make modules " command. This article only executes " make " command before " sudo make modules_install install ".

But from make help output:

  all             - Build all targets marked with [*]
* vmlinux         - Build the bare kernel
* modules         - Build all modules
  modules_install - Install all modules to INSTALL_MOD_PATH (default: /)

It seems that without " make modules " command, there is no need to execute " make modules_install " command. Is it meaningful to execute " make modules_install " without executing " make modules "?

Answer 1

Is it meaningful to execute “make modules_install” without executing “make modules”?

Yes, but only if you have already executed make before the make modules_install . You can't execute modules_install if modules weren't built with the make modules or just make . There is only one difference between make and make modules : the make modules compiles only modules or source code which is set as

obj-CONFIG_OPTION_NAME=m

in the Makefile. If you want just to build Linux kernel, just use make , the make modules already included there.

Answer 2

No, if you understand the procedure correctly.

make modules
This will just compile all modules just like any other program. Creating object files.

make modules_install
Once your files are compiled without any error then this command will put generated .so files to the appropriate directories.

So if you run modules_install without make modules then there will be nothing to copy.

I hope this helps.