How to extract kernel headers for compiling kernel module later

Question

I compiled various Linux kernel from git repositories. There are times when I copied the kernel to other system and need the kernel header to compile external module.

I tried to run "make headers_install" but it only generated a include/ folder. When I tried to point external module to that folder, it complains it cannot find Makefile.

What is the proper way to package kernel-header for deployment?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Create kernel packages instead, that's "make deb-pkg" for dpkg based distros and "make rpm-pkg" for RPM based ones. These create multiple packages, one of those is a package usable for external modules building. That should be linux-headers-* for the Debian packages and a "devel" package for he RPM versions.

Answer 2

In some ways this is just an expansion of the previous answer. If you look at the file scripts/package/builddeb in the kernel sources you will find script code which selects the files needed for building external modules from a kernel build and puts them into /usr/src/linux-headers-$version. I can find that script code in my local kernel version by searching for the string "# Build kernel header package" in the builddeb file. If you want to do things by hand you could execute that script code manually.