The modules.dep.bin as generated by module-init-tools depmod, lists the dependencies for every module in the directories under /lib/modules/version, where modules.dep.bin (or the human readable version modules.dep) is also located. It is used by utilities such as modprobe. The binary version will be used by default, if it was generated by a compatible version of depmod, with fallback to the generic modules.dep.
These files are not intended for editing or use by any additional utilities as their format is subject to change in the future. You should use the modinfo(8) command to obtain information about modules in a future proof and compatible fashion rather than touching these files.
This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. Maintained by Jon Masters and others.