Inherit/override core module I have made a single tiny change to a core module. I copied it into my site modules directory. I am curious as to whther I can simply override it's hook_menu() method in my copy so as not to carry over all the additional code which the core version provides?

Similar to theme inheritance, do modules support anything similar?
There's no inheritance for modules, but much of the functionality they provide can be altered using hooks (search this page for _alter and you'll see the ones core provides).

Specifically for items defined in hook_menu(), you can use hook_menu_alter(), e.g.

function MYMODULE_menu_alter(&amp;$items) {
  // Replace the page callback for the foo/bar path
  $items['foo/bar']['page callback'] = 'MYMODULE_some_function;
}


If I've misunderstood and you mean you literally want to inherit from a module, like subclassing a class, and just change a couple of things, then unfortunately not. Copying the module is the way to go; you'll need to change the names of all the functions so they don't collide with those in the core module, and change paths/cache keys/variables for the same reason.