libnvme(2)

💖 libnvme(2) — the API Manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so welcome to libnvme, section 2 of the manual (yes, the API Manual one), and today's main character is a struct. her name is nvme_mi_vpd_hdr, and she's the Vital Product Data Common Header 🎀 that lives inside NVMe-MI stuff. she's smol, she's structured, she's giving "table of contents but make it ✨binary✨".

ngl bestie, this one's a quick read — but every byte matters, so let's go 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

struct nvme_mi_vpd_hdr - Vital Product Data Common Header

like… she is the common header for Vital Product Data. no cap, that's the whole job description 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's how she shows up in the wild, byte for byte:

struct nvme_mi_vpd_hdr {
    __u8 ipmiver;
    __u8 iuaoff;
    __u8 ciaoff;
    __u8 biaoff;
    __u8 piaoff;
    __u8 mrioff;
    __u8 rsvd6;
    __u8 chchk;
    __u8 vpd[];
};

the way that every single field is a __u8… consistency queen 👑 except for vpd[], which is a flexible array member — she refuses to be boxed in, and honestly? respect.

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✨ Members ✨

okay so let's meet the cast, one byte at a time 🌸

• ipmiver — the IPMI Format Version Number. she tells you which flavour/version of the IPMI format you're dealing with 🍓
• iuaoff — the Internal Use Area Starting Offset. where the Internal Use Area kicks off 📍
• ciaoff — the Chassis Info Area Starting Offset. starting offset for the Chassis Info Area ✨
• biaoff — the Board Info Area Starting Offset. starting offset for the Board Info Area 🧚
• piaoff — the Product Info Area Starting Offset. starting offset for the Product Info Area 🫶
• mrioff — the MultiRecord Info Area Starting Offset. starting offset for the MultiRecord Info Area 🌈
• rsvd6 — Reserved 🙈 not for you, bestie. hands off the reserved byte, that's reserved-core 💀
• chchk — the Common Header Checksum. the vibe check ✅ — well, the checksum, but same energy
• vpd — Vital Product Data. the flexible array member carrying the actual VPD payload 💖 she's giving main character, she's giving "the rest of the story"

⚠️ lowkey important: rsvd6 is Reserved. don't be out here writing to it or reading meaning into it, because per this page there's nothing to read. it's literally just reserved. periodt.

👀 also worth clocking: vpd[] is declared with empty brackets in the struct. that's it, that's the declaration — no size, no bounds listed here, so don't invent one.

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🎀 the sign-off 🎀

this whole page is from libnvme, dated July 2026, and it's all about that one iconic little struct, nvme_mi_vpd_hdr — she ate and left no crumbs, fr fr. go read your VPD, bestie, and stay checksummed 💜✨

bye babe, ily, see you in the next manpage 💅