DECLARE_VAL_CONTEXT(9)

💖 DECLARE_VAL_CONTEXT(9) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual, and today's main character is DECLARE_VAL_CONTEXT — it lives in the kernel docs and it's literally just a macro that declares a validation context and sets it up in one go. no cap, that's the whole vibe ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

DECLARE_VAL_CONTEXT — declare a validation context, but like… with initialization already happening 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

DECLARE_VAL_CONTEXT (_name , _sw_context , _merge_dups );

that's it. three args. she's compact, she's iconic, she's a macro 💅

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• _name — the name of the variable, bestie. that's literally it, that's the whole job. it's giving "name tag at a party" 🏷️
• _sw_context — this one contains the hash table used to find dups, or NULL if there are none. so like, either you brought the hash table or you didn't, no in-between 🙈
• _merge_dups — whether to merge duplicate buffer object- or resource entries. and here's the tea 🍵: if you set it to true, ideally you should supply a hash table pointer as well — unless the number of resources and buffer objects per validation is known to be very small. tiny counts = you can get away with it, fr fr. big counts = girl, bring the hash table ⚠️

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

so if you wanna keep reading (and you should, she's obsessed with cross-references), go check out:

• Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_validation.h and struct vmw_validation_context(9)
• vmw_validation_has_bos(9)
• vmw_validation_bo_reserve(9)
• vmw_validation_bo_fence(9)
• vmw_validation_align(9)

all the vmwgfx validation girlies in one place, we love a linked list of friends 🫶

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quick vibe check: _sw_context being NULL is totally allowed — but if you're leaning on _merge_dups without a hash table, make sure your resource + buffer object counts are very small. that's the caveat, don't shoot the messenger 💀

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🌈 and that's the page!! brought to you by ./drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx, dated October 2026 — mwah, slay, periodt, go validate responsibly 💖🎀🦋