__consume_stateless_skb(9)

💅 __consume_stateless_skb — Kernel API Manual ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the __consume_stateless_skb(9) glow-up 🫶 this is the Kernel API Manual's page for it, and no cap, it's a tiny one — but it's lowkey important, so let's get into it 🌸

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🎀 NAME

__consume_stateless_skb — free an skbuff, assuming it is stateless 💀✨

Like, the whole personality of this function is "this skb is stateless, so just free it already," periodt.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS

void __consume_stateless_skb (struct sk_buff *skb );

that's it. that's the whole signature. iconic behavior honestly 👑

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🌸 ARGUMENTS

• skb — buffer to free 🗑️✨ (yes queen, that's the one you're releasing)

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💖 DESCRIPTION

So it's alike consume_skb, but — and this is the main character detail — this variant assumes that this is the last skb reference and that all the head states have already been dropped.

Read that again and let it sink in, bestie: it assumes. It's not out here double-checking your vibes, it's not doing a vibe check on the head states, it just trusts you. So you better actually have dropped those head states and actually have the last reference, or it's giving "consequences" 😭🔥 No cap, this is a "you must be this sure" situation.

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🌈 SEE ALSO

bestie the friend group is HUGE, look at this list, the skb family is literally everywhere 💅 — also shoutout to the kernel file ./net/core/skbuff.c 🧚

• drop_reasons_register_subsys(9)
• drop_reasons_unregister_subsys(9)
• skb_panic(9)
• napi_skb_cache_get_bulk(9)
• __build_skb(9)
• build_skb_around(9)
• __napi_build_skb(9)
• napi_build_skb(9)
• __alloc_skb(9)
• __netdev_alloc_skb(9)
• napi_alloc_skb(9)
• skb_pp_cow_data(9)
• skb_pp_frag_ref(9)
• __kfree_skb(9)
• sk_skb_reason_drop(9)
• skb_tx_error(9)
• consume_skb(9)
• napi_consume_skb(9)
• alloc_skb_for_msg(9)
• skb_morph(9)
• skb_copy_ubufs(9)
• skb_clone(9)
• skb_copy(9)
• __pskb_copy_fclone(9)
• pskb_expand_head(9)
• skb_expand_head(9)
• skb_copy_expand(9)
• __skb_pad(9)
• pskb_put(9)
• skb_put(9)
• skb_push(9)
• skb_pull(9)
• skb_pull_data(9)
• skb_trim(9)
• __pskb_pull_tail(9)
• skb_copy_bits(9)
• skb_store_bits(9)
• skb_zerocopy(9)
• skb_dequeue(9)
• skb_dequeue_tail(9)
• skb_queue_purge_reason(9)
• skb_rbtree_purge(9)
• skb_queue_head(9)
• skb_queue_tail(9)
• skb_unlink(9)
• skb_append(9)
• skb_split(9)
• skb_shift(9)
• skb_prepare_seq_read(9)
• skb_seq_read(9)
• skb_abort_seq_read(9)
• skb_copy_seq_read(9)
• skb_find_text(9)
• skb_pull_rcsum(9)
• skb_segment(9)
• skb_to_sgvec(9)
• skb_cow_data(9)
• skb_clone_sk(9)
• skb_partial_csum_set(9)
• skb_checksum_setup(9)
• skb_checksum_maybe_trim(9)
• skb_checksum_trimmed(9)
• skb_try_coalesce(9)
• skb_scrub_packet(9)
• skb_eth_pop(9)
• skb_eth_push(9)
• skb_mpls_push(9)
• skb_mpls_pop(9)
• skb_mpls_update_lse(9)
• skb_mpls_dec_ttl(9)
• alloc_skb_with_frags(9)
• skb_condense(9)
• __skb_ext_alloc(9)
• __skb_ext_set(9)
• skb_ext_add(9)
• skb_attempt_defer_free(9)
• skb_splice_from_iter(9)

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🫶 friendly reminder: this variant assumes it's the last skb reference and that all head states are already dropped. Please don't make it regret trusting you 🙈

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🌸 okay that's the whole page, hope it slayed for you! this one lives over in ./net/core, dated October 2026, and it's brought to you by the Kernel API Manual — mwah, go free those stateless skbs responsibly 💜🎀✨