__create_missing_ancestors(9)

💖 __create_missing_ancestors(9) 💖

okay bestie, this page is coming at you from the Kernel API Manual, and it's all about one very specific little function. no cap, let's get into it.

🦋 NAME 🦋

__create_missing_ancestors — create place holders for missing ancestors. that's the whole vibe of the name, and she's literally doing what it says.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

struct aa_policy * __create_missing_ancestors (struct aa_ns *ns , const char *hname , gfp_t gfp );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• ns — namespace to lookup profile in. it is NOT NULL, bestie, so don't even try it.
• hname — hierarchical profile name to find parent of. also NOT NULL. the constraints are constraining.
• gfp — type of allocation.

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Requires: ns mutex lock held. not optional, not "i'll do it later," not a vibe check you can skip. hold the ns mutex lock before you call this, periodt.

💖 RETURN 💖

on success, you get an unrefcounted parent policy. if there's an error creating place holder profiles, you get NULL. that's the return tea, no extra garnish.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the kernel file is ./security/apparmor/policy.c, and these are all the related manual pages in the group chat:

• aa_pdb_free_kref(9)
• __add_profile(9)
• __list_remove_profile(9)
• __remove_profile(9)
• __aa_profile_list_release(9)
• aa_free_data(9)
• aa_free_profile(9)
• aa_alloc_profile(9)
• __strn_find_child(9)
• __find_child(9)
• aa_find_child(9)
• __lookup_parent(9)
• __lookupn_profile(9)
• aa_lookupn_profile(9)
• __aa_new_learning_profile(9)
• replacement_allowed(9)
• audit_policy(9)
• aa_policy_view_capable(9)
• aa_may_manage_policy(9)
• __replace_profile(9)
• __lookup_replace(9)
• aa_replace_profiles(9)
• aa_remove_profiles(9)

xoxo, your Unix bestie 💋 — source: ./security/apparmor, manual/version: Kernel API Manual, date: October 2026. mwah 🫶