__unflatten_device_tree(9)

🦋 NAME 🦋

okay so bestie, welcome to the __unflatten_device_tree(9) page — it's a Kernel API Manual moment, and this one's literally about creating a tree of device_nodes from a flat blob ✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

void * __unflatten_device_tree (const void *blob , struct device_node
*dad , struct device_node **mynodes , void *(*dt_alloc)(u64 size, u64
align) , bool detached );

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💅 ARGUMENTS 💅

• blob — the blob we're expanding, no cap. It's the flat thing going in 🫶
• dad — the parent device node. yes his name is dad. iconic, we don't ask questions 👑
• mynodes — the device_node tree that the call creates. it's giving "here's your output" 💖
• dt_alloc — an allocator that provides a virtual address to memory for the resulting tree. lowkey the most important one, she's doing the actual work 🧚
• detached — if true, sets OF_DETACHED on mynodes. simple as that fr fr

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so what it does: it unflattens a device-tree, creating the tree of struct device_node. ✨ the way that it also fills the "name" and "type" pointers of the nodes — that's the whole point, bestie — so the normal device-tree walking functions can actually be used. slay 🔥

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⭐ RETURN ⭐

NULL on failure 💀 — or the memory chunk containing the unflattened device tree on success 🎉 choose your fighter.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./drivers/of/fdt.c, plus the whole friend group:

• unflatten_dt_nodes(9)
• of_fdt_unflatten_tree(9)
• early_init_fdt_scan_reserved_mem(9)
• early_init_fdt_reserve_self(9)
• of_scan_flat_dt(9)
• of_scan_flat_dt_subnodes(9)
• of_get_flat_dt_subnode_by_name(9)
• of_fdt_is_compatible(9)
• of_flat_dt_is_compatible(9)
• of_flat_dt_match_machine(9)
• early_init_dt_check_for_initrd(9)
• early_init_dt_check_for_elfcorehdr(9)
• early_init_dt_check_for_usable_mem_range(9)
• early_init_dt_check_kho(9)
• unflatten_device_tree(9)
• unflatten_and_copy_device_tree(9)

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ngl that's a lot of of_ functions but they're all valid, go read them 🫶

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and that's the page!! 🍓 from ./drivers/of, dated October 2026, version vibes courtesy of the Kernel API Manual — __unflatten_device_tree(9), periodt 💜🧚‍♀️