aa_dfa_match(9)

aa_dfa_match(9) 💅✨ — Kernel API Manual cutie

💖 NAME 💖

aa_dfa_match — traverse @dfa to find the state @str stops at. That's the whole vibe: you're walking the dfa with str and seeing where it lands 💫

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

       aa_state_t aa_dfa_match (const struct aa_dfa *dfa , aa_state_t start ,
       const char *str );

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

okay bestie, here's what you're feeding it:

• dfa — the dfa to match str against (NOT NULL). no cap, it cannot be null.
• start — the state of the dfa to start matching in.
• str — the null terminated string of bytes to match against the dfa (NOT NULL). again: not null, bestie.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

aa_dfa_match will match str against the dfa and return the state it finished matching in. The final state can be used to look up the accepting label, or as the start state of a continuing match. That's it — that's the slay 💅

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🌈 RETURN 🌈

final state reached after input is consumed ✨

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Kernel file ./security/apparmor/match.c and the whole friend group:

• unpack_table(9)
• verify_table_headers(9)
• verify_dfa(9)
• dfa_free(9)
• aa_dfa_free_kref(9)
• remap_data16_to_data32(9)
• aa_dfa_unpack(9)
• aa_dfa_match_len(9)
• aa_dfa_next(9)
• aa_dfa_match_until(9)
• aa_dfa_matchn_until(9)
• aa_dfa_leftmatch(9)

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Catch you later, bestie — source/version ./security/apparmor, date October 2026 🫶🎀✨