alloc_chrdev_region(9)

💖 alloc_chrdev_region 💖

okay so this is the alloc_chrdev_region(9) page from the Kernel API Manual — and it's here to explain how you register a range of char device numbers, no cap 🎀✨

✨ NAME ✨

alloc_chrdev_region — register a range of char device numbers 💅

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

the signature is giving exactly this:

       int alloc_chrdev_region (dev_t *dev , unsigned baseminor , unsigned
       count , const char *name );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• dev — output parameter for first assigned number 🫶
• baseminor — first of the requested range of minor numbers ⭐
• count — the number of minor numbers required 🔥
• name — the name of the associated device or driver 👑

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so the tea: this allocates a range of char device numbers. the major number gets chosen dynamically, and it comes back (along with the first minor number) in dev 😭✨. it returns zero or a negative error code. that's it, that's the vibe 💖

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

the kernel file is ./fs/char_dev.c, and these are the related pages bestie:

• register_chrdev_region(9)
• __register_chrdev(9)
• unregister_chrdev_region(9)
• __unregister_chrdev(9)
• cdev_add(9)
• cdev_set_parent(9)
• cdev_device_add(9)
• cdev_device_del(9)
• cdev_del(9)
• cdev_alloc(9)
• cdev_init(9)

sign-off bestie: source ./fs, dated October 2026, page alloc_chrdev_region(9) — bye and slay 💅🫶