annotate_get_insn_location(9)

💅 annotate_get_insn_location(9) — from the Kernel API Manual, bestie 🎀

okay so bestie, grab a snack because this one is literally a glow-up for disassembly lines. it lives in the Kernel API Manual and it's giving "let me tell you exactly where in memory this instruction is pointing" energy. obsessed. 🦋

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✨ NAME ✨

annotate_get_insn_location — get the location of an instruction. that's it, that's the vibe. 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int annotate_get_insn_location (const struct arch *arch , struct disasm_line *dl , struct annotated_insn_loc *loc );

three arguments, one int coming back at you. no cap. ✨

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• arch — the architecture info. like, which CPU are we even talking about, bestie 🧚
• dl — the target instruction. the star of the show, the main character 👑
• loc — a buffer to save the data into. it's the little tupperware you put the results in 🍓

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so what it does: it gets the detailed location info (that's register and offset) out of the instruction. like, the receipts. 🔥

for that it needs both the source and the target operand, plus whether the thing accesses a memory location at all.

now the important caveats, and i need you to actually read these, bestie:

the offset field is meaningful only when the corresponding mem flag is set. otherwise it's just vibes, not data. 💀

the reg2 field is meaningful only when the multi_regs flag is set. same deal. 🙈

some examples on x86, and honestly they ate:

mov  (rax), rcx   # src_reg1 = rax, src_mem = 1, src_offset = 0 # dst_reg1 = rcx, dst_mem = 0

mov  0x18, r8      # src_reg1 = -1, src_mem = 0 # dst_reg1 = r8, dst_mem = 0

mov  rsi, 8(rbx,rcx,4)  # src_reg1 = rsi, src_mem = 0, src_multi_regs = 0 # dst_reg1 = rbx, dst_reg2 = rcx, dst_mem = 1 # dst_multi_regs = 1, dst_offset = 8

see how the last one has two registers and a real offset? that's dst_multi_regs = 1 doing its thing, and dst_offset = 8 actually meaning something because dst_mem = 1. iykyk 🌈

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• the Kernel file ./tools/perf/util/annotate.c
• hist_entry__get_data_type(9)
• annotate_get_basic_blocks(9)

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okay that's the whole page, no notes 💅 this one's from ./tools/perf/util, dated October 2026, and it's the annotate_get_insn_location(9) entry — go forth and annotate, bestie, you're gonna slay 🫶✨