ata_sff_busy_wait(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 ata_sff_busy_wait(9) — like, the actual kernel API manual, bestie

okay so real talk: this page lives in the Kernel API Manual, section 9, and it's all about ata_sff_busy_wait — the little function that sits there refreshing a port's status register until the bits you care about finally go ✨quiet✨. Honestly? Iconic behaviour. Let's get into it 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

ata_sff_busy_wait — wait for a port status register 🫶

Like, that's the whole job. It waits. On a status register. For a port. Slay.

⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

u8 ata_sff_busy_wait (struct ata_port *ap , unsigned int bits , unsigned
       int max );

Note the return type, bestie: u8. Not void, not int, u8. And yeah, the line breaks in the middle of unsigned int max are exactly how the original has it — we don't touch the signature, ever. Periodt 💅

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

  • ap — the port you're waiting on. That's the vibe. This is your main character port. 👑
  • bits — the bits that must be clear. Read that again: clear, not set. We are waiting for these to go bye-bye. 🧚
  • max — how many 10uS waits you're willing to perform. So it's a loop count, basically — max little ten-microsecond chunks of patience. 🍓

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

It waits up to max*10 microseconds for the selected bits in the port's status register to be cleared. That's the whole plot. Then it returns the final value of the status register — the final one, like the last word in the argument. 😭

So yes: max × 10uS, that's your ceiling, and no cap, it really does hand you back the live status register value at the end so you can see what happened. 🔥

🔒 LOCKING 🔒

Locking is inherited from the caller. Translation: this function isn't out here grabbing locks for you, bestie — whatever locking situation you rolled in with is the locking situation you've got. Not me doing your lock management. 🙈

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./include/linux/libata.h plus this little friend group right here, fr fr:

Go read those too, they're giving linked-list energy. ⭐

okay that's the page!! 💜 cute little sign-off as promised: this one comes from ./include/linux, dated October 2026, printed under the title ata_sff_busy_wait(9) in the Kernel API Manual. Go wait on some bits, bestie — you've got this 🫶✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from