auxiliary_device_init(9)

💅 auxiliary_device_init(9)

okay so bestie, this one lives in the Kernel API Manual and honestly it's giving "step two of three, don't skip it" energy. Let me put you on 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

auxiliary_device_init — the vibe check and the initialization for your auxiliary_device, all in one 🌸

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int auxiliary_device_init (struct auxiliary_device *auxdev );

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✨ ARGUMENTS ✨

• auxdev — the auxiliary_device struct, aka the main character of this whole operation 👑

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So here's the tea ☕: this function is the second step in the three-step process to register an auxiliary_device. Not the first, not the third — the second. Middle child energy, but make it essential.

Now, the important part, and I need you to listen 🙈 — when this function returns an error code, that means device_initialize will *not* have been performed. Which means you, the caller, are responsible for freeing any memory you allocated for the auxiliary_device in that error path directly. No hand-holding, no cleanup fairy, that's on you fr fr.

It returns 0 on success. And on success? device_initialize has been performed ✅. So from that point on, literally any error unwinding needs to include a call to auxiliary_device_uninit. Periodt.

🚨 And in this post-initialize error scenario — bestie, heads up — a call to the device's .release callback will be triggered, and all memory clean-up is expected to be handled there. That's the deal. Handle it in .release, not wherever you feel like it 💀

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• Kernel file ./drivers/base/auxiliary.c PURPOSE(9)
• USAGE(9)
• EXAMPLE(9)
• __auxiliary_device_add(9)
• __auxiliary_driver_register(9)
• auxiliary_driver_unregister(9)
• auxiliary_device_create(9)
• auxiliary_device_destroy(9)
• __devm_auxiliary_device_create(9)
• dev_is_auxiliary(9)

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aaaand that's the whole page, icon ✨ it comes to you from ./drivers/base, dated October 2026 — go forth and initialize responsibly, bestie 💖🎀🦋