clear_nlink(9)

💅 clear_nlink — Kernel API Manual

ok so the page header says clear_nlink(9) and the manual name is Kernel API Manual — consider that folded in, bestie, we're not copying that line verbatim 💖

✨ NAME ✨

clear_nlink — directly zero an inode's link count. like, directly directly. no middleman. 🎀

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

void clear_nlink (struct inode *inode );

that's it. that's the whole vibe. returns nothing, takes one thing. ✅

---

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• inode — the inode. yes, that's genuinely what the original says: "inode". so here's your inode. hand it over. 🫶

---

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

okay so this is a low-level filesystem helper, and its whole job is to replace any place where a filesystem was just... reaching in and messing with i_nlink by hand 🙈. that's the iconique behavior — do the thing through the helper instead of rawdogging the struct.

and why do we even care? because i_nlink hitting zero is kind of a big deal — but the manpage doesn't spill that tea here, it points you at drop_nlink for that whole story. so go read drop_nlink if you wanna know why zero is the main character 💀✨

ngl, this is the kind of function where the description is short but the consequences are real. read the cross-references, bestie. 👀

---

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

everything is connected, iykyk. the original lists them under Kernel file ./fs/inode.c and here's every single one, no skips, no cap 🔥:

• inode_init_always_gfp(9)
• alloc_inode(9)
• drop_nlink(9)
• set_nlink(9)
• inc_nlink(9)
• inode_sb_list_add(9)
• __insert_inode_hash(9)
• __remove_inode_hash(9)
• evict_inodes(9)
• new_inode(9)
• unlock_new_inode(9)
• lock_two_nondirectories(9)
• unlock_two_nondirectories(9)
• inode_insert5(9)
• iget5_locked(9)
• iget5_locked_rcu(9)
• iget_locked(9)
• iunique(9)
• ihold(9)
• ilookup5_nowait(9)
• ilookup5(9)
• ilookup(9)
• find_inode_nowait(9)
• find_inode_rcu(9)
• find_inode_by_ino_rcu(9)
• iput(9)
• iput_not_last(9)
• bmap(9)
• inode_update_time(9)
• generic_update_time(9)
• atime_needs_update(9)
• file_remove_privs(9)
• current_time(9)
• file_update_time(9)
• file_modified_flags(9)
• file_modified(9)
• kiocb_modified(9)
• inode_init_owner(9)
• inode_owner_or_capable(9)
• inode_dio_wait(9)
• timestamp_truncate(9)
• inode_set_ctime_current(9)
• inode_set_ctime_deleg(9)
• in_group_or_capable(9)
• mode_strip_sgid(9)
• dump_inode(9)

---

ok so the footer of this page credits the source directory ./fs and dates it October 2026, and it signs off with clear_nlink(9) — so there's your cute little sign-off: from ./fs, October 2026, with love, clear_nlink(9) 💜🧚