comedi_alloc_devpriv(9)

✨ comedi_alloc_devpriv — the kernel API manual, bestie edition ✨

okay so this is the page for comedi_alloc_devpriv(9) from the Kernel API Manual, and honestly? it's a little icon. short, sweet, does exactly one (1) thing, and it does it well. let's get into it 💅

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🎀 NAME 🎀

comedi_alloc_devpriv — allocates memory for the device private data. that's it. that's the whole job. main character energy but make it a memory allocator 🫶

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

void * comedi_alloc_devpriv (struct comedi_device *dev , size_t size );

like, look at her. two arguments, one pointer back. no cap, she's efficient ✨

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• dev — the COMEDI device. that's your device, your buddy, your guy 🫶
• size — size of the memory to allocate. how much you want, in bytes, and yes it matters 💅

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so here's the tea ☕ — the memory you get back is zero-filled. every byte pre-cleared, nice and clean, no weird leftover garbage from whoever had it last. it's giving fresh-start energy ✨

when it's done, dev->private points to that memory. so you don't even have to remember where it is, the device struct is holding it for you the whole time 😌

and the best part? the memory gets automatically freed when the COMEDI device is "detached". so like, no manual cleanup arc, no leak drama, it's just handled 🔥 (still gotta call the detach though, obviously, we're not magic)

returns a pointer to the allocated memory, or NULL on failure. if you get NULL, that's the universe telling you it didn't work — check it, don't rawdog it 🙈

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🔮 SEE ALSO 🔮

the kernel file ./drivers/comedi/drivers.c and the whole friend group, fr fr — every one of these is a real reference and you're not skipping any of them:

• comedi_set_hw_dev(9)
• comedi_alloc_subdevices(9)
• comedi_alloc_subdev_readback(9)
• comedi_readback_insn_read(9)
• comedi_timeout(9)
• comedi_dio_insn_config(9)
• comedi_dio_update_state(9)
• comedi_bytes_per_scan_cmd(9)
• comedi_bytes_per_scan(9)
• comedi_nscans_left(9)
• comedi_nsamples_left(9)
• comedi_inc_scan_progress(9)
• comedi_handle_events(9)
• comedi_load_firmware(9)
• __comedi_check_request_region(9)
• comedi_check_request_region(9)
• comedi_legacy_detach(9)
• comedi_auto_config(9)
• comedi_auto_unconfig(9)
• comedi_driver_register(9)
• comedi_driver_unregister(9)

that's the whole squad. iykyk 👑

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lowkey reminder before you go: NULL on failure is a real return value, so vibe check your pointer before you dereference it. please. for me. 😭

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and that's the page!! 💜 this beauty lives under ./drivers/comedi, dated October 2026, and it's part of the Kernel API Manual — so go forth, allocate responsibly, and slay 🧚‍♀️⭐