console_lock(9)

🎀 console_lock — from the Kernel API Manual, bestie 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

console_lock — okay so this one literally blocks the whole console subsystem from printing. That's the vibe. That's the whole job. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

void console_lock (void );

💖 ARGUMENTS 💖

• void — no arguments, bestie. Not a single one. She takes nothing, she gives nothing back (well, she gives you a lock, see below 👀).

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So here's the tea: console_lock acquires a lock. And that lock is a whole guarantee — it guarantees that no consoles will be in or enter their write callback. Like, nobody's mid-print, nobody's about to start printing, the write callbacks are on pause, periodt. 🫶

Heads up, this one can sleep. So don't you dare call it from somewhere that can't nap. 😴

And after all that, it returns nothing. Void in, void out, iconic. ✨

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Okay buckle up because the friend group is large — all of these live in the kernel file ./kernel/printk/printk.c, and honestly they're all lowkey obsessed with each other:

• console_list_lock(9)
• console_list_unlock(9)
• console_srcu_read_lock(9)
• console_srcu_read_unlock(9)
• console_lock_spinning_enable(9)
• console_lock_spinning_disable_and_check(9)
• console_trylock_spinning(9)
• printk_parse_prefix(9)
• add_preferred_console(9)
• match_devname_and_update_preferred_console(9)
• console_suspend_all(9)
• console_cpu_notify(9)
• console_trylock(9)
• console_unlock(9)
• console_flush_on_panic(9)
• printk_kthreads_shutdown(9)
• console_force_preferred_locked(9)
• pr_flush(9)
• wake_up_klogd(9)
• defer_console_output(9)
• printk_trigger_flush(9)
• printk_timed_ratelimit(9)
• kmsg_dump_register(9)
• kmsg_dump_unregister(9)
• kmsg_dump_desc(9)
• kmsg_dump_get_line(9)
• kmsg_dump_get_buffer(9)
• kmsg_dump_rewind(9)
• console_try_replay_all(9)
• __printk_cpu_sync_wait(9)
• __printk_cpu_sync_try_get(9)
• __printk_cpu_sync_put(9)

💫 that's the whole page, no cap 💫

This lil baddie came out of ./kernel/printk and it's dated October 2026 — so yeah, she's from the future, we stan. 🦋🌸💜