damon_start(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 damon_start(9) — a Kernel API Manual moment

okay bestie, welcome to damon_start(9), straight out of the Kernel API Manual ✨ this is the little function that gets your monitoring threads up and running, and honestly? iconic behavior.

🌸 NAME 🌸

damon_start — Starts the monitorings for a given group of contexts. periodt. that's the whole job. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int damon_start (struct damon_ctx **ctxs , int nr_ctxs , bool exclusive );

like look at her. three arguments, one int return, no cap. 🦋

🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

  • ctxs — an array of the pointers for contexts to start monitoring. it's the guest list, and everybody on it is getting monitored 💅
  • nr_ctxs — size of ctxs. literally just how many besties are on the list 🔥
  • exclusive — exclusiveness of this contexts group. yes it's a real word. yes it matters. keep reading 👑

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so here's the vibe: this function starts a group of monitoring threads for a group of monitoring contexts. one thread per each context is created and run in parallel. the way that's so main character energy 🌈

but bestie, listen — the caller should handle synchronization between the threads by itself. that's on you, not her. she's not your babysitter 😭

and then there's the exclusive situation: if exclusive is true and a group of threads that created by other — it returns -EBUSY. so like, if somebody else already claimed exclusivity, you're not getting in. the door's locked, the vibe check failed, go home 💀

⭐ RETURN ⭐

  • 0 on success 🎉
  • negative error code otherwise 🙈

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Kernel file ./mm/damon/core.c and her entire friend group:

mwah 💜 that's the page! brought to you by the ./mm/damon girlies, dated October 2026, in all her damon_start(9) glory. go start some monitorings, bestie — you got this 🫶✨

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