deactivate_super(9)

✨ deactivate_super — kernel API manual energy ✨

Okay so bestie, we're in the Kernel API Manual today and the page is literally called deactivate_super(9). Come sit, this one's short and sweet 💖

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🎀 NAME 🎀

deactivate_super — drop an active reference to superblock

Like, you're letting go of a reference. That's the whole vibe. 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

void deactivate_super (struct super_block *s );

That's it. That's the whole signature. No cap. 👑

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• s — the superblock you want to deactivate. The one catching feelings. The one you're releasing. 💅

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So deactivate_super is a variant of deactivate_locked_super, right — but with one iconic little plot twist: the superblock is not locked by the caller. Nope. Not your job. Not today. 🙈

And here's the part that matters: if we're about to drop the final active reference, the lock will be acquired prior to that. So the locking still happens — it just happens on the function's terms, not yours. Main character energy fr fr. ✨

Lowkey the whole point: you don't bring a lock to this function. It handles that itself when it needs to. 🫶

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./fs/super.c — and like, the whole extended friend group:

• super_lock(9)
• alloc_super(9)
• deactivate_locked_super(9)
• grab_super(9)
• retire_super(9)
• generic_shutdown_super(9)
• sget_fc(9)
• iterate_supers_type(9)
• reconfigure_super(9)
• emergency_thaw_all(9)
• get_anon_bdev(9)
• sget_dev(9)
• fs_bdev_freeze(9)
• fs_bdev_thaw(9)
• fs_bdev_file_open_by_dev(9)
• fs_bdev_file_open_by_path(9)
• fs_bdev_unregister(9)
• fs_bdev_file_release(9)
• get_tree_bdev_flags(9)
• get_tree_bdev(9)
• vfs_get_tree(9)
• sb_wait_write(9)
• freeze_super(9)
• thaw_super(9)

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That's the page, bestie — go drop that reference responsibly 💜

Sign-off szn: this one lives in ./fs, dated October 2026, and it's filed under deactivate_super(9) in the Kernel API Manual. Periodt. 🎀✨