dget(9)

💅 dget (kernel API manual, bestie edition)

okay so this is dget from the Kernel API Manual — section 9, the kernel-space girlies. we're talking dentries. buckle up 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

dget — get a reference to a dentry. literally just. grab a ref. that's the whole job 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

struct dentry * dget (struct dentry *dentry );

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✨ ARGUMENTS ✨

• dentry — the dentry you want a reference to. that's it. that's the argument 💖

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

ok so picture this: you hand it a dentry, or a NULL pointer, and it bumps the reference count if appropriate and hands the dentry right back to you. that's the vibe. ✨

the important part, bestie, is a dentry will not be destroyed while it has references. periodt. that's the whole safety guarantee.

conversely — and this is the part where you gotta pay attention 😭 — a dentry with no references can disappear for any number of reasons, starting with memory pressure. like, it's just gone. no warning. no text. nothing.

so in other words: this primitive is used to clone an existing reference. if you're using it on something with a zero refcount? that's a bug. not a quirky little oopsie. a bug. 🙈

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✨ NOTE ✨

it will spin if dentry->d_lock is held. 💀

from the deadlock-avoidance point of view, it's equivalent to spin_lock / increment refcount / spin_unlock. which means calling it under dentry->d_lock is always a bug. and so is calling it under ->d_lock on any of its descendents. yes, any of them. i don't make the rules, the kernel does 🧚

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

Kernel file ./include/linux/dcache.h, plus the whole friend group:

• dget_dlock(9)
• d_unhashed(9)
• d_really_is_negative(9)
• d_really_is_positive(9)
• d_inode(9)
• d_inode_rcu(9)
• d_backing_inode(9)
• d_real(9)
• d_real_inode(9)

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and that's the page, bestie 🌸 this one lives at ./include/linux and it's dated October 2026, filed under dget(9) in the Kernel API Manual. go clone some references responsibly 💜👑