drm_suballoc_alloc(9)

💅 drm_suballoc_alloc(9) — the Kernel API Manual, bestie edition

okay so welcome to the group chat, this is the drm_suballoc_alloc(9) page from the Kernel API Manual and honestly? it's short, it's sweet, it's giving "hold my spot" energy and i'm obsessed 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

drm_suballoc_alloc — allocate an uninitialized suballoc object. no cap, that's the whole job. 🎀

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

struct drm_suballoc * drm_suballoc_alloc (gfp_t gfp );

like yeah that's it, that's the function signature, look at her go 💅

---

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• gfp — the gfp flags used for memory allocation. that's it. that's the whole argument. she's lowkey simple like that ✨

---

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

bestie listen, this one is the plan-ahead girlie of the suballoc family 😭

drm_suballoc_alloc allocates memory for an uninitialized suballoc object. the intended usage (and this is the iconique part) is to allocate the memory for the suballoc object outside of a reclaim tainted context, and then have it initialized at a later time in a reclaim tainted context. like, book the venue early, throw the party later 🔥

real talk though: this whole split-timing thing is literally the point of the function, so don't be out here doing the initialize-in-the-same-context thing and calling it a day — the design intent is allocate early, init later 💀

and if the returned suballoc object is in its uninitialized state, drm_suballoc_free should be used to release the memory. that's the cleanup bestie, use her 🧚

---

⭐ RETURN ⭐

you get back a new uninitialized suballoc object 🎀 … or, if things go sideways, an ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM). yeah. that's the vibe check failing. no memory for you 🙈

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/drm_suballoc.c
• drm_suballoc_manager_init(9)
• drm_suballoc_manager_fini(9)
• drm_suballoc_event(9)
• drm_suballoc_insert(9)
• drm_suballoc_new(9)
• drm_suballoc_free(9)

the whole suballoc friend group, fr fr 👑

---

and that's the page!! written from ./drivers/gpu/drm, dated October 2026 — ty for coming to my ted talk, mwah 😘💜