finish_no_open(9)

💅 finish_no_open — finishing ->atomic_open() without actually opening the file

okay so bestie, we're deep in the kernel API manual rn (section 9, the big-girl section, iykyk) and this is the page for finish_no_open. it's giving "wrapping things up but make it NOT open anything" and honestly? iconic. ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

finish_no_open — finish ->atomic_open() without opening the file 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int finish_no_open (struct file *file , struct dentry *dentry );

literally that's the whole signature, no cap. 💜

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• file — the file pointer. that's it, that's the description, we love a low-maintenance king 👑
• dentry — a dentry, or an ERR_PTR(-E...), or a NULL — whatever came back from ->lookup 🫶

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🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

okay so here's the vibe: you can use this bad boy to set the result of a lookup inside ->atomic_open. that's its whole job and it does it slayfully. 💅

NB: and this is the important part, bestie — unlike finish_open, this function does consume the dentry reference, so the caller does not need to dput it. like. don't. don't do it. the reference is already eaten, don't double-free your way into a bad time 😭💀

it returns 0 or -E..., and whatever it returns must be the return value of ->atomic_open after you've called this function. fr fr, that's not a suggestion, that's the contract. ⭐

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• the kernel file ./fs/open.c 🌈
• finish_open(9)
• vfs_open(9)
• kernel_file_open(9)
• file_open_name(9)
• filp_open(9)

go read those too, they're all gonna be in the group chat together 🫶

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and that's the page!! 💖 this little cutie lives in ./fs, it's rocking the October 2026 version, and it was dated October 2026 too (yes bestie, same energy, no we will not be questioning the timeline 🌸). periodt. 💅✨