fscrypt_encrypt_symlink(9)

okay so bestie, this is the fscrypt_encrypt_symlink(9) page from the Kernel API Manual ✨ it’s giving kernel-API internals but make it cute 💅 no cap, this is the one for encrypting a symlink target when it needs it 🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

fscrypt_encrypt_symlink — encrypt the symlink target if needed 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int fscrypt_encrypt_symlink (struct inode *inode , const char *target ,
unsigned int len , struct fscrypt_str *disk_link );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• inode — symlink inode 🌱
• target — plaintext symlink target ✨
• len — length of target excluding null terminator 📏
• disk_link — (in/out) the on-disk symlink target being prepared 🛠️

💫 DESCRIPTION 💫

If the symlink target needs to be encrypted, then this function encrypts it into disk_link->name 💥. fscrypt_prepare_symlink must have been called previously to compute disk_link->len ⚠️. If the filesystem did not allocate a buffer for disk_link->name after calling fscrypt_prepare_link, then one will be kmalloc'ed and the filesystem will be responsible for freeing it 🧹🫶.

🔥 RETURN 🔥

0 on success, -errno on failure 😭🎉

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Kernel file ./include/linux/fscrypt.h
• fscrypt_needs_contents_encryption(9)
• fscrypt_is_nokey_name(9)
• fscrypt_has_encryption_key(9)
• fscrypt_prepare_link(9)
• fscrypt_prepare_rename(9)
• fscrypt_prepare_lookup(9)
• fscrypt_prepare_readdir(9)
• fscrypt_prepare_setattr(9)

Signed off with love from the Kernel API Manual corner: source ./include/linux, date October 2026, page fscrypt_encrypt_symlink(9) 💖🦋✨ periodt.