gnet_stats_s..._copy_compat(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 gnet_stats_start_copy_compat(9) 💅

okay so this is a page straight out of the Kernel API Manual, and it's literally the origin story of your stats dump — the "compatibility mode" edition. bestie, if you've ever wondered how the kernel keeps old userspace from having a breakdown, this is it 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int gnet_stats_start_copy_compat (struct sk_buff *skb , int type , int
tc_stats_type , int xstats_type , spinlock_t *lock , struct gnet_dump *d
, int padattr );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • skb — the socket buffer you're dumping all your stats TLVs into. it's the vibe container, the canvas, the whole point 🌸
  • type — TLV type for the top level statistic TLV. the main character TLV, iykyk.
  • tc_stats_type — TLV type used for backward compatibility with struct tc_stats TLV. yes, that's the old one, we still love her 💖
  • xstats_type — TLV type for the backward compatibility xstats TLV. more legacy lore, no cap.
  • lock — the statistics lock. grab it, hold it, respect it 🔒
  • d — the dumping handle. your lil work-in-progress state buddy.
  • padattr — the padding attribute. because alignment is self-care, periodt ✨

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

So what does it actually do? Three iconic things, in order:

  1. Initializes the dumping handle (that's d, bestie).
  2. Grabs the statistic lock — highkey important, don't skip this 🔥
  3. Appends an empty TLV header to the socket buffer, so there's a container ready to hold all the other statistic TLVs. it's giving "put a little empty box down first" energy 🎁

Then the fun part: the dumping handle gets marked to be in backward compatibility mode, which tells all the gnet_stats_copy_XXX functions to fill a local copy of struct tc_stats. the way that one flag ripples through everything… iconic 🌈

Return value check, because we do care about that:

  • Returns 0 on success 🎉
  • Returns -1 if the room in the socket buffer was not sufficient 😭 (yes, that's a real failure mode, keep the check in your code, don't be that girl)
ngl if you ignore that -1 you're gonna have a bad time. the buffer said no. respect the buffer 💀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

like, read the whole little family, they're all in gen_stats.c together and they're all doing their part ✨

okay that's the whole page, you ate it up 💅 mwah. this came to you from ./net/core, dated October 2026, and yes it's still filed under that squished-up title gnet_stats_s..._copy_compat(9) because man page names gonna man page name 😭🫶

📦 where this page comes from