hvc_get_chars(9)

🦋 hvc_get_chars(9) 🦋

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — yes, the actual manual name, we're fancy here ✨ — and today's main character is hvc_get_chars, a function that literally goes and fetches characters from firmware for a vterm adapter. no cap, that's the whole vibe.

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💅 NAME 💅

hvc_get_chars — retrieve characters from firmware for the denoted vterm adapter 💖

like, it's giving "middleman between you and the firmware", and honestly? iconic.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ssize_t hvc_get_chars (uint32_t vtermno , u8 *buf , size_t count );

that's it, that's the whole signature 🎀 — copy it exactly, don't @ me.

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• vtermno — the vtermno or unit_address of the adapter you're pulling the data from 🫶 like, which adapter, bestie? this one.
• buf — the character buffer where the character data fetched from firmware gets dropped 💖 it's the lil bucket you're catching the vibes in.
• count — not used? 😭 yeah that's genuinely what the docs say, question mark and all. we do not know. it remains a mystery. the lore is incomplete.

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• Kernel file ./arch/powerpc/platforms/pseries/hvconsole.c — go read the source, iykyk 👑
• hvc_put_chars(9) — the other one, the putting counterpart, fr fr

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💀 real talk: count being "not used?" is a genuine documentation note, not me being dramatic. treat it as written, with the question mark, and don't go assuming behaviour that isn't documented here.

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and that's the page, bestie — go fetch those characters 💅✨

this lil gem lives in ./arch/powerpc/platforms/pseries, and the page is dated October 2026 — so yeah, slightly from the future, main character energy only 🦋🎀⭐