i2c_smbus_write_byte(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ i2c_smbus_write_byte ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — this one's a lil function from the kernel's i2c corner and honestly it's giving "tiny but mighty" 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

i2c_smbus_write_byte — the SMBus "send byte" protocol, no cap 🎀

💅 SYNOPSIS 💅

s32 i2c_smbus_write_byte (const struct i2c_client *client , u8 value );

like, that's the whole signature. short queen behavior 👑

🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

  • client — handle to the slave device 🦋 (yes, the actual device you're talking to)
  • value — the byte that's getting sent 💌

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so what does it do? it executes the SMBus "send byte" protocol. that's the whole vibe fr fr ✨

and when it comes back, it's returning negative errno or else zero on success — so like, if you see a negative number, something went sideways, and if you see 0, it ate and left no crumbs 🔥

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

kernel file ./drivers/i2c/i2c-core-smbus.c plus the whole friend group 👑:

bestie reminder: i2c_smbus_write_byte is literally just the send byte protocol — don't go expecting it to read anything back, that's a whole other function's job 😭

and that's the page!! sourced from ./drivers/i2c, dated October 2026 — mwah, go forth and send bytes 💖🎀🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from