ida_alloc_min(9)

✨ ida_alloc_min(9) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — this one's about ida_alloc_min, and it's lowkey one of the most useful little gremlins in the whole ID-allocation friend group 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ida_alloc_min — grab yourself an unused ID, but make it minimum-effort... no wait, make it minimum-valued 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int ida_alloc_min (struct ida *ida , unsigned int min , gfp_t gfp );

yes the spacing is a little chaotic, that's just how it is, we don't fix what isn't broken 💀

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💖 ARGUMENTS 💖

• ida — your IDA handle, aka the lil data structure doing all the actual work while you take the credit 👑
• min — the lowest ID you're willing to accept. the floor. the bare minimum. respectfully 🙈
• gfp — the memory allocation flags, aka the vibe you're allocating with ✨

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

okay so here's the tea: this function allocates an ID between min and INT_MAX, inclusive. that's it. that's the whole plot 🫶

so if you pass a min, you're telling it "bestie, I refuse to accept anything lower than this," and it will respect that and find you something in that range. no cap. INT_MAX is the ceiling, that's just the deal ✨

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🧚 CONTEXT 🧚

any context, fr fr. and the iconic part? it is safe to call this function without locking in your code. no mutex, no lock, no "hold on lemme grab the lock real quick." just call it. main character energy honestly 💅

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⭐ RETURN ⭐

• the allocated ID, slay 🎉
• or -ENOMEM if memory could not be allocated 😭
• or -ENOSPC if there are no free IDs 💀

so like... check your return value, bestie. I'm begging. the ID you want and the negative errno you get are NOT the same thing and mixing them up is giving "didn't read the docs" 🙈

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

kernel file ./include/linux/idr.h — go read it, iykyk 🔥

the whole friend group, alphabetically-adjacent and thriving:

• IDR_INIT(9)
• DEFINE_IDR(9)
• idr_get_cursor(9)
• idr_set_cursor(9)
• idr sync(9)
• idr_init_base(9)
• idr_init(9)
• idr_is_empty(9)
• idr_preload_end(9)
• idr_for_each_entry(9)
• idr_for_each_entry_ul(9)
• idr_for_each_entry_continue(9)
• idr_for_each_entry_continue_ul(9)
• ida_alloc(9)
• ida_alloc_max(9)

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aaand that's the page!! mwah 💋 this lil gem lives over in ./include/linux and the version of record is dated October 2026 — so like, future-coded of it. go allocate something iconic. periodt. 🌟