ieee80211_ra...terator_next(9)

🦋 ieee80211_radiotap_iterator_next (kernel API manual, bestie edition)

okay so real talk: this is a page from the Kernel API Manual, and it's about ieee80211_radiotap_iterator_next — the little function that walks your radiotap parser forward one arg at a time. she's not glamorous but she's essential 💅

✨ NAME ✨

ieee80211_radiotap_iterator_next — returns the next radiotap parser iterator arg 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int ieee80211_radiotap_iterator_next (struct ieee80211_radiotap_iterator
*iterator );

✨ ARGUMENTS ✨

• iterator — the radiotap_iterator you want to move on to the next arg (if there even is one, no pressure 🫶)

✨ RETURN ✨

• 0 — slay, there's an argument for you to handle 💖
• -ENOENT — that's a wrap, there are no more args 🌸
• -EINVAL — something else is wrong, and it's giving "not my fault" 😭

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so what does she actually do? this function hands you the next radiotap arg index (IEEE80211_RADIOTAP_*) in this_arg_index, and it sets this_arg to point at the payload for that field. literally her whole job ✨

she also takes care of alignment handling and extended present fields for you — yes bestie, she does the unglamorous work so you don't have to 👑

and here's the cute part: this_arg can be changed by the caller. like, eg, you can increment it to move inside a compound argument like IEEE80211_RADIOTAP_CHANNEL. main character energy, honestly 🌈

the args she points to are in little-endian format, whatever the endianness of your CPU is. no exceptions, no cap 💀

💀 Alignment Gotcha 💀

okay this is the part where you listen. you must take care when dereferencing iterator.this_arg for multibyte types... the pointer is not aligned. not even a little.

so don't just raw-deref her, bestie 😭 use:

get_unaligned((type *)iterator.this_arg)

to dereference iterator.this_arg for type "type" safely on all arches. every single one. periodt 🔥

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• Kernel file ./net/wireless/radiotap.c 🦋
• ieee80211_radiotap_iterator_init(9) — go meet her sister, she's the one who sets all this up 💜

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okay that's the whole vibe check 🎀 this page lives in ./net/wireless, dated October 2026, and it's filed under the same ieee80211_ra...terator_next(9) header you came in through. drink some water, align your pointers, and go parse something iconic 💖✨🧚