is_valid_ether_addr(9)

✨ is_valid_ether_addr 💅🦋

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual corner of the group chat. today’s main character is is_valid_ether_addr, and she is literally here to do a vibe check on your Ethernet address 👑

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💖 NAME 💖

is_valid_ether_addr — Determine if the given Ethernet address is valid.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

bool is_valid_ether_addr (const u8 *addr );

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• addr — Pointer to a six-byte array containing the Ethernet address. it’s the address being checked, bestie 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what does she actually check? She checks that the Ethernet address (MAC) is not 00:00:00:00:00:00, is not a multicast address, and is not FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. that’s the whole vibe check, no cap 🧚

🚨 please note: addr must be aligned to u16. not optional, not cute to ignore, fr fr.

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⭐ RETURN ⭐

Returns true if the address is valid. slay ✅

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

over in the kernel file ./include/linux/etherdevice.h, you’ll find these related besties:

• is_link_local_ether_addr(9)
• is_zero_ether_addr(9)
• is_multicast_ether_addr(9)
• is_local_ether_addr(9)
• is_broadcast_ether_addr(9)
• is_unicast_ether_addr(9)
• eth_proto_is_802_3(9)
• eth_random_addr(9)
• eth_broadcast_addr(9)
• eth_zero_addr(9)
• eth_hw_addr_random(9)
• eth_hw_addr_crc(9)
• ether_addr_copy(9)
• eth_hw_addr_set(9)
• eth_hw_addr_inherit(9)
• ether_addr_equal(9)
• ether_addr_equal_64bits(9)
• ether_addr_equal_unaligned(9)
• ether_addr_equal_masked(9)
• ether_addr_to_u64(9)
• u64_to_ether_addr(9)
• eth_addr_dec(9)
• eth_addr_inc(9)
• eth_addr_add(9)
• is_etherdev_addr(9)
• compare_ether_header(9)
• eth_hw_addr_gen(9)
• eth_skb_pkt_type(9)
• eth_skb_pad(9)

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that’s the whole page, bb 💜 — source/version is ./include/linux, dated October 2026, and this is the is_valid_ether_addr(9) manual page. mwah 🫶🎀