kho_alloc_preserve(9)

✨ NAME ✨

kho_alloc_preserve — bestie, this is the one that allocates, zeroes, and preserves memory. All three. At once. Iconic behaviour honestly 💅

(also hi, you're in section 9, the Kernel API Manual — the fun section 🎀)

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

void * kho_alloc_preserve (size_t size );

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• size — the number of bytes you wanna allocate. that's it. that's the whole vibe. ✨

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so picture this: you ask for some memory, and it allocates a physically contiguous block of zeroed pages that's big enough to hold size bytes. zeroed. already clean. no leftover crumbs from whoever used it before. we love a fresh start 🫶

then — and this is the main character moment — that allocated memory gets registered with KHO for preservation across a kexec. so like, it survives the handover. it's giving survivor energy. it does not get left behind 😭🔥

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🎀 NOTE 🎀

heads up bestie, the actual allocated size will be rounded up to the nearest power-of-two page boundary. so don't come for it if you asked for a weird number and got a rounder one. that's just how it is 💀

and the return value, since obviously you're wondering:

• return — on success you get a virtual pointer to the allocated and preserved memory. slay. ✅
• on failure? you get an ERR_PTR encoded error. so check it before you go dereferencing like it's nothing, ok? 🙈

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

the kernel file itself lives at ./kernel/liveupdate/kexec_handover.c — go read it, iykyk 📖

and here's the whole squad, no cap, every single one:

• kho_encode_radix_key(9)
• kho_decode_radix_key(9)
• kho_radix_add_key(9)
• kho_radix_del_key(9)
• kho_radix_init_tree(9)
• kho_radix_destroy_tree(9)
• kho_radix_walk_tree(9)
• kho_restore_folio(9)
• kho_restore_pages(9)
• kho_reserve_scratch(9)
• kho_add_subtree(9)
• kho_preserve_folio(9)
• kho_unpreserve_folio(9)
• kho_preserve_pages(9)
• kho_unpreserve_pages(9)
• kho_preserve_vmalloc(9)
• kho_unpreserve_vmalloc(9)
• kho_restore_vmalloc(9)
• kho_unpreserve_free(9)
• kho_restore_free(9)
• is_kho_boot(9)
• kho_retrieve_subtree(9)

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mwah 💜 this lil page came to you straight from ./kernel/liveupdate, dated October 2026, and it's kho_alloc_preserve(9) forever and always. go touch some pages (the zeroed, preserved kind). periodt. ⭐