kill_orphans(9)

✨ NAME ✨

Okay bestie, meet kill_orphans(9) from the Kernel API Manual — the function whose whole job is to remove all orphan inodes from the index. 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int kill_orphans (struct ubifs_info *c );

That’s the signature, no cap. ✨

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• c — the UBIFS file-system description object, aka the thing you pass in. 🫶

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So here’s the tea: if recovery is required, then the orphan inodes recorded during the previous session — the one that ended with an unclean unmount 😭 — must be deleted from the index.

This is done by updating the TNC, but since the index is not updated until the next commit, the LEBs where the orphan information is recorded are not erased until the next commit. Periodt. 💀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./fs/ubifs/orphan.c — plus the whole friend group:

• ubifs_add_orphan(9)
• ubifs_delete_orphan(9)
• ubifs_orphan_start_commit(9)
• avail_orphs(9)
• tot_avail_orphs(9)
• do_write_orph_node(9)
• write_orph_node(9)
• write_orph_nodes(9)
• consolidate(9)
• commit_orphans(9)
• erase_deleted(9)
• ubifs_orphan_end_commit(9)
• ubifs_clear_orphans(9)
• do_kill_orphans(9)
• ubifs_mount_orphans(9)

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And that’s the page, bestie: source/version ./fs/ubifs, dated October 2026, page kill_orphans(9). Slay, bye! 💜🎀