kmem_cache_alloc_node(9)

🦋 kmem_cache_alloc_node(9) 🦋

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — this one's a little function with main character energy in the slab allocator world, and honestly? it slays. let's get into it ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

kmem_cache_alloc_node — literally allocates an object on the node you specify. that's it, that's the vibe 💅

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

void * kmem_cache_alloc_node (struct kmem_cache *s , gfp_t gfpflags ,
int node );

like, look at that signature. gorgeous. no notes 🫶

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✨ ARGUMENTS ✨

• s — the cache you're allocating from. your home base, your safe space 🏠
• gfpflags — the flags. see kmalloc for the deets, i'm not gonna retype the whole thing, iykyk
• node — the node number of the target node. this is the whole point of the function, bestie 🎯

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so this is identical to kmem_cache_alloc — same energy, same job — but it's gonna allocate memory on the given node, which lowkey can improve performance for cpu bound structures. the way that locality just hits different 😭🔥

and here's the tea: fallback to another node is possible if __GFP_THISNODE is not set. so if you really want it pinned to that one node, you gotta set that flag — otherwise it'll wander off to a neighbour and honestly, fair 🌈

no cap, if node-locality matters to you, check your flags before you ship. this is a real one 💀

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👑 RETURN 👑

you get back a pointer to the new object, or NULL in case of error. that's it. NULL means something went wrong, so handle it, bestie 🙈

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• Kernel file ./mm/slub.c
• enum slab_flags(9)
• kmem_cache_free(9)
• ksize(9)
• kfree(9)
• kvfree(9)
• kvfree_atomic(9)
• kvfree_sensitive(9)
• kmem_cache_alloc_bulk(9)

go read some of these, they're iconic in their own right ⭐

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aaaand that's the page! this lil masterpiece lives in the ./mm source, dated October 2026, and it's one of the kmem_cache_alloc_node(9) girlies fr fr. mwah, go allocate something responsibly 💜🎀🦋