kmemleak_alloc(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 kmemleak_alloc(9) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to kmemleak_alloc — that's section 9 of the Kernel API Manual, iykyk — and honestly this one is such a little main character. it's the function that goes "hey, i just made a new thing, remember it for me?" 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

kmemleak_alloc — register a newly allocated object 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

void __ref kmemleak_alloc (const void *ptr , size_t size , int min_count
, gfp_t gfp );

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

  • ptr — pointer to the beginning of the object. like, where does this lil guy start? that's ptr 💅
  • size — size of the object. how big is the vibe? this big 📏
  • min_count — the minimum number of references to this object. lowkey the most important one, so listen up 👑: if during memory scanning a number of references less than min_count is found, the object gets reported as a memory leak 😭. and the special values? iconic:
    • if min_count is 0, the object is never reported as a leak 🙈
    • if min_count is -1, the object is ignored — not scanned, and not reported as a leak. it just exists, unbothered, moisturized ✨
  • gfp — kmalloc flags used for kmemleak's internal memory allocations. yeah, kmemleak needs its own lil memory to keep track of your memory. recursion ate 💀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so this function is called from the kernel allocators when a brand new object (memory block) is allocated — think kmem_cache_alloc, kmalloc etc. 🧚 it's basically the allocator going "new bestie alert, please add them to the group chat" so kmemleak knows the object exists and can check up on it later 💜

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

okay that's the whole page, ily, go forth and leak responsibly 🍓 this one's from ./mm and it's dated October 2026 — so technically a little time traveler moment for us both, slay ⭐💅

📦 where this page comes from