ldm_relative(9)

💅 ldm_relative 💅

okay bestie, so this is a page from the Kernel API Manual — yes, ldm_relative(9), she's a kernel function and she's iconic. sit down, grab a strawberry drink 🍓, and let's get into it.

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✨ NAME ✨

ldm_relative — calculate the next relative offset 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int ldm_relative (const u8 *buffer , int buflen , int base , int offset
);

like, that's the whole signature, no cap. five seconds to read, forever to love 💖

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• buffer — the block of data you're working on rn. your main character data blob 👑
• buflen — the size of that block of data. yes, we need to know how big she is 💅
• base — the size of the previous fixed width fields. those are the predictable ones, love them for that 🌈
• offset — the cumulative size of the previous variable-width fields. the chaotic ones. we love her anyway 🙈

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so here's the tea: a lot of the VBLK fields are variable-width, right? which means you literally cannot just skip ahead a fixed number of bytes like some kind of clown 🤡 — you have to calculate each offset based on the previous one and the length of the field it pointed to. that's the whole vibe. that's the gig. one step at a time, bestie ✨

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🔥 RETURN 🔥

• -1 — error, babe 😭. the calculated offset exceeded the size of the buffer. she went too far. out of bounds. we don't stan.
• n — OK ✅, a range-checked offset into buffer. safe, valid, hydrated, moisturized, in her lane 🧚

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

okay this is the part where the group chat gets long. kernel file ./block/partitions/ldm.c, and the whole friend group:

ldm_parse_privhead(9), ldm_parse_tocblock(9), ldm_parse_vmdb(9), ldm_compare_privheads(9), ldm_compare_tocblocks(9), ldm_validate_privheads(9), ldm_validate_tocblocks(9), ldm_validate_vmdb(9), ldm_validate_partition_table(9), ldm_get_disk_objid(9), ldm_create_data_partitions(9), ldm_get_vnum(9), ldm_get_vstr(9), ldm_parse_cmp3(9), ldm_parse_dgr3(9), ldm_parse_dgr4(9), ldm_parse_dsk3(9), ldm_parse_dsk4(9), ldm_parse_prt3(9), ldm_parse_vol5(9), ldm_parse_vblk(9), ldm_ldmdb_add(9), ldm_frag_add(9), ldm_frag_free(9), ldm_frag_commit(9), ldm_get_vblks(9), ldm_free_vblks(9), ldm_partition(9)

every single one of them. no skips. the whole squad showed up 🫶🔥

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ngl, if you're reading this you're probably deep in ./block/partitions at some unhinged hour. hydrate. then go read the rest of them 💀💖

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mwah 💋 that's the page! big kiss from ./block/partitions, dated October 2026, and yeah — she's still ldm_relative(9), always and forever 👑✨