llist_for_each_entry_safe(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 llist_for_each_entry_safe 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the llist_for_each_entry_safe(9) page 🌸 this is from the kernel API manual and it's genuinely iconic, no cap. lowkey the whole point is looping over deleted entries of a lockless list of a given type, and it's safe against removal of the list entry — like, nothing's gonna get yanked out from under you mid-loop 💅

✨ NAME ✨

llist_for_each_entry_safe — iterate over some deleted entries of lockless list of given type, safe against removal of the list entry 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

llist_for_each_entry_safe (pos , n , node , member );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • pos — the type * you're using as your loop cursor 🎯 think of it as the main character of each iteration, fr fr
  • n — another type *, but this one's just temporary storage 👑 a little sidekick that holds the next thing so you don't trip
  • node — the first entry of the deleted list entries 🌟 this is where the party starts
  • member — the name of the llist_node sitting inside the struct 🙈 iykyk, it's how we get from the node to the big struct

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so here's the vibe check: in general, some entries of the lockless list can only be traversed safely after they've been removed from the list 😭 that's just how it is. so the move is to start with an entry instead of the list head — like, don't come in through the front door, come in through the entry itself 💅

and if you're using this on entries that got deleted straight out of the lockless list, the traverse order goes from the newest to the oldest added entry ⭐ that's the default direction, periodt. but bestie, if you want the opposite — oldest to newest — then you have to reverse the order yourself before traversing 🔥 nobody's doing that for you, sorry not sorry 💀

ok tiny warning-ish note from the page: there's no reversing built in — you flip the order by yourself first, or you're getting newest-to-oldest whether you like it or not 🙈

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

kernel file ./include/linux/llist.h and honestly the whole llist friend group showed up for this one 🫶:

okay that's the whole page and you ate it up 💖 this gem lives in ./include/linux, dated October 2026, and it's brought to you by the one and only llist_for_each_entry_safe(9) — slay, go write your safe loops bestie 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from