memzero_explicit(9)

💅 memzero_explicit 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — today's main character is memzero_explicit(9) and honestly she's lowkey a lifesaver 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

memzero_explicit — fills a region of memory (like, say, your sensitive keying data 👀🔐) with 0s. yes, just zeros. iconic behaviour, no notes.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

void memzero_explicit (void *s , size_t count );

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• s — pointer to the start of the area 💖 like, where the memory party begins
• count — the size of the area 🦋 how much of it we're zeroing, fr fr

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💀 NOTE 💀

okay so usually just using memset is literally fine (!) — no cap, it's fine — but in cases where clearing out _local_ data at the end of a scope is necessary, you should use memzero_explicit instead, and here's why bestie: it stops the compiler from optimising away your zeroing 😭 like the compiler will genuinely just be like "hmm nobody reads this, delete it" and then your secrets are still sitting there. not slay. so use this one instead. periodt. 💅

also good news: memzero_explicit doesn't need an arch-specific version because it just invokes the one of memset implicitly ✨ she's efficient like that 🌈

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Kernel file ./include/linux/string.h — and the whole friend group:

• memdup_array_user(9)
• vmemdup_array_user(9)
• strscpy(9)
• strscpy_pad(9)
• mem_is_zero(9)
• sysfs_match_string(9)
• kbasename(9)
• strtomem_pad(9)
• strtomem(9)
• memtostr(9)
• memtostr_pad(9)
• memset_after(9)
• memset_startat(9)
• str_has_prefix(9)
• strstarts(9)
• strends(9)

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🧚💜 she lives in ./include/linux, dated October 2026, and she answers to memzero_explicit(9) — go forth and zero responsibly 🔥👑⭐🍓