mlx5_eswitch_enable(9)

💖 mlx5_eswitch_enable — enabling the eswitch, bestie edition 💖

okay so real talk, this is a page from the Kernel API Manual — it's mlx5_eswitch_enable(9) and it's literally the glow-up switch for your eswitch ✨ like, you flip it and things turn ON. iconic behaviour, no notes.

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✨ NAME ✨

mlx5_eswitch_enable — enable the eswitch 🎀 short name, big main character energy.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int mlx5_eswitch_enable (struct mlx5_eswitch *esw , int num_vfs );

that's the whole vibe: you hand it an esw and a num_vfs, and it returns an int. done and dusted 💅

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• esw — pointer to the eswitch. like, a pointer-pointer, not a vibe-pointer. point it at your actual eswitch struct 🫶
• num_vfs — turns on the eswitch switch for the given number of VFs ✨ but listen, listen: the caller must pass num_vfs > 0 when enabling the eswitch for vf vports — that's not a suggestion, that's the rule, periodt 💀

🚨 also note, this function is the one reporting back: mlx5_eswitch_enable returns 0 on success or an error code on failure. so if you get 0, slay; literally anything else, that's a fail bestie, go read the code 😭

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the whole friend group 🫶✨

• Kernel file ./drivers/net/ethernet/mellanox/mlx5/core/eswitch.c
• mlx5_esw_query_functions(9)
• mlx5_eswitch_enable_locked(9)
• mlx5_esw_hold(9)
• mlx5_esw_release(9)
• mlx5_esw_get(9)
• mlx5_esw_put(9)
• mlx5_esw_try_lock(9)
• mlx5_esw_unlock(9)
• mlx5_eswitch_get_total_vports(9)
• mlx5_eswitch_get_core_dev(9)

iykyk 🌈 go read them all, they're all part of the same storyline.

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okay that's the whole page 🌸 quick sign-off so you have the receipts: this gem lives at ./drivers/net/ethernet/mellano... (that's how it's shown), it's dated October 2026, and the footer signs it off as mlx5_eswitch_enable(9) 💖🦋 take care of her, she enables things ✨👑