mutex_lock_interruptible(9)

💅 mutex_lock_interruptible(9) 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — yes, the actual manual, section 9, and we are about to talk about mutex_lock_interruptible, which is giving "lock me up but only if you're sure" energy. let's go 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

mutex_lock_interruptible — Acquire the mutex, interruptible by signals.

like, you want the mutex, but you're also lowkey open to being interrupted by a signal. main character with boundaries, honestly.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int mutex_lock_interruptible (struct mutex *lock );

that's it. that's the whole vibe. one argument, returns an int, no cap. 💅

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• lock — The mutex to be acquired. literally the thing you're trying to grab. hand it over and hope for the best 🫶

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Lock the mutex like mutex_lock. same energy, same intent, same "i need this resource" desperation.

but here's the plot twist: if a signal is delivered while the process is sleeping, this function will return without acquiring the mutex. 😭

so yeah, unlike plain mutex_lock you can get woken up by a signal and just... not get the lock. it's giving "i was gonna commit but then my phone rang" and honestly? iconic behaviour for an interruptible function. ✨

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🌈 CONTEXT 🌈

Process context. (not interrupt context, not atomic context, don't try it — this is a "process is sleeping and can be woken" situation, iykyk) 💜

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⭐ RETURN ⭐

• 0 — if the lock was successfully acquired. slay, you got it. 👑
• -EINTR — if a signal arrived. not your fault bestie, the signal really said "not today" 💀

so like, always check the return value, fr fr. zero means you own the mutex now, -EINTR means you do not own the mutex and should probably bail out gracefully. no guessing, that's literally what the manpage says.

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

all the related lore, straight from the kernel, no edits:

• Kernel file ./kernel/locking/mutex.c
• mutex_lock(9)
• mutex_unlock(9)
• ww_mutex_unlock(9)
• ww_mutex_trylock(9)
• mutex_lock_killable(9)
• mutex_lock_io(9)
• mutex_trylock(9)
• atomic_dec_and_mutex_lock(9)

like a whole friend group of mutex functions, all linked in the group chat. 🧚

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okay that's the whole page bestie — go forth and lock responsibly. 🌸

this little love letter came from the ./kernel/locking directory, dated October 2026, and it's the mutex_lock_interruptible(9) page from the Kernel API Manual. mwah 💋🎀