nla_parse(9)

💅 nla_parse — NAME 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to nla_parse(9), straight out of the Kernel API Manual ✨ — it parses a stream of attributes into a tb buffer, and honestly? it's giving main character energy in the netlink world 🎀

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int nla_parse (struct nlattr **tb , int maxtype , const struct nlattr *head , int len , const struct nla_policy *policy , struct netlink_ext_ack *extack );

---

🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

• tb — the destination array, and it needs maxtype+1 elements in it. like, do the math first bestie, no cap 💀
• maxtype — the maximum attribute type you're expecting. anything bigger is not invited to the party 🙈
• head — the head of the attribute stream. the beginning. the origin story ✨
• len — the length of the attribute stream 🌸
• policy — the validation policy. yes you do have to bring one 🎀
• extack — the extended ACK pointer 💌

---

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so what it does is parse a stream of attributes and stash a pointer to each one in the tb array — and you get at each of those pointers via the attribute type 🦋 iykyk.

attributes whose type exceeds maxtype get rejected, periodt 💅. policy must be specified (not optional, we don't do optional here), and the attributes get validated in the strictest way possible 🔥. she's thorough. she's not playing around.

---

⭐ RETURN ⭐

0 on success, or a negative error code 😭 — so yeah, always check it, bestie, fr fr.

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

the whole extended friend group 🫶 first up, the kernel file itself: ./include/net/netlink.h, plus struct nla_policy(9), struct nl_info(9), and enum netlink_validation(9) ⭐

the parsing & validation girlies 💜

• nla_parse_deprecated(9), nla_parse_deprecated_strict(9), __nlmsg_parse(9), nlmsg_parse(9), nlmsg_parse_deprecated(9), nlmsg_parse_deprecated_strict(9), nlmsg_find_attr(9), nla_validate_deprecated(9), nla_validate(9), nlmsg_validate_deprecated(9), nlmsg_report(9), nlmsg_seq(9), nlmsg_for_each_attr(9), nlmsg_for_each_attr_type(9)

the nlmsg size & data crew 📏

• nlmsg_msg_size(9), nlmsg_total_size(9), nlmsg_padlen(9), nlmsg_data(9), nlmsg_len(9), nlmsg_payload(9), nlmsg_attrdata(9), nlmsg_attrlen(9), nlmsg_ok(9), nlmsg_next(9)

the nlmsg putting / building / sending squad 🎀

• nlmsg_put(9), nlmsg_append(9), nlmsg_put_answer(9), nlmsg_new(9), nlmsg_new_large(9), nlmsg_end(9), nlmsg_get_pos(9), nlmsg_trim(9), nlmsg_cancel(9), nlmsg_free(9), nlmsg_consume(9), nlmsg_multicast_filtered(9), nlmsg_multicast(9), nlmsg_unicast(9), nlmsg_for_each_msg(9), nl_dump_check_consistent(9)

the nla core icons 👑

• nla_attr_size(9), nla_total_size(9), nla_padlen(9), nla_type(9), nla_data(9), nla_len(9), nla_ok(9), nla_next(9), nla_find_nested(9), nla_parse_nested(9), nla_parse_nested_deprecated(9)

the nla_put_* besties (yes, all of them, we don't skip) 💖

• nla_put_u8(9), nla_put_u16(9), nla_put_be16(9), nla_put_net16(9), nla_put_le16(9), nla_put_u32(9), nla_put_uint(9), nla_put_be32(9), nla_put_net32(9), nla_put_le32(9), nla_put_u64_64bit(9), nla_put_be64(9), nla_put_net64(9), nla_put_le64(9), nla_put_s8(9), nla_put_s16(9), nla_put_s32(9), nla_put_s64(9), nla_put_sint(9), nla_put_string(9), nla_put_flag(9), nla_put_msecs(9), nla_put_in_addr(9), nla_put_in6_addr(9), nla_put_bitfield32(9)

the nla_get_* besties (also all of them, obviously) 🍓

• nla_get_u32(9), nla_get_u32_default(9), nla_get_be32(9), nla_get_be32_default(9), nla_get_le32(9), nla_get_le32_default(9), nla_get_u16(9), nla_get_u16_default(9), nla_get_be16(9), nla_get_be16_default(9), nla_get_le16(9), nla_get_le16_default(9), nla_get_u8(9), nla_get_u8_default(9), nla_get_u64(9), nla_get_u64_default(9), nla_get_uint(9), nla_get_uint_default(9), nla_get_be64(9), nla_get_be64_default(9), nla_get_le64(9), nla_get_le64_default(9), nla_get_s32(9), nla_get_s32_default(9), nla_get_s16(9), nla_get_s16_default(9), nla_get_s8(9), nla_get_s8_default(9), nla_get_s64(9), nla_get_s64_default(9), nla_get_sint(9), nla_get_sint_default(9), nla_get_flag(9), nla_get_msecs(9), nla_get_msecs_default(9), nla_get_in_addr(9), nla_get_in_addr_default(9), nla_get_in6_addr(9), nla_get_bitfield32(9)

and the rest of the group chat, ily all 💜🧚

• nla_memdup(9), nla_nest_start_noflag(9), nla_nest_start(9), nla_nest_end(9), nla_nest_end_safe(9), nla_nest_cancel(9), nla_put_empty_nest(9), __nla_validate_nested(9), nla_need_padding_for_64bit(9), nla_align_64bit(9), nla_total_size_64bit(9), nla_for_each_attr(9), nla_for_each_attr_type(9), nla_for_each_nested(9), nla_for_each_nested_type(9), nla_is_last(9)

---

ok that's literally the whole squad, nobody got left on read 💀✨

and that's the page, bestie 🎀 this lil love letter lives in ./include/net and it's dated October 2026 — go parse some attributes, you're gonna slay 💅🦋