nla_strscpy(9)

💖 nla_strscpy(9) — the kernel API manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so you found your way into the nla_strscpy(9) page, welcome, this is the kernel API manual and we're gonna get you fluent in it, no cap 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

nla_strscpy — copy a string attribute payload into a sized buffer. that's it, that's the whole vibe 💅

---

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

ssize_t nla_strscpy (char *dst , const struct nlattr *nla , size_t
dstsize );

like, look at her. iconic signature. three args, one return type, zero drama ⭐

---

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• dst — where the string gets copied to. your destination. the place she's moving into 🏠
• nla — the attribute you're copying the string from. the source of truth, the origin story 💫
• dstsize — the size of the destination buffer. how much room dst actually has. respect the boundary bestie 🙈

---

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so what does she do. she copies at most dstsize - 1 bytes into the destination buffer. that "-1" is not a typo, that's the NUL terminator reserving its little seat, periodt 💀

and here's the glow-up: unlike strscpy, the destination buffer is always padded out. literally always. she does not skip the padding, she does not half-do it, she pads. main character energy 🔥

---

👑 RETURN 👑

• srclen — returns the nla length, and just so we're clear that's not including the trailing NUL. the NUL is not invited to the count 🚫
• -E2BIG — returned if dstsize is 0, or dstsize is greater than U16_MAX, or the nla length is greater than dstsize. too big, too small, wrong vibe, she's saying no 😭

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the whole friend group, fr fr — kernel file ./lib/nlattr.c, __nla_validate(9), nla_policy_len(9), __nla_parse(9), nla_find(9), nla_strdup(9), nla_memcpy(9), nla_memcmp(9), nla_strcmp(9), __nla_reserve(9), __nla_reserve_64bit(9), __nla_reserve_nohdr(9), nla_reserve(9), nla_reserve_64bit(9), nla_reserve_nohdr(9), __nla_put(9), __nla_put_64bit(9), __nla_put_nohdr(9), nla_put(9), nla_put_64bit(9), nla_put_nohdr(9), nla_append(9) 🦋

---

and that's the page!! mwah 💋 this one lives in ./lib, dated October 2026, and it's nla_strscpy(9) signing off — go pad a buffer responsibly, ily 🧚💜