of_get_compatible_child(9)

🌸 of_get_compatible_child(9) — Kernel API Manual 🌸

okay bestie, sit down, we're learning about of_get_compatible_child today and honestly? it's a little cutie. this is from the Kernel API Manual, and it's gonna take like two minutes, you got this 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

of_get_compatible_child — find a compatible child node 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

struct device_node * of_get_compatible_child (const struct device_node
*parent , const char *compatible );

like, look at that signature. struct device_node * out front, two args in the back. we love a return type that's a pointer, ngl 💅

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✨ ARGUMENTS ✨

• parent — the parent node 🫶 that's it, that's the whole thing, it's the node you're looking inside of.
• compatible — the compatible string ⭐ this is the thing you're hunting for, bestie.

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so here's the vibe: you look up the child node whose compatible property contains the given compatible string. that's the whole quest. no cap. 🔥

like, you hand it a parent, you hand it a string, and it goes digging through the children looking for one whose compatible property has your string in it. iconic behavior honestly 🦋

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✨ RETURN ✨

you get back a node pointer with its refcount incremented 👑 — and bestie, listen to me — when you're done with it, you must call of_node_put on it. that's not optional, that's not a suggestion, that's the rule 💀

or you get NULL if it's not found. sad but valid 🙈

⚠️ the refcount is incremented on the way out, so if you forget of_node_put you're leaking. do not be that girlie. 💅

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

the kernel file ./drivers/of/base.c is where this lives, and here's the whole friend group 🧚:

• of_find_all_nodes(9)
• __of_device_is_compatible(9)
• of_machine_compatible_match(9)
• of_machine_read_compatible(9)
• of_machine_read_model(9)
• of_machine_get_match(9)
• of_machine_get_match_data(9)
• __of_device_is_available(9)
• __of_device_is_reserved(9)
• of_device_is_available(9)
• __of_device_is_fail(9)
• of_device_is_big_endian(9)
• of_get_parent(9)
• of_get_next_parent(9)
• of_get_next_child(9)
• of_get_next_child_with_prefix(9)
• of_get_next_available_child(9)
• of_get_next_reserved_child(9)
• of_get_next_cpu_node(9)
• of_get_child_by_name(9)
• of_get_available_child_by_name(9)
• of_find_node_opts_by_path(9)
• of_find_node_by_name(9)
• of_find_node_by_type(9)
• of_find_compatible_node(9)
• of_find_node_with_property(9)
• of_match_node(9)
• of_find_matching_node_and_match(9)
• of_alias_from_compatible(9)
• of_find_node_by_phandle(9)
• of_parse_phandle_with_args_map(9)
• of_count_phandle_with_args(9)
• __of_add_property(9)
• of_add_property(9)
• of_remove_property(9)
• of_alias_scan(9)
• of_alias_get_id(9)
• of_alias_get_highest_id(9)
• of_console_check(9)
• of_find_next_cache_node(9)
• of_find_last_cache_level(9)
• of_map_id(9)
• of_map_iommu_id(9)
• of_map_msi_id(9)

that's a lot of siblings but we love them all equally 🌈

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and that's the page, bestie!! 🎀 it lives over in ./drivers/of and this particular glow-up is dated October 2026 — slay, see you in the next one 💜🦋✨