of_platform_populate(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 of_platform_populate 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual page for of_platform_populate(9) — yes that's the whole title, we're literally starting with the name, slay ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

of_platform_populate — the function that goes and Populates platform_devices out of your device tree data 🦋 (yes that's the verb, "Populate", capital P energy, she's main character)

⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

int of_platform_populate (struct device_node *root , const struct
       of_device_id *matches , const struct of_dev_auxdata *lookup , struct
       device *parent );

four args, one int back, no cap 💅

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • root — parent of the first level to probe. pass NULL and she just uses the root of the tree, easy ✨
  • matches — the match table. NULL means "use the default", iykyk
  • lookup — the auxdata table, for matching id and platform_data with device nodes 🫶
  • parent — the parent to hook devices from. NULL for toplevel, we love a toplevel moment

🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

So she's similar to of_platform_bus_probe — same vibe, she walks the device tree and creates devices from nodes 🌈. But here's where they differ, and it's kind of a big deal:

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She follows the modern convention of requiring all device nodes to have a 'compatible' property. Like, everyone needs one, periodt 💅 And she's suitable for creating devices which are children of the root node — meanwhile of_platform_bus_probe will only create children of the root which are selected by the matches argument 🙈

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💀 Friendly PSA from me to you: new board support should be using this function instead of of_platform_bus_probe. Like, don't show up to the function call with the old one, bestie, that's not the move 😭

👑 RETURN 👑

0 on success 💖, < 0 on failure 😭 — that's it, that's the whole return section, iconic and brief

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

Kernel file ./drivers/of/platform.c — plus her whole friend group:

aaand that's the page 🌸 file credits time, cutely: this one lives in ./drivers/of, dated October 2026, and it's the of_platform_populate(9) page — go populate some devices, bestie, you're gonna ate 🫶✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from