of_property...string_index(9)

💅 of_property...string_index(9) 💅

ok so this is a page straight out of the Kernel API Manual — yes bestie, the kernel has a manual, and yes it's giving "ancient scroll but make it devices" 🧚✨. We're talking about of_property_read_string_index, and honestly? She's a little niche queen and I'm obsessed. Let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

of_property_read_string_index — find and read a single string out of a property that holds multiple strings. iykyk 🌸

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int of_property_read_string_index (const struct device_node *np ,
                                   const char *propname , int index ,
                                   const char **output );

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💖 ARGUMENTS 💖

• np — the device node you're reading the property value from. like, the source of truth, the main character 👑
• propname — the name of the property you're searching for 🔍
• index — which string you want, out of the whole list of strings. it's an index, it indexes, she indexes 💅
• output — a pointer to a null-terminated return string. heads up: this only gets modified if the return value is 0. no sneaky writes otherwise, periodt 🫶

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

So what she does: you search for a property inside a device tree node, and she retrieves a null-terminated string value from the list of strings contained in that property. and bestie, listen — it's a pointer to data, not a copy. no duplicating, we're not doing that here ✨

The out_string pointer is modified only if a valid string can be decoded. like, she's not gonna hand you garbage and call it a day 💀

fr fr, don't touch that pointer and expect it to be valid unless you got a 0 back. that's the whole vibe check 😭

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🔥 RETURN 🔥

• 0 — success, slay, we ate 🎉
• -EINVAL — the property does not exist 🙈
• -ENODATA — the property exists but doesn't have a value 🫠
• -EILSEQ — the string is not null-terminated within the length of the property data 😭💀

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Kernel file ./include/linux/of.h — and here's the whole squad, no cap, every single one of them:

• of_node_init(9)
• of_machine_is_compatible(9)
• of_parse_phandle(9)
• of_parse_phandle_with_args(9)
• of_parse_phandle_with_fixed_args(9)
• of_parse_phandle_with_optional_args(9)
• of_phandle_args_equal(9)
• of_property_count_u8_elems(9)
• of_property_count_u16_elems(9)
• of_property_count_u32_elems(9)
• of_property_count_u64_elems(9)
• of_property_read_string_array(9)
• of_property_count_strings(9)
• of_property_present(9)
• of_property_read_u8_array(9)
• of_property_read_u16_array(9)
• of_property_read_u32_array(9)
• of_property_read_u64_array(9)
• struct of_changeset_entry(9)
• struct of_changeset(9)
• of_device_is_system_power_controller(9)
• of_have_populated_dt(9)

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ok that's the whole page, and honestly she ate 💅 this one lives in ./include/linux, dated October 2026, and the page itself is of_property...string_index(9). bye bestie, go read some device trees 🌸🦋💜