parse_key_value_pairs(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 parse_key_value_pairs(9) — the kernel API manual, bestie edition 🎀

okay so real talk: this is parse_key_value_pairs(9) from the Kernel API Manual, and it's genuinely the kind of page you read once and then keep in your notes forever. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

parse_key_value_pairs — literally parses all the key/value pairs out of a list of arguments. that's the whole job, and she does it 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int parse_key_value_pairs (int argc , char **argv , struct device_config
*config );

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

  • argc — the total number of arguments in the list. the headcount, if you will 👑
  • argv — the actual list of key/value pairs. the main characters 💅
  • config — the device configuration data she's gonna update. this is the glow-up target 🎀

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so here's the vibe: if an error happens while parsing even a single key/value pair, that's serious enough that we stop parsing anything else. no cap, we're done. one bad pair and the whole thing shuts it down 😭

and there's a whole reason she can't set the "reason" value the caller wants to pass back — because we'd want to format it to say which field was invalid, and we can't allocate the "reason" strings dynamically. so nope, not happening 🙈 instead: if an error occurs, we log the details and return the error. graceful, iconic, done.

🔥 RETURN 🔥

VDO_SUCCESS or error ⭐

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

first up, the kernel file ./drivers/md/dm-vdo/dm-vdo-target.c, then this whole friend group:

and that's the page!! mwah 💖 this gorgeous thing lives in ./drivers/md/dm-vdo, dated October 2026 — go off, king 👑✨

📦 where this page comes from