phylink_connect_phy(9)

💖 phylink_connect_phy — Kernel API Manual ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the phylink_connect_phy(9) page 💅 this one lives in the Kernel API Manual and it's literally about introducing a PHY to its phylink bestie. matchmaker energy fr fr 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

phylink_connect_phy — connect a PHY to the phylink instance 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int phylink_connect_phy (struct phylink *pl , struct phy_device *phy );

that's it. that's the whole signature. short and iconic 👑

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💜 ARGUMENTS 💜

• pl — a pointer to a struct phylink returned from phylink_create 🌈 like, this is the phylink you already made, you're not creating a new one here, you're just handing it a friend.
• phy — a pointer to a struct phy_device. 🦋 yep. that's the whole description for this one. it's a pointer to a struct phy_device. slay.

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🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

So what actually happens 😭 — this function connects phy to the phylink instance specified by pl by calling phy_attach_direct. that's the matchmaking moment 💖

Then it configures the phy according to the MAC driver's capabilities, starts the PHYLIB state machine, and enables any interrupts that the PHY supports. it's giving full onboarding process ✨

also important bestie: this updates the phylink's ethtool supported and advertising link mode masks 👀 so the vibes (link modes) get refreshed too, no cap.

And the return value? 0 on success, or a negative errno 💀 so if it's negative, something went wrong, check your errno.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Kernel file ./drivers/net/phy/phylink.c, struct phylink(9), and honestly the entire phylink friend group 💅:

• phylink_set_port_modes(9)
• phylink_interface_max_speed(9)
• phylink_caps_to_link_caps(9)
• phylink_caps_to_linkmodes(9)
• phylink_limit_mac_speed(9)
• phylink_cap_from_speed_duplex(9)
• phylink_get_capabilities(9)
• phylink_validate_mask_caps(9)
• phylink_pcs_neg_mode(9)
• phylink_set_fixed_link(9)
• phylink_create(9)
• phylink_destroy(9)
• phylink_expects_phy(9)
• phylink_of_phy_connect(9)
• phylink_fwnode_phy_connect(9)
• phylink_disconnect_phy(9)
• phylink_mac_change(9)
• phylink_pcs_change(9)
• phylink_start(9)
• phylink_stop(9)
• phylink_rx_clk_stop_block(9)
• phylink_rx_clk_stop_unblock(9)
• phylink_suspend(9)
• phylink_prepare_resume(9)
• phylink_resume(9)
• phylink_ethtool_get_wol(9)
• phylink_ethtool_set_wol(9)
• phylink_ethtool_ksettings_get(9)
• phylink_ethtool_ksettings_set(9)
• phylink_ethtool_nway_reset(9)
• phylink_ethtool_get_pauseparam(9)
• phylink_ethtool_set_pauseparam(9)
• phylink_get_eee_err(9)
• phylink_ethtool_get_eee(9)
• phylink_ethtool_set_eee(9)
• phylink_mii_ioctl(9)
• phylink_speed_down(9)
• phylink_speed_up(9)
• phylink_decode_usxgmii_word(9)
• phylink_decode_usgmii_word(9)
• phylink_mii_c22_pcs_decode_state(9)
• phylink_mii_c22_pcs_get_state(9)
• phylink_mii_c22_pcs_encode_advertisement(9)
• phylink_mii_c22_pcs_config(9)
• phylink_mii_c22_pcs_an_restart(9)
• phylink_replay_link_begin(9)
• phylink_replay_link_end(9)

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that's the whole page bestie, go connect some PHYs 🧚💜

— from ./drivers/net/phy, dated October 2026 🍓 mwah, ily, bye 💋