pin_user_pages_fast(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ pin_user_pages_fast(9) ✨

okay so real talk — this is from the Kernel API Manual, section 9, and it's lowkey one of those functions that's doing a lot behind the scenes. buckle up bestie 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

pin_user_pages_fast — pins user pages in memory, and it does it without taking locks. the way that it just… doesn't need locks? iconic behavior honestly 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int pin_user_pages_fast (unsigned long start , int nr_pages , unsigned
int gup_flags , struct page **pages );

copy it exactly like that, don't come for me about the spacing, that's just how it's written fr fr 🎀

💜 ARGUMENTS 💜

  • start — the starting user address. this is where the whole thing kicks off, your little origin point ✨
  • nr_pages — how many pages you want pinned, counting from start. so like, the page count, the amount, the quantity 💅
  • gup_flags — flags that modify how the pinning behaves. little toggles that change the vibe of the pinning 🦋
  • pages — the array that receives pointers to the pages that got pinned. it should be at least nr_pages long — no skimping, girl, give it the room it needs 💀

🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

so it's nearly the same as get_user_pages_fast, except — plot twist — FOLL_PIN is set. that's the whole difference and it's giving main character energy tbh 🌟

if you want the docs on the function arguments, go read get_user_pages_fast, because the arguments here are identical. like, literally identical. no notes 🫶

FOLL_PIN means the pages must be released via unpin_user_page. that's not a suggestion, bestie, that's the rule 😭

⚠️ also please go look at Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst for further details — there's more lore there, iykyk 📖

and here's the tea you need: 🍓

🚨 if a zero_page is amongst the returned pages, it will not have pins in it, and unpin_user_page will not remove pins from it. so like, don't go hunting for pins that were never there, okay? 💀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

all the siblings and cousins, in the exact order they're listed, no cap:

like… that's a whole friend group right there, slay 🌈✨

and that's the whole page, bestie! 💅 this one comes to you from ./mm, dated October 2026, and yes it's still called pin_user_pages_fast(9) the whole way through 🎀 mwah, go pin some pages responsibly 🫶💖

📦 where this page comes from