prune_dcache_sb(9)

🌸 prune_dcache_sb(9) — like, the Kernel API Manual page you actually wanna read 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual ✨ and today's main character is prune_dcache_sb(9) — the function that trims down the dcache when things get a little too full. no cap, she's lowkey important 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

prune_dcache_sb — shrink the dcache 🦋

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

long prune_dcache_sb (struct super_block *sb , struct shrink_control *sc
);

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💖 ARGUMENTS 💖

• sb — the superblock, bestie. that's the thing you're pruning 🍓
• sc — the shrink control, and fr it gets passed along to list_lru_shrink_walk ✨

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so what she does is attempt to shrink the superblock dcache LRU by sc->nr_to_scan entries 💅 this happens when we need more memory, and it's called from the superblock shrinker function. iykyk 🌈

and like — heads up — this function may fail to free any resources if all the dentries are in use 😭 that's just how it is, not a bug, don't come for her 🫶

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

Kernel file ./fs/dcache.c ✨ plus this whole squad right here:

• d_drop(9)
• dentry_kill(9)
• __move_to_shrink_list(9)
• d_find_any_alias(9)
• d_find_alias(9)
• shrink_dcache_sb(9)
• enum d_walk_ret(9)
• d_walk(9)
• path_has_submounts(9)
• shrink_dcache_tree(9)
• d_invalidate(9)
• __d_alloc(9)
• d_alloc(9)
• d_alloc_pseudo(9)
• d_instantiate(9)
• d_obtain_alias(9)
• d_obtain_root(9)
• d_add_ci(9)
• d_same_name(9)
• __d_lookup_rcu(9)
• d_lookup(9)
• __d_lookup(9)
• d_hash_and_lookup(9)
• d_delete(9)
• d_rehash(9)
• d_add(9)
• d_ancestor(9)
• d_splice_alias(9)
• is_subdir(9)

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okay that's the whole page, you ate that 💅 this one's from ./fs, dated October 2026 — go off, icon 👑✨🫶