register_netdevice(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

🌸 NAME 🌸

register_netdevice — register a network device

okay bestie so this is register_netdevice, section 9 of the Kernel API Manual, and it's literally the moment a network device goes from "just a struct someone made" to "the whole kernel can see it." main character energy fr 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int register_netdevice (struct net_device *dev );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • dev — the device you're registering 🫶 that's it, that's the whole argument.

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

So what this does: you hand it a network device structure that's already been prepared (like, prepped and ready, not raw), and it makes that device externally accessible 🌈 like it goes public.

A NETDEV_REGISTER message gets sent out to the netdev notifier chain — everyone subscribed gets the news 🎀.

⚠️ the actual important bit: callers must hold the rtnl lock. no exceptions, no cap. and honestly? you probably want register_netdev instead of this one. like, this is the lowkey "iykyk" version — know what you're doing before you reach for it 💀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

Kernel file ./net/core/dev.c — and the whole extended friend group:

and that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 💖 this masterpiece lives in ./net/core, dated October 2026, and it's filed under register_netdevice(9) — slay ✨🎀🦋

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