release_pages(9)

✨ release_pages(9) ✨

okay so bestie, this is a page from the Kernel API Manual — section 9, release_pages(9) — and honestly it's giving "group project cleanup crew" energy 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

release_pages — batched put_page() 🎀

like, put_page() but make it a batch, yk? one call, many pages, no chaos ✨

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

void release_pages (release_pages_arg arg , int nr );

literally the whole signature, no cap 🔥

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💖 ARGUMENTS 💖

• arg — array of pages to release 🫶 like the whole squad of pages you're letting go of
• nr — number of pages 🌈 how many of them we're talking about here

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

okay so here's the tea ☕: this function decrements the reference count on all the pages in arg.

If it fell to zero? bestie, the page is done — it gets removed from the LRU and freed. poof. gone. iconic exit 💀✨

Note that the argument can be an array of pages, encoded pages, or folio pointers. We ignore any encoded bits, and turn any of them into just a folio that gets free'd.

so yeah, whatever flavor of pointer you hand over — plain pages, encoded pages, folios — the encoded bits get yeeted 🙈 and everything becomes just a folio that gets free'd. no extra steps, no drama 💜

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

Kernel file ./mm/folio.c — and the whole friend group 👇

• folio_mark_accessed(9)
• folio_add_lru(9)
• folio_add_lru_vma(9)
• deactivate_file_folio(9)
• folio_mark_lazyfree(9)
• lru_cache_drain_for_folio(9)
• folios_put_refs(9)
• folio_batch_remove_exceptionals(9)

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mwah 💋 that's the whole page — from ./mm, dated October 2026. go free some folios bestie, you got this 🧚💖