retry_estale(9)

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, meet retry_estale(9) from the Kernel API Manual 💅 — it's literally here to determine whether the caller should retry an operation.

retry_estale — determine whether the caller should retry an operation.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

the signature is giving exactly this, no cap:

bool retry_estale (const long error , const unsigned int flags );

🍓 ARGUMENTS 🍓

• error — the error that would currently be returned, bestie. like the one on deck right now.
• flags — the flags being used for the next lookup attempt. yes, those flags.

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So the vibe check is: it checks to see if the error code was -ESTALE, and then it determines whether to retry the call based on whether flags already has LOOKUP_REVAL set 🫶.

It returns true if the caller should try the operation again. that's the whole point, periodt.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the squad over here is:

• the kernel file ./include/linux/namei.h 📁
• end_removing(9)
• mode_strip_umask(9)

signed with love from the ./include/linux source, dated October 2026, and it's all about retry_estale(9) — mwah 💋