rtas_work_area_alloc(9)

welcome to the rtas_work_area_alloc(9) page from the Kernel API Manual ✨ bestie, this one is short but lowkey important, so let's get into it 💖

🎀 NAME 🎀

rtas_work_area_alloc — acquire a work area of the requested size 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

rtas_work_area_alloc (size_ );

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💅 ARGUMENTS 💅

• size_ — the allocation size, bestie. it must be a compile-time constant, and it can't be more than RTAS_WORK_AREA_MAX_ALLOC_SZ 💀 no cap.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so this function allocates a buffer that's suitable for passing to RTAS functions which have a memory address parameter. PAPR often calls that thing a "work area" — often, but not always, iykyk 🌸

callers are allowed to block while holding a work area, but the amount of memory reserved for this purpose is limited, so allocations should be short-lived. a good guideline? release any allocated work area before returning from a system call 💅 periodt.

this function does not fail. it blocks until the allocation succeeds. and to prevent deadlocks, callers are discouraged from allocating more than one work area simultaneously in a single task context 🙈

😴 CONTEXT 😴

this function may sleep. fr fr, it can sleep 😴

🎁 RETURN 🎁

a struct rtas_work_area descriptor for the allocated work area 👑

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• Kernel file ./arch/powerpc/include/asm/rtas-work-area.h
• struct rtas_work_area(9)
• rtas_work_area_free(9)

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xoxo, this page came from ./arch/powerpc/include/asm and it's dated October 2026 — slay and bye bestie 🦋💖🎀