schedule_tail(9)

💅 schedule_tail(9) — from the Kernel API Manual, bestie

okay so real talk: this is a page from the Kernel API Manual (section 9, kernel developer land ✨), and honestly it's short but it is load-bearing. no cap.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

schedule_tail — literally the first thing a freshly forked thread has to call. like, before it does anything else. main character energy for real 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

__visible void schedule_tail (struct task_struct *prev );

yes that's the whole vibe. __visible void, returns nothing, takes one pointer. iconic.

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• prev — the thread we just switched away from. that's it, that's the whole arg. keep it close, bestie 🫶

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

so the source lives in the kernel file ./kernel/sched/core.c, and here's the whole friend group — go say hi:

• wake_q_add(9)
• wake_q_add_safe(9)
• task_curr(9)
• try_to_wake_up(9)
• task_call_func(9)
• cpu_curr_snapshot(9)
• wake_up_process(9)
• preempt_notifier_register(9)
• preempt_notifier_unregister(9)
• prepare_task_switch(9)
• finish_task_switch(9)
• schedule_preempt_disabled(9)
• preempt_schedule_notrace(9)
• init_idle(9)
• curr_task(9)

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ok tiny reminder since this is a kernel page and we respect the kernel: this is the first call a freshly forked thread makes. not the second, not the "whenever I feel like it" call. the first. 💀

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and that's the page!! 🌈 mwah 💖 this one came from ./kernel/sched, dated October 2026, and it's schedule_tail(9) — slay, go finish your task switch, bestie 🧚‍♀️👑