snake_inventory(9)

🐍 snake_inventory(9) — a Kernel API Manual moment 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual, we're literally in the kernel docs rn and this one is a little retro gem ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

snake_inventory — and honestly? the original page gives us nothing after that dash 😭 no description, no little teaser, just the name and vibes. iconic of it, honestly 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

void snake_inventory (void );

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• void — no arguments, bestie. zero. none. it takes nothing and it needs nothing 🫶

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so story time 📖 — before PDC_SYSTEM_MAP was invented, the PDC_MEM_MAP call was the one doing the work. like, that was the moment, that was the era 💀

to use it, we initialise mod_path.bc to 0xff and then try all values of mod to get the HPA for the top-level devices. yes, all of them. we're brute-forcing our way to the answer and honestly? slay 🔥

and it gets better — bus adapters may have sub-devices 👀 and those get discovered by setting bc[5] to 0 and bc[4] to the module, then trying all possible functions. it's giving "try everything until something works" and ngl that's a whole mood 🌈

lowkey if you're reading this thinking "that's a lot of trying", yeah. that's the bit. the trying is the algorithm 💅

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• Kernel file ./arch/parisc/kernel/inventory.c — the actual source, go read it, it's right there 📂
• add_system_map_addresses(9) 🧚
• system_map_inventory(9) ⭐

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and that's the whole page bestie, no cap 💜

sign-off szn 🎀 — this little beauty lives under ./arch/parisc/kernel (that's the source/version babe), stamped October 2026, and it's forever known as snake_inventory(9) 🌸🦋✨