snd_pcm_playback_empty(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 snd_pcm_playback_empty ✨

okay bestie, so this is a page from the Kernel API Manual (yes, the kernel has lore too, and this one lives in ./include/sound/pcm.h 🌸). It's giving "one tiny question, one tiny answer" energy and honestly? iconic. Let's get into it 🫶

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

int snd_pcm_playback_empty (struct snd_pcm_substream *substream );

one function, one arg, one int coming back at you. no cap, that's the whole vibe 🔥

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • substream — the pcm substream instance 💖 like, hand it the substream you're curious about and it'll do its little check. that's it. that's the whole input.

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so what does it do? it checks whether the playback buffer is empty 💀 literally just that. is the playback buffer empty? it will let you know. no extra lore, no side quests, no surprises — just a straight-up vibe check on your playback buffer, bestie 🦋

⭐ RETURN ⭐

  • Non-zero — if empty 👑 (yup, the buffer is empty, slay)
  • zero — if not 🙈 (nah, there's still stuff in there)

so like, don't go treating it as a boolean in the "1 = true" sense in your head — non-zero means empty, zero means not empty. write it down, iykyk 💅

fr fr, read the return value carefully before you build logic on top of it — zero is the not empty case here, not the "everything is fine" case. the way that matters 😭

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the whole friend group showed up for this one, and we are obsessed 😭💜 every single one of these, no skips:

(psst — kernel file is ./include/sound/pcm.h, in case you need to go touch grass in the source 🌱)

and that's the whole page, bestie 🧚💖 it's from ./include/sound, dated October 2026, and it's filed under snd_pcm_playback_empty(9) in the Kernel API Manual — periodt. go check that buffer 💅🍓

📦 where this page comes from