snd_pcm_playback_hw_avail(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 snd_pcm_playback_hw_avail — like, the queued space for playback, bestie

okay so this one is a page from the Kernel API Manual (yes we're in kernel land, stay with me 🫶) and it's honestly so chill. The function is snd_pcm_playback_hw_avail — a little baddie that tells you the queued space for playback. That's it. That's her whole job. 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

snd_pcm_sframes_t snd_pcm_playback_hw_avail (struct snd_pcm_runtime
*runtime );

Look at the return type bestie — snd_pcm_sframes_t, a signed frame count, we love an int that can go negative, the drama of it all 😭

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

  • runtime — the PCM runtime instance 💖 literally just the runtime you're working with, that's the whole vibe check

🌸 RETURN 🌸

The available frame size. That's it, that's the whole answer — available frame size, returned to you, no cap ✨

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

The kernel file you want to peek at is ./include/sound/pcm.h 📁 — and then there's the entire friend group of related calls, because apparently everyone in the ALSA PCM directory knows each other:

Like, that's a whole group chat of manpages and they're all going to the same place (the PCM header, obvs) 💀

Honestly the shortest manpage I've ever read and I'm obsessed — get in, get the queued space, get out, no side quests, main character energy only 💅

kisses bestie, this page lives in ./include/sound and it's dated October 2026 — yes, the future, we're time travelers now 🧚⭐ made with love in snd_pcm_playback_hw_avail(9), byeee 🎀🌈💜

📦 where this page comes from