STRUCT AUDIT_CTL_MUTEX(9)

💅 struct audit_ctl_mutex(9) 💅

hii bestie 🫶 welcome to the Kernel API Manual page for struct audit_ctl_mutex(9) — the lock struct that literally serializes requests from userspace ✨. No cap, it's short, but it's giving main character energy in the audit code.

💖 NAME 💖

struct audit_ctl_mutex — serialize requests from userspace.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

       struct audit_ctl_mutex {
           struct mutex lock;
           void *owner;
        };

🎀 Members 🎀

• lock — the mutex used for locking. yep, that's the lock doing lock things 💅
• owner — the task which owns the lock. the main character holding the keys 👑

🦋 Description 🦋

okay so listen: this is the lock struct used to ensure we only process userspace requests in an orderly fashion. Periodt. We can't simply use a mutex/lock here because we need to track lock ownership so we don't end up blocking the lock owner in audit_log_start or similar. That's the whole vibe, and it matters 😭. not me being obsessed with lock ownership, iykyk.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./kernel/audit.c — and the rest of the squad is: struct audit_net(9), struct auditd_connection(9), auditd_test_task(9), audit_ctl_lock(9), audit_ctl_unlock(9), audit_ctl_owner_current(9), auditd_pid_vnr(9), audit_cfg_lsm(9), audit_get_sk(9), audit_log_lost(9), auditd_conn_free(9), auditd_set(9), kauditd_printk_skb(9), kauditd_rehold_skb(9), kauditd_hold_skb(9), kauditd_retry_skb(9), auditd_reset(9), auditd_send_unicast_skb(9), kauditd_send_queue(9), kauditd_thread(9), audit_send_reply(9), audit_receive(9), audit_serial(9), audit_log_start(9), audit_expand(9), audit_log_format(9), audit_log_n_hex(9), audit_string_contains_control(9), audit_log_n_untrustedstring(9), audit_log_untrustedstring(9), audit_buffer_aux_new(9), audit_buffer_aux_end(9), audit_log_subj_ctx(9), audit_log_path_denied(9), audit_set_loginuid(9), audit_signal_info(9), __audit_log_end(9), audit_log_end(9), audit_log(9).

okay that's the page, bestie! 💖 source/version vibes: ./kernel; date: October 2026; page title: struct audit_ctl_mutex(9). slay ✨