STRUCT LIVEUPDATE_SESSION_FINISH(9)

💅 NAME

struct liveupdate_session_finish — bestie, this is the struct for the ioctl(LIVEUPDATE_SESSION_FINISH) ✨

(also hi, you're reading the Kernel API Manual, welcome to the group chat 🫶)

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🌸 SYNOPSIS

struct liveupdate_session_finish {
    __u32 size;
    __u32 reserved;
 };

the members, babes

• size — Input; sizeof(struct liveupdate_session_finish) 👑 you literally just tell it how big you are. self-awareness slay.
• reserved — Input; must be zero. Reserved for future use. fr fr, zero. not "zero-ish." zero. 🚫

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✨ Description ✨

Okay so picture this: the restoration process for a retrieved session is DONE, and this ioctl is the little "we're so back ✅" signal that says so. It's the final operation you should perform on a session file descriptor after a live update — like, the last thing. the periodt of the whole saga 💅

The way this works: you call this ioctl once all the required file descriptors for the session have been successfully retrieved (that's via LIVEUPDATE_SESSION_RETRIEVE_FD, iykyk) and they're fully restored from the userspace and kernel perspective. Both. Everyone has to be caught up before you hit send. no leaving anyone on read 😭

Upon success, the kernel releases its ownership of the preserved resources associated with this session 🎀 That's what lets internal resources get freed — typically by decrementing reference counts on the underlying preserved objects. Ref counts go brrr downward. iconic.

⚠️ okay but listen: if this operation fails, the resources remain preserved in memory. Nothing gets freed. Your options are: userspace may attempt to call finish again 🔁 — or the resources will otherwise be reset during the next live update cycle. So it's not the end of the world, but it is a "text them again" situation 🙈

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🦋 Return

• 0 on success 🌈
• negative error code on failure 💀

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🎀 SEE ALSO

• Kernel file ./include/uapi/linux/liveupdate.h
• General ioctl format(9)
• struct liveupdate_ioctl_create_session(9)
• struct liveupdate_ioctl_retrieve_session(9)
• struct liveupdate_session_preserve_fd(9)
• struct liveupdate_session_retrieve_fd(9)
• struct liveupdate_session_get_name(9)

go read them, they're all main characters too 👑

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⭐ and that's the whole page bestie! sourced straight from ./include/uapi/linux, dated October 2026, filed under struct liveu...ssion_finish(9) — mwah, study up and stay hydrated 💖🧚🍓