STRUCT SPI_NOR_LOCKING_OPS(9)

💅 struct spi_nor_locking_ops(9) — SPI NOR locking methods

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual page for struct spi_nor_locking_ops, and buckle up because this one is short but lowkey important 💖 It's the little struct that holds the locking methods for SPI NOR flash, and if you're poking at flash regions you're gonna want to know her.

---

✨ NAME ✨

struct spi_nor_locking_ops — the SPI NOR locking methods, aka the trio of function pointers that handle locking, unlocking and "hey is this locked?" for a region of your SPI NOR 🎀

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the whole struct, and yes we're keeping it character for character because she's iconic:

struct spi_nor_locking_ops {
    int (*lock)(struct spi_nor *nor, loff_t ofs, u64 len);
    int (*unlock)(struct spi_nor *nor, loff_t ofs, u64 len);
    int (*is_locked)(struct spi_nor *nor, loff_t ofs, u64 len);
 };

three pointers, three vibes, one struct. slay 💅

---

✨ Members ✨

• lock — locks a region of the SPI NOR. and listen, it never locks more than what is requested, ie. it may lock less 👑 so don't assume "I asked for exactly this much" means you got exactly that much, because you might literally get less. no cap.
• unlock — unlocks a region of the SPI NOR. and this one's the opposite energy: it may unlock more than what is requested 😭 so yeah, she's generous. maybe too generous. be aware.
• is_locked — checks if a region of the SPI NOR is completely locked, and returns false otherwise. ⚠️ but here's the tea: this feedback may be misleading, because users may get an "unlocked" status even though a subpart of the region is effectively locked 💀 like, the whole region isn't locked, so it says unlocked, but part of it absolutely is locked. read that twice, bestie, because it's giving trustworthy-but-not-really.

🫶 the accuracy caveat on is_locked is real and it's in the original — don't let the "unlocked" answer fool you into thinking nothing in that region is locked, because a subpart can totally be locked.

---

✨ Description ✨

if you're in doubt during development, check out the debugfs output, which tries to be more user friendly 🌸 (yes, more user friendly than this struct's is_locked answer, which we just established can be a little misleading — so the debugfs route is the glow-up ✨).

---

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

Kernel file ./drivers/mtd/spi-nor/core.h plus the whole friend group 💖:

• struct spi_nor_erase_type(9)
• struct spi_nor_erase_command(9)
• struct spi_nor_erase_region(9)
• struct spi_nor_erase_map(9)
• struct spi_nor_otp_organization(9)
• struct spi_nor_otp_ops(9)
• struct spi_nor_otp(9)
• struct spi_nor_flash_parameter(9)
• struct spi_nor_fixups(9)
• struct spi_nor_id(9)
• struct flash_info(9)
• struct spi_nor_manufacturer(9)
• struct sfdp(9)
• spi_nor_needs_sfdp(9)

---

and that's the whole page, bestie 🦋 sign-off time: this one lives in ./drivers/mtd/spi-nor, it's the October 2026 edition, and the page itself is struct spi_nor_locking_ops(9) — go forth and lock responsibly, don't trust is_locked blindly, and ily for reading the whole thing ✨💜