text_poke_set(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ text_poke_set(9) ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual 💅 this one's called text_poke_set and honestly it's giving "small function, big chaos energy" 🎀

💖 NAME 💖

text_poke_set — memset into (an unused part of) RX memory 🫶

like, it's memset but make it spicy ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

void * text_poke_set (void *addr , int c , size_t len );

yes the spacing is like that, no i will not be fixing it, it's iconic 💜

🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

  • addr — the address to modify 👈 this is where the magic goes
  • c — the byte you're filling the area with 🌈 literally just one lil byte
  • len — length to copy, and bestie listen, this could be more than 2x PAGE_SIZE 😭 that's not a typo, that's canon

💀 DESCRIPTION 💀

so what's the vibe? this function is useful to overwrite unused regions of RX memory with illegal instructions 🔥

and no, "illegal" is not me being dramatic for once — that is literally what the manpage says. we're planting bad-girl instructions in the dead zones. it's giving trap street, it's giving main character sabotage, it's exactly what it sounds like ✨

ngl the caveat matters here: we're talking about unused regions of RX memory. that word is doing a lot of work. do not come crying to me if you fill a region that was, in fact, used 🙈

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

the whole friend group 🫶 — kernel file ./arch/x86/kernel/alternative.c, plus:

periodt 💅 go read all of them, i'll wait 🍓

and that's the whole page, bestie 🧚 no notes, ate and left no crumbs 👑

sign-off time: this cutie lives under ./arch/x86/kernel, dated October 2026, and the page itself goes by text_poke_set(9) — that's the source, the version, and the date, all wrapped up with a little bow 🎀 mwah 💖
📦 where this page comes from