ubi_io_sync_erase(9)

💅 ubi_io_sync_erase — like, the kernel API manual page, bestie

okay so this is a page from the Kernel API Manual for ubi_io_sync_erase(9) and honestly? it's giving "small function, big responsibilities" energy. let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

ubi_io_sync_erase — synchronously erase a physical eraseblock. that's it, that's the vibe. no cap. 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int ubi_io_sync_erase (struct ubi_device *ubi , int pnum , int *torture
);

like yes, three args, one int return, she's compact and she knows it ✨

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• ubi — UBI device description object. the whole device's lil identity card, basically 💅
• pnum — the physical eraseblock number to erase. which one? this one, bestie 🔥
• torture — if this physical eraseblock has to be tortured; it gets cleared to zero once the torture test has completed successfully, so that a retry of the erase does not torture the physical eraseblock again. (yes the kernel really named the parameter "torture." main character energy fr fr 😭)

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what does she actually do? this function synchronously erases physical eraseblock pnum. synchronous as in she waits, she doesn't do the fire-and-forget thing. 🧚

and if the torture flag is not zero? 🫣 the physical eraseblock gets checked by means of writing different patterns to it and reading them back. torture is genuinely the right word, the kernel said what it said. and lowkey important: if the torturing is enabled, the physical eraseblock is erased more than once. multiple erasures. she's thorough. 👑

what does she return? okay so:

• the number of erasures made, in case of success ✨ (so yeah, not just 0 — count your blessings and count your erasures)
• -EIO if the erasure failed or the torturing test failed 😭
• other negative error codes in case of other errors

⚠️ heads up: -EIO means that the physical eraseblock is bad. like dead dead. don't try to make it happen, it's not a vibe, it's a diagnosis. 💀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Kernel file ./drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c
• ubi_io_read(9)
• ubi_io_write(9)
• do_sync_erase(9)
• torture_peb(9)
• nor_erase_prepare(9)
• ubi_io_is_bad(9)
• ubi_io_mark_bad(9)
• validate_ec_hdr(9)
• ubi_io_read_ec_hdr(9)
• ubi_io_write_ec_hdr(9)
• validate_vid_hdr(9)
• ubi_io_read_vid_hdr(9)
• ubi_io_write_vid_hdr(9)
• self_check_not_bad(9)
• self_check_ec_hdr(9)
• self_check_peb_ec_hdr(9)
• self_check_vid_hdr(9)
• self_check_peb_vid_hdr(9)
• self_check_write(9)
• ubi_self_check_all_ff(9)

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and that's the whole page, bestie, you ate 💖✨

this lil legend came out of ./drivers/mtd/ubi back in October 2026, filed under ubi_io_sync_erase(9) — mwah, iconic, periodt 🎀