ubifs_find_free_space(9)

💾 ubifs_find_free_space(9) — the kernel API manual, but make it make sense ✨

okay bestie, so this one is from the ubifs kernel API manual, and it's literally called ubifs_find_free_space — like, the whole personality is "go find me some free space" and honestly? relatable. 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ubifs_find_free_space — bestie's whole job is finding a data LEB that's got free space. that's it. that's the function. 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int ubifs_find_free_space (struct ubifs_info *c , int min_space , int
       *offs , int squeeze );

that's the exact signature, copied character-for-character, no cap. 💅

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🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

• c — the UBIFS file-system description object. this is the main character, everything happens through it.
• min_space — the minimum amount of free space that's required. like, the bare minimum sis, nothing less.
• offs — on exit this contains the offset of where the free space starts. it's an output, so it gets filled in for you. 🎁
• squeeze — whether to try to find space in a non-empty LEB first. a little "look harder before you give up" vibe.

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so what it does: this function goes looking for an LEB that has at least min_space bytes of free space. simple. iconic. lowkey essential.

it tries to find an empty LEB if possible — that's the dream scenario, an empty LEB is giving fresh-start energy. but if there are no empty LEBs available, this function searches for a non-empty data LEB instead. resourceful queen. 🔥

and the LEB it returns gets marked as "taken" — so it's claimed, spoken for, off the market. 🙈

what it returns:

• the found LEB number if it slays (success 💅)
• -ENOSPC if it failed to find a LEB with min_space bytes of free space
• other negative error codes if something else went wrong

so like, check your return value bestie, it's telling you things. 😭

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

this is the whole friend group, and we're tagging everyone because nobody gets left out:

• Kernel file ./fs/ubifs/find.c
• struct scan_data(9)
• valuable(9)
• scan_for_dirty_cb(9)
• scan_for_dirty(9)
• ubifs_find_dirty_leb(9)
• scan_for_free_cb(9)
• do_find_free_space(9)
• scan_for_idx_cb(9)
• scan_for_leb_for_idx(9)
• ubifs_find_free_leb_for_idx(9)
• ubifs_save_dirty_idx_lnums(9)
• scan_dirty_idx_cb(9)
• find_dirty_idx_leb(9)
• get_idx_gc_leb(9)
• find_dirtiest_idx_leb(9)
• ubifs_find_dirty_idx_leb(9)

iykyk 🧚

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tiny reminder: this page comes from the source tree at ./fs/ubifs, dated October 2026, and the manpage tag is ubifs_find_free_space(9). gotta credit the source, always. 🫶

okay bye bestie, go find that free space — periodt. 💜🎀🌈