vma_modify_name(9)

💅 vma_modify_name — the Kernel API Manual, but make it cute 🎀

Okay bestie, so we're in the Kernel API Manual today and the star of the show is vma_modify_name(9). No cap, this one's a little sneaky — read the DESCRIPTION before you go touching anything, trust. 👀

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✨ NAME ✨

vma_modify_name — do all the split/merge prep work so you can set an anonymous VMA name to @new_name across the range @start to @end that lives inside @vma. Literally just the prep, she's not doing the actual naming, iykyk. 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

struct vm_area_struct * vma_modify_name (struct vma_iterator *vmi ,
struct vm_area_struct *prev , struct vm_area_struct *vma , unsigned long
start , unsigned long end , struct anon_vma_name *new_name );

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• vmi — a valid VMA iterator, and it's gotta be positioned at vma. Chillin' right on it. 📍
• prev — the VMA that comes immediately before vma, or NULL if vma is the very first one. Main character energy, no predecessor. 👑
• vma — the VMA holding the range start to end that we're about to update. She contains multitudes. 💖
• start — where the range to update begins. Fair warning: it may be offset inside vma, so like, not necessarily at the front. 🌈
• end — the exclusive end of the range to update. Also possibly offset inside vma. Exclusive, babe, she's not included. 💅
• new_name — the anonymous VMA name that start to end is about to be set to. About to. Future tense. Do not come for her yet. ⭐

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🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

IMPORTANT: the actual modification you're asking for is NOT applied here. Nope, not even a little. What happens instead is the VMA is perhaps split, perhaps merged, all so it's ready to accommodate the change — and then you, the caller, are expected to perform the actual modification yourself. It's giving "I set the stage, you do the performance." 😭🎭

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🔥 RETURN 🔥

A VMA that contains the range start to end, all ready to have its anonymous VMA name changed to new_name. She's prepped, she's staged, she's waiting on you. ✨

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• Kernel file ./mm/vma.h
• vma_modify_flags(9)
• vma_modify_policy(9)
• vma_modify_flags_uffd(9)

Go read those too, bestie, they're all in their own little glow-up era. 🌸

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okay that's the whole page, no crumbs left behind 💜 — this gem dropped from ./mm back in October 2026, part of the Kernel API Manual, and honestly? iconic. periodt. 🎀✨