vmballoon_debug_show(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 vmballoon_debug_show(9) 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — this one's a little function living in the kernel, and honestly? it's giving "quiet kid in the back of the class who's actually a genius." let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

vmballoon_debug_show — shows statistics of balloon operations. and no, we're not talking about party balloons, we're talking about memory ballooning, which is somehow even more iconic. 🎈

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int vmballoon_debug_show (struct seq_file *f , void *offset );

she takes two args and returns an int, periodt. 💅

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

  • f — pointer to the struct seq_file. this is the main character right here, the thing you're writing stuff into. 🫶
  • offset — ignored. literally not even looked at. she's just there for the vibe check and we respect her for it. 🙈

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so what does she actually do? she provides the statistics that can be accessed in vmmemctl in the debugfs. slay. ✨

but here's the tea ☕: to avoid the overhead — mainly that of memory — of collecting the statistics, we only collect statistics after the first time the counters are read. so like, first read? that's when the data collection actually kicks in. it's giving "lazy but make it efficient," and honestly? obsessed. 🧚

ngl bestie, that detail matters — the stats aren't gathered up front, they start getting collected only after that very first read. 🔥

🌈 RETURN 🌈

zero on success or an error code. simple, clean, no drama. 💀

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

the whole extended friend group, fr fr — starting with the kernel file ./drivers/misc/vmw_balloon.c:

like I said. the entire squad. 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖 one last little sign-off — this one lives in ./drivers/misc, and the manual's dated October 2026, page name still vmballoon_debug_show(9). mwah 💋 go read some kernel source, ily, bye!! 🎀🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from