vmballoon_lock(9)

🎈 vmballoon_lock(9) — Kernel API Manual 🎈

okay bestie, this is the vmballoon_lock(9) page from the Kernel API Manual, and it's all about locking or unlocking a whole batch of pages. no cap.

💖 NAME 💖

vmballoon_lock — lock or unlock a batch of pages. periodt.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

int vmballoon_lock (struct vmballoon *b , struct vmballoon_ctl *ctl );

🫶 ARGUMENTS 🫶

• b — pointer to the balloon. yes, the actual balloon, iconic.
• ctl — pointer for the struct vmballoon_ctl, which defines the operation. it's giving “you tell it what to do” energy.

🔥 DESCRIPTION 🔥

So vmballoon_lock notifies the host about ballooned pages — after inflation or deflation, according to ctl. If the host rejects the page, it puts that page on the ctl refuse list. Those refused pages are then released when moving to the next size of pages. fr fr.

Note that we neither free any page here nor put them back on the ballooned pages list. Instead we queue it for later processing. We do that for several reasons. First, we do not want to free the page under the lock. Second, it allows us to unify the handling of lock and unlock. In the inflate case, the caller will check if there are too many refused pages and release them. Although it is not identical to the past behavior, it should not affect performance. slay.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./drivers/misc/vmw_balloon.c — plus the whole squad:

• enum vmballoon_cmd_type(9)
• struct vmballoon_batch_entry(9)
• vmballoon_send_guest_id(9)
• vmballoon_page_order(9)
• vmballoon_page_in_frames(9)
• vmballoon_mark_page_offline(9)
• vmballoon_mark_page_online(9)
• vmballoon_send_get_target(9)
• vmballoon_alloc_page_list(9)
• vmballoon_handle_one_result(9)
• vmballoon_status_page(9)
• vmballoon_lock_op(9)
• vmballoon_add_page(9)
• vmballoon_release_page_list(9)
• vmballoon_change(9)
• vmballoon_enqueue_page_list(9)
• vmballoon_dequeue_page_list(9)
• vmballoon_split_refused_pages(9)
• vmballoon_inflate(9)
• vmballoon_deflate(9)
• vmballoon_deinit_batching(9)
• vmballoon_init_batching(9)
• vmballoon_vmci_init(9)
• vmballoon_pop(9)
• vmballoon_work(9)
• vmballoon_shrinker_scan(9)
• vmballoon_shrinker_count(9)
• vmballoon_debug_show(9)
• vmballoon_migratepage(9)

Source/version vibes, bestie: ./drivers/misc · date: October 2026 · page: vmballoon_lock(9) — bye bestie, stay locked and loaded 💅✨