vmballoon_shrinker_scan(9)

📦 version 7.3.1, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 vmballoon_shrinker_scan(9) — like, the Kernel API Manual, bestie 🎈

okay so picture this: it's section 9 of the kernel manual, the vibe is memory pressure, and our main character is vmballoon_shrinker_scan. she's the one who shows up when things get tight and lets some air out of the balloon. iconic behaviour, honestly. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

vmballoon_shrinker_scan — deflate the balloon due to memory pressure. yes that's the whole job. no cap, she just deflates. 💨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

unsigned long vmballoon_shrinker_scan (struct shrinker *shrinker ,
struct shrink_control *sc );

look at her signature. so clean. so unsigned long. 💖

🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

  • shrinker — pointer to the balloon shrinker. that's her. that's the girl. she's pointing at herself basically 💅
  • sc — page reclaim information. the whole reclaim situation, all packaged up and handed over 🦋

⭐ RETURN ⭐

number of pages that were freed during deflation. so she does report back, and the number she gives you is literally how many pages got freed while she was deflating. periodt. 🔥

🔮 SEE ALSO 🔮

Kernel file ./drivers/misc/vmw_balloon.c — that's the whole friend group's group chat, and honestly every single one of them is invited:

like, go read them. iykyk. 👑

ngl bestie, the whole squad lives in ./drivers/misc — that's the address, that's the neighbourhood, that's where you'll find all of them 🏡

okay that's the page!! this one's brought to you by the ./drivers/misc crew, dated October 2026, and yes the footer still says vmballoon_shrinker_scan(9) because we would never leave a girl unlabelled 💖 mwah, go deflate something (responsibly, only under memory pressure) 🎈✨

📦 where this page comes from