<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >dev_alloc</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The Linux Kernel API" HREF="book1.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Driver Support" HREF="c6227.html#AEN6229"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="dev_alloc_name" HREF="r6746.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="netdev_state_change" HREF="r6821.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="REFENTRY" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The Linux Kernel API</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="r6746.html" ACCESSKEY="P" ><<< Previous</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="r6821.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next >>></A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><H1 ><A NAME="AEN6781" ></A ><SPAN CLASS="phrase" ><SPAN CLASS="PHRASE" >dev_alloc</SPAN ></SPAN ></H1 ><DIV CLASS="REFNAMEDIV" ><A NAME="AEN6785" ></A ><H2 >Name</H2 >dev_alloc -- allocate a network device and name </DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSYNOPSISDIV" ><A NAME="AEN6788" ></A ><H2 >Synopsis</H2 ><DIV CLASS="FUNCSYNOPSIS" ><A NAME="AEN6790" ></A ><P ></P ><P ><CODE ><CODE CLASS="FUNCDEF" >struct net_device * <TT CLASS="FUNCTION" >dev_alloc </TT ></CODE >(const char * <TT CLASS="PARAMETER" ><I >name</I ></TT >, int * <TT CLASS="PARAMETER" ><I >err</I ></TT >);</CODE ></P ><P ></P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN6798" ></A ><H2 >Arguments</H2 ><P ></P ><DIV CLASS="VARIABLELIST" ><DL ><DT ><TT CLASS="PARAMETER" ><I >name</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > name format string </P ></DD ><DT ><TT CLASS="PARAMETER" ><I >err</I ></TT ></DT ><DD ><P > error return pointer </P ></DD ></DL ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="REFSECT1" ><A NAME="AEN6811" ></A ><H2 >Description</H2 ><P > Passed a format string, eg. <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"lt<TT CLASS="CONSTANT" >d</TT >"</SPAN >, it will allocate a network device and space for the name. <TT CLASS="CONSTANT" >NULL</TT > is returned if no memory is available. If the allocation succeeds then the name is assigned and the device pointer returned. <TT CLASS="CONSTANT" >NULL</TT > is returned if the name allocation failed. The cause of an error is returned as a negative errno code in the variable <TT CLASS="PARAMETER" ><I >err</I ></TT > points to. </P ><P > The caller must hold the <TT CLASS="PARAMETER" ><I >dev_base</I ></TT > or RTNL locks when doing this in order to avoid duplicate name allocations. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="r6746.html" ACCESSKEY="P" ><<< Previous</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="book1.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="r6821.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next >>></A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><SPAN CLASS="phrase" ><SPAN CLASS="PHRASE" >dev_alloc_name</SPAN ></SPAN ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="c6227.html#AEN6229" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><SPAN CLASS="phrase" ><SPAN CLASS="PHRASE" >netdev_state_change</SPAN ></SPAN ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >