.\" This manpage has been automatically generated by docbook2man
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.TH "DEV_ALLOC" "9" "17 July 2003" "" ""
.SH NAME
dev_alloc \- allocate a network device and name
.SH SYNOPSIS
.sp
\fB
.sp
struct net_device * dev_alloc (const char * \fIname\fB, int * \fIerr\fB);
\fR
.SH "ARGUMENTS"
.TP
\fB\fIname\fB\fR
name format string
.TP
\fB\fIerr\fB\fR
error return pointer
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
Passed a format string, eg. ``ltd'', it will allocate a network device
and space for the name. NULL is returned if no memory is available.
If the allocation succeeds then the name is assigned and the
device pointer returned. NULL is returned if the name allocation
failed. The cause of an error is returned as a negative errno code
in the variable \fIerr\fR points to.
.PP
The caller must hold the \fIdev_base\fR or RTNL locks when doing this in
order to avoid duplicate name allocations.
.SH "ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT"
.PP
This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.
.PP
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
.PP
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307 USA
.PP
For more details see the file COPYING in the source
distribution of Linux.
.PP
If you have comments on the formatting of this manpage, then please contact
Michael Still (mikal@stillhq.com).
.PP
This documentation was generated with kernel version 2.5.75.