---
name: "d_really_is_negative"
section: "9"
platform: "linux"
package: "linux-manual-4.9"
version: "4.9.228-1"
release: "Debian 9 (Stretch)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/d_really_is_negative"
---

# d\_really\_is\_negative(9)

Determine if a dentry is really negative (ignoring fallthroughs)

## NAME

d\_really\_is\_negative - Determine if a dentry is really negative (ignoring fallthroughs)

## SYNOPSIS

**bool d\_really\_is\_negative(const struct dentry \*** *dentry***);**

## ARGUMENTS

*dentry*

The dentry in question

## DESCRIPTION

Returns true if the dentry represents either an absent name or a name that doesn't map to an inode (ie. -\>d\_inode is NULL). The dentry could represent a true miss, a whiteout that isn't represented by a 0,0 chardev or a fallthrough marker in an opaque directory.

Note! (1) This should be used \*only\* by a filesystem to examine its own dentries. It should not be used to look at some other filesystem's dentries. (2) It should also be used in combination with **d\_inode** to get the inode. (3) The dentry may have something attached to -\>d\_lower and the type field of the flags may be set to something other than miss or whiteout.

## COPYRIGHT