From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Lino Sanfilippo Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 17:45:03 +0000 Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/1] net-PA Semi: Deletion of unnecessary checks before the function call "pci_dev_put" Message-Id: <547B579F.10709@gmx.de> List-Id: References: <5307CAA2.8060406@users.sourceforge.net> <530A086E.8010901@users.sourceforge.net> <530A72AA.3000601@users.sourceforge.net> <530B5FB6.6010207@users.sourceforge.net> <530C5E18.1020800@users.sourceforge.net> <530CD2C4.4050903@users.sourceforge.net> <530CF8FF.8080600@users.sourceforge.net> <530DD06F.4090703@users.sourceforge.net> <5317A59D.4@users.sourceforge.net> <547A09B1.9090102@users.sourceforge.net> In-Reply-To: <547A09B1.9090102@users.sourceforge.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: SF Markus Elfring , Olof Johansson , netdev@vger.kernel.org Cc: LKML , kernel-janitors@vger.kernel.org, Julia Lawall On 29.11.2014 19:00, SF Markus Elfring wrote: > out: > - if (mac->iob_pdev) > - pci_dev_put(mac->iob_pdev); > - if (mac->dma_pdev) > - pci_dev_put(mac->dma_pdev); > + pci_dev_put(mac->iob_pdev); > + pci_dev_put(mac->dma_pdev); > > free_netdev(dev); > out_disable_device: > Hi, I know there has been some criticism about those kind of "code improvements" already but i would like to point out just one more thing: Some of those NULL pointer checks on input parameters may have been added subsequently to functions. So there may be older kernel versions out there in which those checks dont exists in some cases. If some of the now "cleaned up" code is backported to such a kernel chances are good that those missing checks are overseen. And then neither caller nor callee is doing the NULL pointer check. Quite frankly i would vote for the opposite approach: Never rely on the callee do to checks for NULL and do it always in the caller. An exception could be for calls on a fast path. But most of those checks are done on error paths anyway. Just my 2 cents. Regards, Lino