Re: [PATCH 04/14] prctl.2: srcfix add comments for navigation - Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)

From: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
To: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com>
Cc: mtk.manpages@gmail.com, linux-man@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-arch@vger.kernel.org, linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 04/14] prctl.2: srcfix add comments for navigation
Date: Wed, 13 May 2020 13:48:36 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <022b1d7f-8381-a9a8-b5aa-907143fd4831@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20200513111557.GG21779@arm.com>

Hi Dave,

On 5/13/20 1:15 PM, Dave Martin wrote:
> On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 01:03:27PM +0200, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
>> Hi Dave,
>>
>> On 5/13/20 12:56 PM, Dave Martin wrote:
>>> On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 12:09:27PM +0200, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
>>>> Hi Dave,
>>>>
>>>> On 5/12/20 6:36 PM, Dave Martin wrote:
>>>>> The prctl.2 source is unnecessarily hard to navigate, not least
>>>>> because prctl option flags are traditionally named PR_* and so look
>>>>> just like prctl names.
>>>>>
>>>>> For each actual prctl, add a comment of the form
>>>>>
>>>>> 	.\" prctl PR_FOO
>>>>>
>>>>> to make it move obvious where each top-level prctl starts.
>>>>>
>>>>> Of course, we could add some clever macros, but let's not confuse
>>>>> dumb parsers.
>>>>
>>>> A patch like this, which makes sweeping changes across the page,
>>>> should be best placed at the end of a series, I think.
>>>> The reason is that if I fail to apply this patch (and I am a
>>>> little dubious about it), then probably the rest of the patches
>>>> in the series won't apply. (Furthermore, it also forced me to
>>>> apply patch 02 already, which I wanted to reflect on a little.)
>>>
>>> Agreed, I'll try to do that in future.
>>>
>>>> That said, I'll apply it, so that the remaining patches
>>>> apply cleanly. I'll consider later whether to keep this
>>>> change. For example, I wonder if a visually distinctive 
>>>> source line that is always the same would be better than
>>>> these comments that repeat the PR_* names. For example, 
>>>> something like
>>>>
>>>> .\" ==========================
>>>>
>>>> I'll circle back to this later.
>>>
>>> I'd prefer to keep the name if we can, since navigating by search is
>>> otherwise bothersome due to false hits.
>>>
>>> Could we do both, say:
>>>
>>> .\" === PR_FOO ===
>>
>> Okay -- I'll give that some thought.
>>
>>> If you prefer to reject this patch, I'm happy to rebase and repost the
>>> series as appropriate.
>>>
>>> In any case, this one is nice to have rather than essential.
>>
>> For now, the patch is already committed and pushed.
> 
> OK, thanks.  I'm happy to write a further patch when you've decided what
> to do, if it saves you work.

Let's leave this for the moment. Once the dust settles on your 
remaining patches, I'll try to remember to circle back on this.

Cheers,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/