Re: [PATCH] hfsplus: fix NULL dereference in hfsplus_lookup()

From: Viacheslav Dubeyko <slava@dubeyko.com>
To: "Ernesto A. Fernández" <ernesto.mnd.fernandez@gmail.com>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, "Xu, Wen" <wen.xu@gatech.edu>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] hfsplus: fix NULL dereference in hfsplus_lookup()
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2018 13:18:39 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1534969119.2878.6.camel@slavad-ubuntu-14.04> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20180822184616.3cm43dxzsijfayq7@eaf>

On Wed, 2018-08-22 at 15:46 -0300, Ernesto A. Fernández wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 21, 2018 at 04:05:25PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > On Thu, 12 Jul 2018 15:55:33 -0700 Viacheslav Dubeyko <slava@dubeyko.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Thu, 2018-07-12 at 18:53 -0300, Ernesto A. Fernández wrote:
> > > > Check that the hidden directory is not NULL before using it, instead of
> > > > after.
> > > > 
> > > > Reported-by: Wen Xu <wen.xu@gatech.edu>
> > > > Signed-off-by: Ernesto A. Fernández <ernesto.mnd.fernandez@gmail.com>
> > > > ---
> > > 
> > > It's really hard to understand this simple patch. I believe it makes
> > > sense to rework the patch slightly with the goal to make it more clear.
> > > Also, it will be great to add a short comment in the code to explain
> > > what's wrong.
> 
> I don't think it's reasonable to expect a comment explaining why we can't
> dereference NULL.
> 

The good comment is always really important part of the patch.

> > > I think it makes sense to split this long check condition on something
> > > more clear, simple and elegant.
> 
> The long check condition may not be ideal, but there's a lot of code in
> the module that could use style improvements. I don't think that should be
> a priority right now, with plenty of serious bugs left to fix.
> 

Bad style of code is one of the reason of bugs. If you don't try to
improve the code then you can simply create an another serious bug and
nobody will be able to understand your fix. The bad style of code in the
module is not the excuse at all. It's the way of open-source community
to achieve the good style of code by means of the discussion. Moreover,
the goal of bug fix is the improvement of code style too but not only to
resolve the issue. Another guys need to understand your way of the fix
too.

Thanks,
Vyacheslav Dubeyko.

> > 
> > No response, causing this patch to be stuck in limbo land?
> 
> I believe I sent a second version of this patch.
> 
> 
> Ernest