From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail-ua0-f170.google.com ([209.85.217.170]:34873 "EHLO mail-ua0-f170.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750765AbdDMJmN (ORCPT ); Thu, 13 Apr 2017 05:42:13 -0400 Received: by mail-ua0-f170.google.com with SMTP id f10so9724197uaa.2 for ; Thu, 13 Apr 2017 02:42:12 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: <20170406144139.20284-1-jtulak@redhat.com> <20170407014959.GT17542@dastard> <20170408235922.GG23007@dastard> From: Jan Tulak Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2017 11:41:51 +0200 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH 1/2] mkfs: unify numeric types of main variables in main() Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-xfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: List-Id: xfs To: Dave Chinner Cc: linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org, "Luis R. Rodriguez" , Eric Sandeen On Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 10:42 AM, Jan Tulak wrote: > On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 1:59 AM, Dave Chinner wrote: >> On Fri, Apr 07, 2017 at 03:17:20PM +0200, Jan Tulak wrote: >>> On Fri, Apr 7, 2017 at 3:50 AM, Dave Chinner wrote: >>> > On Thu, Apr 06, 2017 at 04:41:38PM +0200, Jan Tulak wrote: >>> >> Followup of my "[xfsprogs] Do we need so many data types for user input?" email. >>> >> >>> >> In the past, when mkfs was first written, it used atoi and >>> >> similar calls, so the variables were ints. However, the situation moved >>> >> since then and in course of the time, mkfs began to use other types too. >>> >> >>> >> Clean and unify it. We don't need negative values anywhere in the code and >>> >> some numbers has to be 64bit. Thus, uint64 is the best candidate as the target >>> >> type. >>> > >>> > I'm with Darrick and Eric on this - it's not the right conversion to >>> > make for all the reasons they've pointed out. Further, I think it's >>> > the wrong direction to be working in. >>> > >>> > What I originally intended the config option table to be used for >>> > was to /replace all these config variables/ with config option table >>> > lookups. We don't need tens of variables to say we certain options >>> > set - once option parsing is complete we can just lookup the config >>> > table and use the option value directly. i.e. we need to work >>> > towards removing all the variables, not try to make them pretty.... >>> > >>> >>> Removing them entirely is not as easy... Right now, there is this >>> thing in "[PATCH 17/22] mkfs: use old variables as pointers to the new >>> opts struct values" in the main: >>> >>> (Link to the patch: https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-xfs/msg04977.html) >>> >>> - __uint64_t agcount; >>> + __uint64_t *agcount; >>> ... >>> >>> + /* >>> + * Set up pointers, so we can use shorter names and to let gcc >>> + * check the correct type. We don't want to inadvertently use an int as >>> + * unsigned int and so on... >>> + */ >>> + agcount = &opts[OPT_D].subopt_params[D_AGCOUNT].value.uint64; >> >> That's .... an interesting interpretation.... >> >> What I intended was replacing all the uses of the agcount variable >> with calls like: >> >> get_config_val(OPT_D, D_AGCOUNT) >> >> [....] >> >>> transformed the variables into pointers in the patchset). But at least >>> it could be possible to catch an incorrect type use easily, something >>> we couldn't do in the macro: >>> >>> int get_opt_int(opt, sub) >>> { >>> if (opts[opt].subopt_params[sub].type != INT) >>> print an error and exit(); >>> return opts[opt].subopt_params[sub].value.int; >>> } >> >> Yes, but why do we need to add type checking like this? It seems to >> me that you're trying to over-engineer a simple thing that does not >> need to be complex. For options with integer/flag values: >> >> /* return default value if nothing specified on the CLI */ >> static inline uint64_t >> get_config_val(int opt, int subopt) >> { >> if (!opts[opt].subopt_params[subopt].seen) >> return opts[opt].subopt_params[subopt].defaultval; >> return opts[opt].subopt_params[subopt].value; >> } >> >> And for options that are strings (e.g. device names): >> >> static inline char * >> get_config_str(int opt, int subopt) >> { >> if (!opts[opt].subopt_params[subopt].str_seen) >> return NULL; >> return opts[opt].subopt_params[subopt].string; >> } >> >> That's all that is necessary. The config table is guaranteed to >> contain valid default values, and by the time we get to checking >> options we've done all the conflict/validity checking so we can >> trust the config settings to be valid and just use them directly >> like this. >> > > Yes, but to be able to do this, we have to remove the other numeric > types. As long we have int, uint, various sizes... then there isn't an > overarching data type that can be used, so we either lose part of the > value range, or we need multiple functions. If we have only the > uint64, then this works. > >>> >> + __uint64_t *dswidth, >>> >> + __uint64_t *lsunit) >>> > >>> > My, what big raid stripes you have! ;) >>> >>> Well, yes, 64 bits is not necessary here, but I would say that having >>> just one size of uint removes some (even if small) ambiguity, while >>> performance-wise, it won't do anything noticeable. >> >> However, it makes me cringe when I read code written like this. You >> say it removes ambiguity but to me, after more than 20 years of C >> coding using appropriate types for variable contents, using uint64_t >> for all variables (especially those that don't require 64 bit types) >> introduces ambiguity and raises questions about the code quality. >> >> e.g. declaring a flag as boolean means the author intended it to >> only have two values (i.e. it's self documenting then intent of a >> flag value!) whereas declaring them all as uint64_t makes me wonder >> why the author of this code didn't know what the valid value range >> for this variable is, why none of the reviewers cared either, what >> happens if I put a really large value into the field instead of 0 or >> 1, if that was tested, etc. Using the right type removes all this >> potential ambiguity in the use/value of the variables..... > > The boolean flag is something I acknowledged in my previous email; it > indeed makes sense to keep that as a boolean. With other types though, > that goes against the idea of a single get_config_val(). Pinging this a bit. I changed all the flags to bool - these shouldn't be an issue now. How about the other options like dswidth, though? Is it ok if those are kept uint64? And I'm not sure whether to use uint64_t or __uint64_t - as I wrote before, I picked the __uint64_t because it was already used in this file and is defined in xfs_linux.h, but I'm open to change it if it is a legacy type and standard uint64_t is preferred... Thanks. Cheers, Jan -- Jan Tulak jtulak@redhat.com / jan@tulak.me