From: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
To: Mathieu Poirier <mathieu.poirier@linaro.org>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>,
linux-arm-kernel <linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org>,
Suzuki K Poulose <suzuki.poulose@arm.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] coresight: cpu-debug: no need to check return value of debugfs_create functions
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2019 19:52:35 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20190618175235.GA23154@kroah.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20190618174637.GC3649@kroah.com>
On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 07:46:37PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 18, 2019 at 11:23:25AM -0600, Mathieu Poirier wrote:
> > Hi Greg,
> >
> > On Tue, 18 Jun 2019 at 09:52, Greg Kroah-Hartman
> > <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > When calling debugfs functions, there is no need to ever check the
> > > return value. The function can work or not, but the code logic should
> > > never do something different based on this.
> >
> > Looking around in the kernel there is no shortage of instances where
> > the return value of debugfs functions are checked and the logic
> > altered based on these values. But there are also just as many that
> > don't... It also seems counter intuitive to ignore the return value
> > of any function, something that in most case is guaranteed to raise
> > admonition.
>
> In my tree, those instances are almost all gone. I've also posted over
> 100+ patches in the past few weeks to clean this up.
>
> > That being said I am sure there is a good reason to support your
> > position - would you mind expanding a little so that I can follow?
>
> No kernel code should ever care if debugfs works or not. No user code
> should ever require it for normal operation either. debugfs was written
> to be simple and easy to use, no need to check any return values at all.
>
> Any return value of a debugfs call can be fed back into another call
> with no issues at all.
>
> Also, due to some debugfs core changes a few kernel releases ago, the
> checks:
> if (!debug_debugfs_dir) {
> ...
> if (!file) {
> can never trigger as debugfs_create_dir() or debugfs_create_file() can
> never return NULL (and in the past, it almost never would either). So
> as it is, that code isn't correct anyway (my fault, I know, hey, I'm
> trying to fix it!)
>
> I'm trying to make things simple, and easy, and impossible to get wrong.
> I know it goes against the normal "robust" kernel development mentality,
> but there is no need to ever care about debugfs at all.
>
> The reason I started all of this is that we have found places where
> userspace, and the kernel, was depending on the proper operation of
> debugfs. In one horrid example, a device would not display the batter
> level if debugfs was disabled. In another case, the kernel was actually
> relying on a debugfs call to fail in order to handle some logic the
> subsystem should have been doing on its own. All of that has now been
> cleaned up, and I am working on making debugfs just not return any
> values at all to prevent this type of mess happening again.
>
> And hey, I am removing code, here's my current tree as a diff from
> what is not already merged into linux-next:
> 301 files changed, 1394 insertions(+), 4637 deletions(-)
> that's always a good thing :)
Oh, forgot the pointer to the tree:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/driver-core.git/log/?h=debugfs_cleanup
this is all public, just not in linux-next as it's being fed through 50+
different subsystem trees.
thanks,
greg k-h
_______________________________________________
linux-arm-kernel mailing list
linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-arm-kernel
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-06-18 17:52 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-06-18 15:52 [PATCH] coresight: cpu-debug: no need to check return value of debugfs_create functions Greg Kroah-Hartman
2019-06-18 17:23 ` Mathieu Poirier
2019-06-18 17:46 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2019-06-18 17:52 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman [this message]
2019-06-18 19:26 ` Mathieu Poirier
2019-06-19 15:27 ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20190618175235.GA23154@kroah.com \
--to=gregkh@linuxfoundation.org \
--cc=alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com \
--cc=linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org \
--cc=mathieu.poirier@linaro.org \
--cc=suzuki.poulose@arm.com \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).