linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] Cast removal

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Date:	Fri, 6 Oct 2006 07:34:05 +0200 (MEST)
From:	Jan Engelhardt <jengelh@...ux01.gwdg.de>
To:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>
cc:	"Moore, Robert" <robert.moore@...el.com>,
	Len Brown <lenb@...nel.org>,
	"Brown, Len" <len.brown@...el.com>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	ACPI List <linux-acpi@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Cast removal

>> I find this one interesting, as we've put a number of them into the
>> ACPICA core:
>> 
>> -	(void) kmem_cache_destroy(cache);
>> +	kmem_cache_destroy(cache);
>> 
>> I believe that the point of the (void) is to prevent lint from
>> squawking, and perhaps some picky ANSI-C compilers. What is the overall
>> Linux policy on this?
>
>policy = not;
>
>But there's quite a lot of it in the tree.

So what to do? GCC does not squawk, and instead has 
__attribute__((warn_unused_result)) in case someone should be made aware 
that a certain return value really needs to be examined.

Not even the Turbo C/C++ compiler from 1990 requires either of 
from/to-void* or to-void casts.

>Actually..  kmem_cache_destroy() returns void, so any checker which complains
>about the missing cast needs a stern talking to.

Ok, so the (void) can definitely go away for functions that actually 
return void, but what for the others? I am inclined that all lints 
should be fixed, or be sort-of discarded, since linting is slowly going 
back into [at least one] compiler.

	-`J'
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