linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 1/5] firmware: fix _

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Date:	Tue, 12 May 2015 13:31:58 -0700
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...not-panic.com>
Cc:	Ming Lei <ming.lei@...onical.com>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>,
	Seth Forshee <seth.forshee@...onical.com>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Paul Bolle <pebolle@...cali.nl>,
	Linux Wireless List <linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org>,
	"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...e.com>,
	Kyle McMartin <kyle@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/5] firmware: fix __getname() missing failure check

On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 11:30 AM, Luis R. Rodriguez
<mcgrof@...not-panic.com> wrote:
> +
> +       path = __getname();
> +       if (unlikely(!path))
> +               return PTR_ERR(path);

This makes no sense.

PTR_ERR() on NULL is an insane operation. It's a very non-intuitive
and misleading way of writing "0".

So not only is that "return 0;", that's not likely what you want _anyway_.

If you intended to return an error, you should just have done so, eg

        if (unlikely(!path))
                return -ENOMEM;

which actually does something sane, and is more readable.

PTR_ERR() is for when you get an error pointer, so a sequence like

        if (IS_ERR(ptr))
                return PTR_ERR(ptr);

is sensible (it checks whether the ptr has an error value in it, and
then returns the integer error value of the pointer).

But for a NULL pointer? No.

                       Linus
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