linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] kvm: x86: mmu: Add cast to negated bitmasks in update_permission

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Date:   Tue, 19 Jun 2018 11:07:47 -0700
From:   Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>
To:     Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@...gle.com>
Cc:     Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@...omium.org>, rkrcmar@...hat.com,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, hpa@...or.com,
        x86@...nel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] kvm: x86: mmu: Add cast to negated bitmasks in
 update_permission_bitmask()

On Tue, 2018-06-19 at 19:35 +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> On 19/06/2018 19:23, Joe Perches wrote:
> > On Tue, 2018-06-19 at 10:08 -0700, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 8:19 AM Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > On 15/06/2018 20:45, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > > In any case I think it it preferable to fix the code over disabling
> > > > > > > the warning, unless the warning is bogus or there are just too many
> > > > > > > occurrences.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Maybe.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Spurious warning today, actual bug tomorrow?  I prefer to not to
> > > > > disable warnings wholesale.  They don't need to find actual bugs to be
> > > > > useful.  Flagging code that can be further specified does not hurt.
> > > > > Part of the effort to compile the kernel with different compilers is
> > > > > to add warning coverage, not remove it.  That said, there may be
> > > > > warnings that are never useful (or at least due to some invariant that
> > > > > only affects the kernel).  I cant think of any off the top of my head,
> > > > > but I'm also not sure this is one.
> > > > 
> > > > This one really makes the code uglier though, so I'm not really inclined
> > > > to applying the patch.
> > > 
> > > Note that of the three variables (w, u, x), only u is used later on.
> > > What about declaring them as negated with the cast, that way there's
> > > no cast in a ternary?
> > 
> > It'd be simpler to cast in the BYTE_MASK macro itself
> 
> I don't think that would work, as the ~ would be done on a zero-extended
> signed int.

True, but the whole concept is dubious.
The implicit casts are all over the place,
not just in the file.