linux-hardening - Re: [PATCH -next 2/4] tun: Make use of str_disabled

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Message-ID: <ZtcmjI-C3zfqjooc@smile.fi.intel.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2024 18:09:00 +0300
From: Andy Shevchenko <andy@...nel.org>
To: Hongbo Li <lihongbo22@...wei.com>
Cc: Willem de Bruijn <willemdebruijn.kernel@...il.com>,
	Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, kees@...nel.org,
	jasowang@...hat.com, davem@...emloft.net, edumazet@...gle.com,
	pabeni@...hat.com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
	linux-hardening@...r.kernel.org, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-mm@...ck.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH -next 2/4] tun: Make use of str_disabled_enabled helper

On Tue, Sep 03, 2024 at 02:25:53PM +0800, Hongbo Li wrote:
> On 2024/9/2 22:30, Willem de Bruijn wrote:
> > Andy Shevchenko wrote:
> > > On Sat, Aug 31, 2024 at 01:07:41PM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> > > > On Sat, 31 Aug 2024 17:58:38 +0800 Hongbo Li wrote:

...

> > > > >   		netif_info(tun, drv, tun->dev, "ignored: set checksum %s\n",
> > > > > -			   arg ? "disabled" : "enabled");
> > > > > +			   str_disabled_enabled(arg));
> > > > 
> > > > You don't explain the 'why'. How is this an improvement?
> > > > nack on this and 2 similar networking changes you sent
> > > 
> > > Side opinion: This makes the messages more unified and not prone to typos
> > > and/or grammatical mistakes. Unification allows to shrink binary due to
> > > linker efforts on string literals deduplication.
> > 
> > This adds a layer of indirection.
> > 
> > The original code is immediately obvious. When I see the new code I
> > have to take a detour through cscope to figure out what it does.
> If they have used it once, there is no need for more jumps, because it's
> relatively simple.
> 
> Using a dedicated function seems very elegant and unified, especially for
> some string printing situations, such as disable/enable. Even in today's
> kernel tree, there are several different formats that appear:
> 'enable/disable', 'enabled/disabled', 'en/dis'.

Not to mention that the longer word is the more error prone the spelling.

> > To me, in this case, the benefit is too marginal to justify that.

Hongbo, perhaps you need to add a top comment to the string_choices.h to
explain the following:
1) the convention to use is str_$TRUE_$FALSE(), where $TRUE and $FALSE the
respective words printed;
2) the pros of having unified output,
3) including but not limited to the linker deduplication facilities, making
the binary smaller.

With that you may always point people to the ad-hoc documentation.

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko