linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] type safe allocator

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Date:	Thu, 2 Aug 2007 16:04:06 +0400
From:	"Alexey Dobriyan" <adobriyan@...il.com>
To:	"Miklos Szeredi" <miklos@...redi.hu>
Cc:	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-mm@...ck.org, torvalds@...ux-foundation.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] type safe allocator

On 8/2/07, Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu> wrote:
> The linux kernel doesn't have a type safe object allocator a-la new()
> in C++ or g_new() in glib.
>
> Introduce two helpers for this purpose:
>
>    alloc_struct(type, gfp_flags);
>
>    zalloc_struct(type, gfp_flags);

ick.

> These macros take a type name (usually a 'struct foo') as first
> argument

So one has to type struct twice.

> and the usual gfp-flags as second argument.  They return a
> pointer cast to 'type *'.
>
> The traditional forms of allocating a structure are:
>
>   fooptr = kmalloc(sizeof(*fooptr), ...);
>
>   fooptr = kmalloc(sizeof(struct foo), ...);

Key word is "traditional". Good traditional form which even half-competent
C programmers immediately parse in retina.

> The new form is preferred over these, because of it's type safety and
> more descriptive nature.

> +/**
> + * alloc_struct - allocate given type object
> + * @type: the type of the object to allocate
> + * @flags: the type of memory to allocate.
> + */
> +#define alloc_struct(type, flags) ((type *) kmalloc(sizeof(type), flags))

someone will write alloc_struct(int, GFP_KERNEL), I promise.

Can you play instead with something Lisp based which has infinetely more
potential for idioms.
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