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

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Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.0.999.0708012051100.3582@woody.linux-foundation.org>
Date:	Wed, 1 Aug 2007 20:56:13 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu>
cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] type safe allocator

On Wed, 1 Aug 2007, Miklos Szeredi wrote:
>
> I wonder why we don't have type safe object allocators a-la new() in
> C++ or g_new() in glib?
> 
>   fooptr = k_new(struct foo, GFP_KERNEL);

I would object to this if only because of the horrible name.

C++ is not a good language to take ideas from, and "new()" was not it's 
best feature to begin with. "k_new()" is just disgusting.

I'd call it something like "alloc_struct()" instead, which tells you 
exactly what it's all about. Especially since we try to avoid typedefs in 
the kernel, and as a result, it's basically almost always a struct thing.

That said, I'm not at all sure it's worth it. Especially not with all the 
various variations on a theme (zeroed, arrays, etc etc).

Quite frankly, I suspect you would be better off just instrumenting 
"sparse" instead, and matching up the size of the allocation with the type 
it gets assigned to.

		Linus
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