linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] kobject: make sure kobj->ktype is set before kobject

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Date:	Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:05:29 -0500 (EST)
From:	Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>
To:	Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@...y.org>
cc:	Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@...ibm.com>, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>,
	Kernel development list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
	Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@...cle.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] kobject: make sure kobj->ktype is set before kobject_init

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Kay Sievers wrote:

> Your error scenario confirmed my initial concern about suggesting
> kobject_put() to clean up an initialized kobject.
> 
> We should probably make kobject_cleanup() free only the resources taken
> by kobject_init(), and use kobject_cleanup() instead of kobject_put()?

My conclusion is different.  We should make kobject_init() not consume
any resources at all; just initialize various fields.  That way it
would be okay to call either kfree() or kobject_put() on an initialized
kobject.  And then when something like device_register() fails, the
caller would know the proper thing to do would be to call the put()  
routine, always.

Of course, once the name has been assigned, only kobject_put() should
be used.

There's another good reason for not assigning the name in
kobject_init(): Code that uses kobjects (like the driver core) doesn't
set the name until later.

Alan Stern

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