linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 3/3] x86: OLPC: speed up device tree creation during boot (v2)

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20101118094153.4515cbc2@queued.net>
Date:	Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:41:53 -0800
From:	Andres Salomon <dilinger@...ued.net>
To:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
Cc:	michael@...erman.id.au, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	devicetree-discuss@...ts.ozlabs.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Milton Miller <miltonm@....com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/3] x86: OLPC: speed up device tree creation during
 boot (v2)

On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:04:04 -0800
"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com> wrote:

> On 11/18/2010 03:02 AM, Michael Ellerman wrote:
> > On Thu, 2010-11-18 at 09:34 +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> >>
> >> Look at the general balance of hardship: very little harm is done
> >> (it's not a big deal if a variable is only used in a single
> >> function) but having it with local variables can be _really_
> >> harmful - for example i overlooked them when i reviewed this
> >> patch. I dont like important details obscured - i like them to be
> >> apparent. Again, this is something that some people can parse
> >> immediately on the visual level 
> >> - me and many others cannot.
> > 
> 
> No, sorry, this sounds like a personal preference that is well out of
> line with the vast majority of C programmers I've ever come across,
> not just in the Linux kernel world but outside of it.


This is actually one of the reasons I specifically like initialized
static variables (inside of functions).  Take the following code:

int foo(void)
{
	static char *frob = NULL;
	int p;

	if (frob) {
		...
	}


Upon seeing that and thinking "whoa, how could frob be
initialized and then checked?", I realize that it's either a bug or I
look back at the initialization and realize that frob is static.  It's
less obvious (to me) with non-explicit initialization.
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/