linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 07/12] Compiler Attributes: remove unneeded sparse (__CHECKER_

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Date:   Wed, 5 Sep 2018 21:49:01 +0200
From:   Luc Van Oostenryck <luc.vanoostenryck@...il.com>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>,
        Miguel Ojeda <miguel.ojeda.sandonis@...il.com>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Rasmus Villemoes <linux@...musvillemoes.dk>,
        efriedma@...eaurora.org, Christopher Li <sparse@...isli.org>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@...ux-m68k.org>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@...ionext.com>,
        Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>,
        Dominique Martinet <asmadeus@...ewreck.org>,
        Sparse Mailing-list <linux-sparse@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 07/12] Compiler Attributes: remove unneeded sparse
 (__CHECKER__) tests

On Wed, Sep 05, 2018 at 12:40:26PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 5, 2018 at 12:30 PM Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org> wrote:
> >
> > Unlike GCC, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to assume a
> > *relatively* recent version of Sparse.
> 
> Yeah, sparse is small and easy to build and installs in your own
> ~/bin/ directory by default.
> 
> Anybody who can build the kernel can trivially fetch and build sparse
> in seconds.  It literally builds from scratch in 2.5s for me.
> 
> I don't think you even need any development packages that you don't
> already need for the kernel. Just a C compiler and libc, basically.
> 
> Sure, some parts of sparse can use things like libxml and llvm and
> even gtk, but that's for functionality that the "check kernel with
> sparse" doesn't even need, and the makefile will automatically disable
> them if you don't have it installed.
> 
> So if people are having trouble, just point them to the sparse repo,
> and tell them that
> 
>     git clone ...
>     cd sparse
>     make -j8
>     make install
> 
> fixes the issue in 30 seconds.
> 
> Although maybe I'm misstating just how easy sparse is to build and
> install, and people have had problems?
> 

I never heard of anyone having a problem to build sparse but I
guess that a lot of people just use their distro's version.

That said, I'm of course, all for encouraging people to upgrad
to a recent version.


-- Luc