linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] scsi: megaraid_mbox: return -ENOMEM on megaraid_init

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Message-ID: <cf8da58-de8b-e171-5a40-2b10983d447@linux-m68k.org>
Date:   Thu, 21 Oct 2021 09:50:26 +1100 (AEDT)
From:   Finn Thain <fthain@...ux-m68k.org>
To:     James Bottomley <jejb@...ux.ibm.com>
cc:     Jiapeng Chong <jiapeng.chong@...ux.alibaba.com>,
        kashyap.desai@...adcom.com, sumit.saxena@...adcom.com,
        shivasharan.srikanteshwara@...adcom.com,
        martin.petersen@...cle.com, megaraidlinux.pdl@...adcom.com,
        linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] scsi: megaraid_mbox: return -ENOMEM on megaraid_init_mbox()
 allocation failure

On Wed, 20 Oct 2021, James Bottomley wrote:

> > 
> > ... and arguably they would be correct.
> 
> Well, yes ... that's why I don't want one "fix" that generates a 
> cascading sequence of further "fixes".
> 

OTOH, if you don't "fix" it, it generates a cascading sequence of 
copy-and-paste antipatterns in new code, and poor training data for those 
of us reading old code.

Anyway, I agree that the churn would be too risky. But it sure would be 
nice if automatic tools were able to perform a program transformation of 
this kind at the source level, being that the compiler will surely do it 
anyway at a lower level.

There's a lot to be said for source code that reflects the compiler's 
understanding of the logic, rather than the human's.