linux-kernel - Is casting a void ptr to something else considered bad kernel coding style

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Message-ID: <CAH2r5msuc3-1V+dh5NdwnE6uBoN+7_cf=m6kwrFrTnwArND0LQ@mail.gmail.com>
Date:   Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:00:19 -0500
From:   Steve French <smfrench@...il.com>
To:     LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        kernel-janitors <kernel-janitors@...r.kernel.org>
Cc:     Yu Zhe <yuzhe@...china.com>
Subject: Is casting a void ptr to something else considered bad kernel coding style

For examples like this where a pointer which is (void *) is cast to
something else, is this considered bad coding style in kernel C
programming?

It may be that leaving the (unnecessary) cast in, although it is not
required for C, makes the code clearer in some cases.

Any opinions on changes to remove casts of void pointers for kernel
code (which I have recently seen suggested)?

for example:

--- a/fs/cifs/smb2pdu.c
+++ b/fs/cifs/smb2pdu.c
@@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ fill_small_buf(__le16 smb2_command, struct cifs_tcon *tcon,
               void *buf,
               unsigned int *total_len)
 {
-       struct smb2_pdu *spdu = (struct smb2_pdu *)buf;
+       struct smb2_pdu *spdu = buf;

-- 
Thanks,

Steve