linux-kernel - RE: [PATCH] kbuild: treat char as always signed

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Date:   Wed, 19 Oct 2022 21:07:01 +0000
From:   David Laight <David.Laight@...LAB.COM>
To:     'Linus Torvalds' <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Segher Boessenkool <segher@...nel.crashing.org>
CC:     "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-arch@...r.kernel.org" <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-toolchains@...r.kernel.org" <linux-toolchains@...r.kernel.org>,
        Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@...nel.org>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@...ux.intel.com>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>
Subject: RE: [PATCH] kbuild: treat char as always signed

From: Linus Torvalds
> Sent: 19 October 2022 19:11
...
> Explicit casts are bad (unless, of course, you are explicitly trying
> to violate the type system, when they are both required, and a great
> way to say "look, I'm doing something dangerous").

The worst ones in the kernel are the __force ones for sparse.
They really ought to be a function (#define) so that they
are not seen by the compiler at all.
Otherwise they can hide a multitude of sins.

There are also the casts to convert integer values to/from unsigned.
and to different sized integers.
They all happen far too often and can hide things.
A '+ 0u' will convert into to unsigned int without a cast.
Casts really ought to be rare.
Even the casts to from (void *) (for 'buffers') can usually be
made implicit in a function call argument.

	David

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