linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] fs: Fix typo in comment of link_path

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Message-ID: <aB_A6jiLNBwpeNsJ@casper.infradead.org>
Date: Sat, 10 May 2025 22:11:06 +0100
From: Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
To: Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: I Hsin Cheng <richard120310@...il.com>, brauner@...nel.org,
	jack@...e.cz, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, skhan@...uxfoundation.org,
	linux-kernel-mentees@...ts.linux.dev
Subject: Re: [PATCH] fs: Fix typo in comment of link_path_walk()

On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 01:08:35PM +0100, Al Viro wrote:
> On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 06:46:32PM +0800, I Hsin Cheng wrote:
> > Fix "NUL" to "NULL".
> > 
> > Fixes: 200e9ef7ab51 ("vfs: split up name hashing in link_path_walk() into helper function")
> 
> Not a typo.  And think for a second about the meaning of
> so "fixed" sentence - NUL and '/' are mutually exclusive
> alternatives; both are characters.  NULL is a pointer and
> makes no sense whatsoever in that context.

fwiw, C refers to strings as being 'null terminated' rather than NUL
terminated.  eg 5.2.1:

"A byte with all bits set to 0, called the null character, shall exist
in the basic execution character set; it is used to terminate a character
string."

so NULL-terminated is incorrect because it uses the wrong case.  All this
to sau. I Hsin Cheng, please do not submit patches "correcting" comments
in the other direction (ie changing NULL to NUL).  They aren't
ambiguous.