linux-kernel - Re: Follow-up on Linux-kernel code accessibility

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Message-ID: <20251226115136.7107fa1e@gandalf.local.home>
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2025 11:51:36 -0500
From: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
To: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org>
Cc: Sasha Levin <sashal@...nel.org>, Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu>, Julia
 Lawall <julia.lawall@...ia.fr>, Gabriele Paoloni <gpaoloni@...hat.com>,
 Kate Stewart <kstewart@...uxfoundation.org>, Chuck Wolber
 <chuckwolber@...il.com>, Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@...gle.com>, Mark Rutland
 <mark.rutland@....com>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, Lorenzo
 Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>, Shuah Khan
 <skhan@...uxfoundation.org>, Chris Mason <clm@...a.com>,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Follow-up on Linux-kernel code accessibility

On Thu, 25 Dec 2025 10:18:20 -0800
"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org> wrote:

> > I'm not sure what you mean by "walkthroughs". AI can help give a general
> > idea on code, but it still needs the author of the code to verify it.  
> 
> So let's kill two birds with one stone.  Let's arrange a walkthrough
> of this code (starting from its calling function rcu_gp_kthread() some
> time after the new year.  That will show you how a walkthrough works
> (or at least one walkthrough method) and also answer your questions
> about the variable "j".

Sure, I'll be up for that.

> > There's a bit of magical manipulation of "j" that I have no idea why it's
> > doing that. ;-)  
> 
> Back in the old days, I used to put inline comments on local variables,
> but this practice did not spark joy in the Linux kernel community back
> in the very early 2000s.

Matters how much comments that was I guess. And how useful they were.
Today, I believe people want comments. The kernel is much more complex
today then it was back in the early 2000s.

> 
> So another question for our walkthrough:  Should this practice be
> introduced into the Linux kernel?

I can't answer that until after the walkthrough ;-)

> 
> > I would love if Julia or Gabriele came up with some specification for that
> > function.  
> 
> Sounds like a worthy challenge to me!  Me, I would open it up to all
> comers, but I was clearly willing to give Julia and Gabriele a one-day
> head start, even if it was rather inconveniently timed.  ;-)

I'll let them speak for themselves.

-- Steve