linux-kernel - Re: Clarifying confusion of our variable placement rules caused by cleanup.h

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Message-ID: <20260118110454.4d51a50a@robin>
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:04:54 -0500
From: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
To: Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com>
Cc: Andy Shevchenko <andriy.shevchenko@...el.com>, James Bottomley
 <James.Bottomley@...senpartnership.com>, ksummit@...ts.linux.dev, Dan
 Williams <dan.j.williams@...el.com>, linux-kernel
 <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, Dan Carpenter <dan.carpenter@...aro.org>
Subject: Re: Clarifying confusion of our variable placement rules caused by
 cleanup.h

On Sat, 17 Jan 2026 19:23:07 +0300
Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com> wrote:

> Such rules for headers are mostly harmless -- headers are supposed to be
> idempotent so ordering doesn't matter. But if ordering doesn't matter
> why have a rule at all?

As I mentioned, for aesthetic reasons only. If code is easy to look at,
it's easier to review. Especially for those with OCD ;-)

> 
> Duplicate header are trivially caught by tooling.
> 
> But such rules aren't useful either -- I've seen that Python IDEs hide
> import list by default (and probably manage it) because it is not "real"
> code.
> 
> Rules for initializers can be harmful because ordering affects code
> generation.

I agree. I still prefer the upside-down x-mas tree approach for
declaring variables, but obviously if they also get initialized, then
that trumps aesthetic reasoning.

-- Steve