linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH RESEND v3 03/10] mm/vma: rename is_vma_write

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Message-ID: <8d0b797d-6cdd-4ba7-a6f2-313f51500884@suse.cz>
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:05:39 +0100
From: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>
To: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>
Cc: Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>,
 Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
 David Hildenbrand <david@...nel.org>,
 "Liam R . Howlett" <Liam.Howlett@...cle.com>, Mike Rapoport
 <rppt@...nel.org>, Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>,
 Shakeel Butt <shakeel.butt@...ux.dev>, Jann Horn <jannh@...gle.com>,
 linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-rt-devel@...ts.linux.dev, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
 Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
 Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>, Waiman Long <longman@...hat.com>,
 Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>,
 Clark Williams <clrkwllms@...nel.org>, Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH RESEND v3 03/10] mm/vma: rename is_vma_write_only(),
 separate out shared refcount put

On 1/23/26 15:52, Lorenzo Stoakes wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 09:24:54AM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> 
> That's kind of horrible?
> 
> The lockref_put_return() seems to encode even more in it:
> 
> /**
>  * lockref_put_return - Decrement reference count if possible
>  * @lockref: pointer to lockref structure
>  *
>  * Decrement the reference count and return the new value.
>  * If the lockref was dead or locked, return -1.
>  */
> 
> But I guess it's still returning, it's just a weird convention, and not one
> refcount uses, but perhaps because that uses output parameters.

Oops I missed that -1 detail in that one, didn't mean to copy that part.

> I'll rename it I guess on the atomic basis but I just find the idea of
> suffixing 'return' on a function that returns a value really... horrible.

It's because I though it's common that things called _put() either return
nothing, or if they return 1/true it means "that was the last ref, we
removed" and this is returning something else.

But I admit it's just my feeling, there's e.g. kref_put() like this but I
haven't done a full research.

> Thanks, Lorenzo