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

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Message-ID: <6f88c8ba-d925-4ce7-8536-d2fcbefdf97a@lucifer.local>
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:07:41 +0000
From: Lorenzo Stoakes <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>
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 Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 04:05:39PM +0100, Vlastimil Babka wrote:
> 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
>

Yup, on balance I thought probably best to add so did so.