netdev - Re: [PATCH *-next 00/18] Remove weird and needless 'return' for void APIs

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Message-ID: <46d17d84-5298-4460-96b0-9c62672167a0@icloud.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2025 20:48:19 +0800
From: Zijun Hu <zijun_hu@...oud.com>
To: Zijun Hu <quic_zijuhu@...cinc.com>,
 Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
 Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>, "Aneesh Kumar K.V" <aneesh.kumar@...nel.org>,
 Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, Nick Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
 Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
 Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
 Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>,
 "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
 "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael@...nel.org>, Danilo Krummrich <dakr@...nel.org>,
 Eric Dumazet <edumazet@...gle.com>, Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>,
 Paolo Abeni <pabeni@...hat.com>, Simon Horman <horms@...nel.org>,
 Johannes Berg <johannes@...solutions.net>,
 Jamal Hadi Salim <jhs@...atatu.com>, Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@...il.com>,
 Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>, Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@...pe.ca>,
 Leon Romanovsky <leon@...nel.org>, Linus Walleij <linus.walleij@...aro.org>,
 Bartosz Golaszewski <brgl@...ev.pl>, Lee Jones <lee@...nel.org>,
 Thomas Graf <tgraf@...g.ch>, Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
 Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@...sung.com>,
 Robin Murphy <robin.murphy@....com>,
 Miquel Raynal <miquel.raynal@...tlin.com>,
 Richard Weinberger <richard@....at>, Vignesh Raghavendra <vigneshr@...com>
Cc: linux-arch@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org,
 netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-wireless@...r.kernel.org,
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 linux-pm@...r.kernel.org, iommu@...ts.linux.dev,
 linux-mtd@...ts.infradead.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH *-next 00/18] Remove weird and needless 'return' for void
 APIs

On 2025/2/21 21:02, Zijun Hu wrote:
> void api_func_a(...);
> 
> static inline void api_func_b(...)
> {
> 	return api_func_a(...);
> }

The Usage : Return void function in void function

IMO, perhaps, the usage is not good since:

A) STD C does not like the usage, and i find GCC has no description
about the usage.
   C11/C17: 6.8.6.4 The return statement
   "A return statement with an expression shall not appear in a
function whose return type is void"

B) According to discussion, the usage have function that return type
   of the callee api_func_a() is monitored. but this function has below
shortcoming as well:

the monitor is not needed if the caller api_func_b() is in the same
module with the callee api_func_a(), otherwise, provided the callee is
a API and provided by author of other module. the author needs to clean
up lot of usages of the API if he/she changes the API's return type from
void to any other type, so it is not nice to API provider.

C) perhaps, most ordinary developers don't known the function mentioned
   by B), and also feel strange for the usage