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authorJean Delvare <jdelvare@suse.de>2016-07-25 14:29:06 +0200
committerJonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>2016-08-14 12:28:06 -0600
commit865a1caa4b6b886babdd9d67e7c3608be4567a51 (patch)
tree9c4a2e0d96500f242364e0922aed787c2ed3338a /Documentation/CodingStyle
parent35db7e94cdee495673360f449cdae726d5576ab7 (diff)
downloadlinux-865a1caa4b6b886babdd9d67e7c3608be4567a51.tar.bz2
CodingStyle: Clarify and complete chapter 7
Chapter 7 (Centralized exiting of functions) of the coding style documentation is unclear at times, and lacks some information (such as the possibility to indent labels with a single space.) Clarify and complete it. Signed-off-by: Jean Delvare <jdelvare@suse.de> Cc: Markus Elfring <elfring@users.sourceforge.net> Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/CodingStyle')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/CodingStyle25
1 files changed, 19 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/CodingStyle b/Documentation/CodingStyle
index a096836723ca..784226e396fe 100644
--- a/Documentation/CodingStyle
+++ b/Documentation/CodingStyle
@@ -396,9 +396,13 @@ locations and some common work such as cleanup has to be done. If there is no
cleanup needed then just return directly.
Choose label names which say what the goto does or why the goto exists. An
-example of a good name could be "out_buffer:" if the goto frees "buffer". Avoid
-using GW-BASIC names like "err1:" and "err2:". Also don't name them after the
-goto location like "err_kmalloc_failed:"
+example of a good name could be "out_free_buffer:" if the goto frees "buffer".
+Avoid using GW-BASIC names like "err1:" and "err2:", as you would have to
+renumber them if you ever add or remove exit paths, and they make correctness
+difficult to verify anyway.
+
+It is advised to indent labels with a single space (not tab), so that
+"diff -p" does not confuse labels with functions.
The rationale for using gotos is:
@@ -425,20 +429,29 @@ The rationale for using gotos is:
goto out_buffer;
}
...
- out_buffer:
+ out_free_buffer:
kfree(buffer);
return result;
}
A common type of bug to be aware of is "one err bugs" which look like this:
- err:
+ err:
kfree(foo->bar);
kfree(foo);
return ret;
The bug in this code is that on some exit paths "foo" is NULL. Normally the
-fix for this is to split it up into two error labels "err_bar:" and "err_foo:".
+fix for this is to split it up into two error labels "err_free_bar:" and
+"err_free_foo:":
+
+ err_free_bar:
+ kfree(foo->bar);
+ err_free_foo:
+ kfree(foo);
+ return ret;
+
+Ideally you should simulate errors to test all exit paths.
Chapter 8: Commenting