Subject: Re: linux-next: build warning after merge of the tip tree

From: Randy Dunlap <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 14:10:28 -0800

On 1/7/26 1:54 PM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 04:15:48PM +1100, Stephen Rothwell wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> After merging the tip tree, today's linux-next build (htmldocs) produced
>> this warning:
>>
>> Documentation/core-api/kref:328: include/linux/kref.h:72: WARNING: Invalid C declaration: Expected end of definition. [error at 96]
>>   int kref_put_mutex (struct kref *kref, void (*release)(struct kref *kref), str
>> uct mutex *mutex) __cond_acquires(true# mutex)
>>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------^
>> Documentation/core-api/kref:328: include/linux/kref.h:94: WARNING: Invalid C declaration: Expected end of definition. [error at 92]
>>   int kref_put_lock (struct kref *kref, void (*release)(struct kref *kref), spinlock_t *lock) __cond_acquires(true# lock)
>>   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------^
>>
>> Introduced by commit
>>
>>   5e256db9325e ("kref: Add context-analysis annotations")
> 
> I really have no clue what that thing is on about. The code is fine and
> works as intended.
> 
> My go-to fix for anything kdoc is to change '/**' into '/*' until it
> goes away.

Yes, that works.

I think that kernel-doc is just confused by the trailing __cond_acquires(true# lock).

Mauro, would you take a look, please?

-- 
~Randy