Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] linux/kernel.h: add yesno(), onoff(), enableddisabled(), plural() helpers

From: Jani Nikula <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2019 13:47:52 +0300

On Wed, 04 Sep 2019, Rasmus Villemoes <[email-masked]> wrote:
> On 03/09/2019 15.37, Jani Nikula wrote:
>
>> While the main goal here is to abstract recurring patterns, and slightly
>> clean up the code base by not open coding the ternary operators, there
>> are also some space savings to be had via better string constant
>> pooling.
>
> Eh, no? The linker does that across translation units anyway - moreover,
> given that you make them static inlines, "yes" and "no" will still live
> in .rodata.strX.Y in each individual TU that uses the yesno() helper.

I should've been more careful there; this allows us to do better
constant pooling but does not actually deliver on that here. You'd need
to return pointers to strings in the kernel image. The linker can't
constant pool across modules by itself.

Anyway, that was not the main point here.

> The enableddisabled() is a mouthful, perhaps the helpers should have an
> underscore between the choices
>
> yes_no()
> enabled_disabled()
> on_off()
>
> ?

I'm replacing existing functions that are being used in the kernel
already.

$ git grep "[^a-zA-Z0-9_]\(yesno\|onoff\|enableddisabled\)(" | wc -l
241

Not keen on renaming all of them.

>>  drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915_utils.h             | 15 -------------
>>  .../ethernet/chelsio/cxgb4/cxgb4_debugfs.c    | 11 ----------
>>  drivers/usb/core/config.c                     |  5 -----
>>  drivers/usb/core/generic.c                    |  5 -----
>>  include/linux/kernel.h                        | 21 +++++++++++++++++++
>
> Pet peeve: Can we please stop using linux/kernel.h as a dumping ground
> for every little utility/helper? That makes each and every translation
> unit in the kernel slightly larger, hence slower to compile. Please make
> a linux/string-choice.h and put them there.

*grin*

In the absense of a natural candidate in include/linux/*.h, I thought
shoving them to kernel.h would provoke the best feedback on where to put
them. A new string-choice.h works for me, thanks. :)

BR,
Jani.

-- 
Jani Nikula, Intel Open Source Graphics Center