Re: [PATCH v1] checkpatch: Check for invalid return codes

From: Joe Perches
Date: Tue Jul 03 2018 - 21:41:02 EST


On Tue, 2018-07-03 at 16:41 -0700, Prakruthi Deepak Heragu wrote:
> The only valid integer return is 0, anything else
> following "return" should be -ERRCODE or a function.

Integer return values can be positive constant and correct.

So perhaps better:

Negative integer return codes should prefer to use #define -<ERRNO>
values instead of negative numbers.

> Also, display context
> so that the user knows where the return value is incorrect.
>
> http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/7/23/318
> There's lots of "return -1;" statements in this patch - it's obscene
> that this is used to indicate "some error occurred" in kernel space
> rather than a real errno value - even when an existing function
> (eg, request_irq) gave you an error code already.

This bit is superfluous and if you are going to quote
someone in a patch commit, it's nice to cc: them.

> Signed-off-by: Patrick Pannuto <ppannuto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Stepan Moskovchenko <stepanm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Prakruthi Deepak Heragu <pheragu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Does it really take 3 people to sign-off on this patch?

> ---
> Changes in v1:
> - Use CHK instead of ERROR
> - Rephrase the warning message
> - Provide the file name and line number where return value is incorrect
>
> scripts/checkpatch.pl | 6 ++++++
> 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> index a9c0550..2808c27 100755
> --- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> +++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl
> @@ -6197,6 +6197,12 @@ sub process {
> "switch default: should use break\n" . $herectx);
> }
>
> +# check for return codes on error paths



> + if ($line =~ /\breturn\s+-\d+/) {
> + CHK("NO_ERROR_CODE",

NO_ERROR_CODE isn't very obvious to me.
How about NEGATIVE_ERRNO or APPROPRIATE_ERRNO

> + "invalid return value, please return -<APPROPRIATE_ERRNO>\n" . $herecurr);
> + }
> +
> # check for gcc specific __FUNCTION__
> if ($line =~ /\b__FUNCTION__\b/) {
> if (WARN("USE_FUNC",