Re: [PATCH 5/5] Lib: sort.h: replace int size with size_t size in the swap function

From: George Spelvin
Date: Sat Mar 30 2019 - 16:17:32 EST


On Sat, 30 Mar 2019 at 19:38:26 +0100 greh k-h wrote;
> On Sat, Mar 30, 2019 at 07:43:53PM +0300, Andrey Abramov wrote:
>> Replace int type with size_t type of the size argument
>> in the swap function, also affect all its dependencies.
>
> This says _what_ the patch does, but it gives no clue as to _why_ you
> are doing this. Neither did your 0/5 patch :(
>
> Why make this change? Nothing afterward depends on it from what I can
> tell, so why is it needed?

It's just a minor cleanup, making things less surprising for future
programmers. As I wrote in a comment in my patches, using a signed type
for an object size is definitely a wart; ever since C89 it's expected
you'd use size_t for the purpose.

The connection is that it's a natural consequence of doing a pass over
every call site.

You're right it could be dropped from the series harmlessly, but it
comes from the same work. But it's all of *three* call sites in the kernel
which are affected. Surely that's not an unreasonable amount of churn
to clean up a wart?