Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] lib/vsprintf: Split out sprintf() and friends

From: Andy Shevchenko
Date: Mon Aug 14 2023 - 07:19:51 EST


On Fri, Aug 11, 2023 at 03:28:17PM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Aug 2023 16:17:57 +0200
> Rasmus Villemoes <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > > Btw, it's easy to enforce IIUC, i.e. by dropping
> > >
> > > #ifndef _FOO_H
> > > #define _FOO_H
> > > #endif
> > >
> > > mantra from the headers.
> >
> > No, you can't do that, because some headers legitimately include other
> > headers, often for type definitions. Say some struct definition where
> > one of the members is another struct (struct list_head being an obvious
> > example). Or a static inline function.
> >
> > We _also_ don't want to force everybody who includes a.h to ensure that
> > they first include b.h because something in a.h needs stuff from b.h.
> >
> > So include guards must be used. They are a so well-known idiom that gcc
> > even has special code for handling them: If everything in a foo.h file
> > except comments is inside an ifndef/define/endif, gcc remembers that
> > that foo.h file has such an include guard, so when gcc then encounters
> > some #include directive that would again resolve to that same foo.h, and
> > the include guard hasn't been #undef'ed, it doesn't even do the syscalls
> > to open/read/close the file again.
>
> I hope Andy was just joking with that recommendation.

Too radical to be true to implement. But it's always good to have a rationale
(thanks Rasmus) behind existing approach.

--
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko