Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 1 Dec 2014 21:34:45 +0100 (CET) | From | Julia Lawall <> | Subject | Re: net-PA Semi: Deletion of unnecessary checks before the function call "pci_dev_put" |
| |
On Mon, 1 Dec 2014, Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Mon, 2014-12-01 at 02:34 +0100, SF Markus Elfring wrote: > > > > Some of those NULL pointer checks on input parameters may have been > > > added subsequently to functions. So there may be older kernel versions > > > out there in which those checks dont exists in some cases. If some of > > > the now "cleaned up" code is backported to such a kernel chances are > > > good that those missing checks are overseen. And then neither caller nor > > > callee is doing the NULL pointer check. > > > I assume that a few backporters can tell you more about their corresponding > > software development experiences. > > http://www.do-not-panic.com/2014/04/automatic-linux-kernel-backporting-with-coccinelle.html > > In such cases we just provide an appropriate wrapper and replace callers > of the original function by callers of the wrapper, typically with a > #define. > > So this kind of evolution is no problem for the (automated) backports > using the backports project - although it can be difficult to detect > such a thing is needed.
That is exactly the problem...
julia
| |