Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Thu, 4 Dec 2025 20:05:26 -0800 | | From | Guenter Roeck <> | | Subject | Re: [PATCH] hwmon: submitting-patches: Explain race conditions caused by calculations in macros |
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On Wed, Dec 03, 2025 at 01:55:36AM +0800, Gui-Dong Han wrote: > The current documentation advises against calculations in macros > primarily to avoid code obfuscation. It misses the risk of concurrency > issues. > > Add a note explaining that macros evaluating arguments multiple times > can lead to race conditions when accessing shared data. > > Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/CALbr=LYJ_ehtp53HXEVkSpYoub+XYSTU8Rg=o1xxMJ8=5z8B-g@mail.gmail.com/ > Signed-off-by: Gui-Dong Han <hanguidong02@gmail.com>
Applied.
Side note: this is good enough for me. I'll be happy to accept a separate patch with a more detailed explanation.
Thanks, Guenter
> --- > Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.rst | 5 ++++- > 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) > > diff --git a/Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.rst b/Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.rst > index 6482c4f137dc..7f7095951750 100644 > --- a/Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.rst > +++ b/Documentation/hwmon/submitting-patches.rst > @@ -82,7 +82,10 @@ increase the chances of your change being accepted. > * Avoid calculations in macros and macro-generated functions. While such macros > may save a line or so in the source, it obfuscates the code and makes code > review more difficult. It may also result in code which is more complicated > - than necessary. Use inline functions or just regular functions instead. > + than necessary. Such macros may also evaluate their arguments multiple times. > + This leads to Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race conditions when > + accessing shared data without locking, for example when calculating values in > + sysfs show functions. Use inline functions or just regular functions instead. > > * Limit the number of kernel log messages. In general, your driver should not > generate an error message just because a runtime operation failed. Report
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