Re: [Outreachy kernel] [PATCH] Staging: unisys: visorbus: visorchipset: Converted arrays to static const

[Greg KH <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>]

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 04:54:13AM +0530, Shivani Bhardwaj wrote:
> Replaced the declaration of character array from char * to
> static const char * const as the array is not intended to be used
> anywhere outside the function plus the values in array and the pointer
> to it don't have to be changed.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Shivani Bhardwaj <shivanib134@gmaail.com>
> ---
>  drivers/staging/unisys/visorbus/visorchipset.c | 4 ++--
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/staging/unisys/visorbus/visorchipset.c b/drivers/staging/unisys/visorbus/visorchipset.c
> index 4b76cb4..073b45b 100644
> --- a/drivers/staging/unisys/visorbus/visorchipset.c
> +++ b/drivers/staging/unisys/visorbus/visorchipset.c
> @@ -1411,7 +1411,7 @@ static int
>  visorchipset_chipset_selftest(void)
>  {
>  	char env_selftest[20];
> -	char *envp[] = { env_selftest, NULL };
> +	static const char * const envp[] = { env_selftest, NULL };

The compiler didn't complain when you did this?  That's really strange,
it should have.

Think about what you just turned envp into, and how env_selftest could
ever be correct now, given that the scope lifetime rules just changed
between the two variables.

I would leave this one alone, it's tricky and odds are, something is
going to be wrong with changing it, there's nothing wrong with the
original code as-is.

thanks,

greg k-h