Re: [PATCH 34/36] tty: serial: pmac_zilog: Make disposable variable __always_unused

[Lee Jones <lee.jones@linaro.org>]

On Thu, 05 Nov 2020, Jiri Slaby wrote:

> On 05. 11. 20, 9:36, Lee Jones wrote:
> > On Thu, 05 Nov 2020, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> > 
> > > On 05. 11. 20, 8:04, Christophe Leroy wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Le 04/11/2020 à 20:35, Lee Jones a écrit :
> > > > > Fixes the following W=1 kernel build warning(s):
> > > > > 
> > > > >    drivers/tty/serial/pmac_zilog.h:365:58: warning: variable
> > > > > ‘garbage’ set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
> > > > 
> > > > Explain how you are fixing this warning.
> > > > 
> > > > Setting  __always_unused is usually not the good solution for fixing
> > > > this warning, but here I guess this is likely the good solution. But it
> > > > should be explained why.
> > 
> > There are normally 3 ways to fix this warning;
> > 
> >   - Start using/checking the variable/result
> >   - Remove the variable
> >   - Mark it as __{always,maybe}_unused
> > 
> > The later just tells the compiler that not checking the resultant
> > value is intentional.  There are some functions (as Jiri mentions
> > below) which are marked as '__must_check' which *require* a dummy
> > (garbage) variable to be used.
> > 
> > > Or, why is the "garbage =" needed in the first place? read_zsdata is not
> > > defined with __warn_unused_result__.
> > 
> > I used '__always_used' here for fear of breaking something.
> > 
> > However, if it's safe to remove it, then all the better.
> 
> Yes please -- this "garbage" is one of the examples of volatile misuses. If
> readb didn't work on volatile pointer, marking the return variable as
> volatile wouldn't save it.
> 
> > > And even if it was, would (void)!read_zsdata(port) fix it?
> > 
> > That's hideous. :D
> 
> Sure, marking reads as must_check would be insane.
> 
> > *Much* better to just use '__always_used' in that use-case.
> 
> Then using a dummy variable to fool must_check must mean must_check is used
> incorrectly, no :)? But there are always exceptions…

Agreed on all points.

Will fix.

-- 
Lee Jones [李琼斯]
Senior Technical Lead - Developer Services
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