Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] treewide: use get_random_u32_between() when possible

From: "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@zx2c4.com>
To: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
Cc: "Kees Cook" <kees@kernel.org>,
	"Kees Cook" <keescook@chromium.org>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, patches@lists.linux.dev,
	"Greg Kroah-Hartman" <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	"Jakub Kicinski" <kuba@kernel.org>,
	"Russell King" <linux@armlinux.org.uk>,
	"Catalin Marinas" <catalin.marinas@arm.com>,
	"Thomas Bogendoerfer" <tsbogend@alpha.franken.de>,
	"Heiko Carstens" <hca@linux.ibm.com>,
	"Herbert Xu" <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>,
	"Christoph Böhmwalder" <christoph.boehmwalder@linbit.com>,
	"Jani Nikula" <jani.nikula@linux.intel.com>,
	"Jason Gunthorpe" <jgg@nvidia.com>,
	"Sakari Ailus" <sakari.ailus@linux.intel.com>,
	"Martin K . Petersen" <martin.petersen@oracle.com>,
	"Andreas Dilger" <adilger.kernel@dilger.ca>,
	"Jaegeuk Kim" <jaegeuk@kernel.org>,
	"Richard Weinberger" <richard@nod.at>,
	"Darrick J . Wong" <djwong@kernel.org>,
	"SeongJae Park" <sj@kernel.org>,
	"Thomas Gleixner" <tglx@linutronix.de>,
	"Andrew Morton" <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	"Michael Ellerman" <mpe@ellerman.id.au>,
	"Helge Deller" <deller@gmx.de>,
	netdev@vger.kernel.org, linux-crypto@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-block@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-media@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, loongarch@lists.linux.dev,
	linux-mips@vger.kernel.org, linuxppc-dev@lists.ozlabs.org,
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	ydroneaud@opteya.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] treewide: use get_random_u32_between() when possible
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:19:52 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <Y3ZfKHTHWUkdZIMt@zx2c4.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Y3ZWbcoGOdFjlPhS@mit.edu>

On Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 10:42:37AM -0500, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 16, 2022 at 04:47:27PM -0800, Kees Cook wrote:
> > >> > - between
> > >> > - ranged
> > >> > - spanning
> > >> > 
> > >> > https://www.thefreedictionary.com/List-of-prepositions.htm
> > >> > - amid
> > >> > 
> > >> > Sigh, names.
> > >> 
> > >> I think "inclusive" is best.
> > >
> > >I find it not very descriptive of what the function does. Is there one
> > >you like second best? Or are you convinced they're all much much much
> > >worse than "inclusive" that they shouldn't be considered?
> > 
> > Right, I don't think any are sufficiently descriptive. "Incluisve"
> > with two arguments seems unambiguous and complete to me. :)
> 
> The problem with "between", "ranged", "spanning" is that they don't
> tell the reader whether we're dealing with an "open interval" or a
> "closed interval".  They are just different ways of saying that it's a
> range between, say, 0 and 20.  But it doesn't tell you whether it
> includes 0 or 20 or not.
> 
> The only way I can see for making it ambiguous is either to use the
> terminology "closed interval" or "inclusive".  And "open" and "closed"
> can have other meanings, so get_random_u32_inclusive() is going to be
> less confusing than get_random_u32_closed().

Alright, that about settles it then. I'll re-roll.

Jason