From: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
To: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Harald Nordgren <haraldnordgren@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4] remote: return non-const pointer from error_buf()
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2026 07:33:58 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <aW3QVkpPPHjKVNLC@pks.im> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260119051945.GA1991523@coredump.intra.peff.net>
On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 12:19:45AM -0500, Jeff King wrote:
> We have an error_buf() helper that functions a bit like our error()
> helper, but returns NULL instead of -1. Its return type is "const char
> *", but this is overly restrictive. If we use the helper in a function
> that returns non-const "char *", the compiler will complain about
> the implicit cast from const to non-const.
>
> Meanwhile, the const in the helper is doing nothing useful, as it only
> ever returns NULL. Let's drop the const, which will let us use it in
> both types of function.
This function signature is indeed quite misleading, and I'd argue that
it continues to be so even after the change. I guess the intent is to
make it a bit easier to print an error in functions that return a
string.
I'm not really a huge fan of this, but it's not a fault of this patch
series, so let's read on.
Patrick
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-01-19 6:34 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-01-19 5:18 [PATCH 0/4] memory leaks in remote.c Jeff King
2026-01-19 5:19 ` [PATCH 1/4] remote: return non-const pointer from error_buf() Jeff King
2026-01-19 6:33 ` Patrick Steinhardt [this message]
2026-01-20 0:28 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-01-20 19:38 ` Jeff King
2026-01-20 20:18 ` Junio C Hamano
2026-01-19 5:20 ` [PATCH 2/4] remote: drop const return of tracking_for_push_dest() Jeff King
2026-01-19 6:34 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2026-01-19 5:22 ` [PATCH 3/4] remote: fix leak in branch_get_push_1() with invalid "simple" config Jeff King
2026-01-19 6:34 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2026-01-19 5:23 ` [PATCH 4/4] remote: always allocate branch.push_tracking_ref Jeff King
2026-01-19 6:34 ` Patrick Steinhardt
2026-01-19 15:04 ` Triangular workflow Harald Nordgren
2026-01-20 19:40 ` Jeff King
2026-01-20 0:31 ` [PATCH 0/4] memory leaks in remote.c Junio C Hamano
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=aW3QVkpPPHjKVNLC@pks.im \
--to=ps@pks.im \
--cc=git@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=haraldnordgren@gmail.com \
--cc=peff@peff.net \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.