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Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:40:49 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2026 02:40:36 +0800 From: Kuan-Wei Chiu To: Philipp Hahn Cc: amd-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org, apparmor@lists.ubuntu.com, bpf@vger.kernel.org, ceph-devel@vger.kernel.org, cocci@inria.fr, dm-devel@lists.linux.dev, dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org, gfs2@lists.linux.dev, intel-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org, intel-wired-lan@lists.osuosl.org, iommu@lists.linux.dev, kvm@vger.kernel.org, linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org, linux-block@vger.kernel.org, linux-bluetooth@vger.kernel.org, linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org, linux-cifs@vger.kernel.org, linux-clk@vger.kernel.org, linux-erofs@lists.ozlabs.org, linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-gpio@vger.kernel.org, linux-hyperv@vger.kernel.org, linux-input@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-leds@vger.kernel.org, linux-media@vger.kernel.org, linux-mips@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-modules@vger.kernel.org, linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org, linux-nfs@vger.kernel.org, linux-omap@vger.kernel.org, linux-phy@lists.infradead.org, linux-pm@vger.kernel.org, linux-rockchip@lists.infradead.org, linux-s390@vger.kernel.org, linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, linux-sctp@vger.kernel.org, linux-security-module@vger.kernel.org, linux-sh@vger.kernel.org, linux-sound@vger.kernel.org, linux-stm32@st-md-mailman.stormreply.com, linux-trace-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-usb@vger.kernel.org, linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, ntfs3@lists.linux.dev, samba-technical@lists.samba.org, sched-ext@lists.linux.dev, target-devel@vger.kernel.org, tipc-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net, v9fs@lists.linux.dev Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/61] treewide: Use IS_ERR_OR_NULL over manual NULL check - refactor Message-ID: References: <20260310-b4-is_err_or_null-v1-0-bd63b656022d@avm.de> Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: dm-devel@lists.linux.dev List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20260310-b4-is_err_or_null-v1-0-bd63b656022d@avm.de> Hi Philipp, On Tue, Mar 10, 2026 at 12:48:26PM +0100, Philipp Hahn wrote: > While doing some static code analysis I stumbled over a common pattern, > where IS_ERR() is combined with a NULL check. For that there is > IS_ERR_OR_NULL(). > > I've written a Coccinelle patch to find and patch those instances. > The patches follow grouped by subsystem. > > Patches 55-58 may be dropped as they have a (minor?) semantic change: > They use WARN_ON() or WARN_ON_ONCE(), but only in the IS_ERR() path, not > for the NULL check. Iff it is okay to print the warning also for NULL, > then the patches can be applied. > > While generating the patch set `checkpatch` complained about mixing > [un]likely() with IS_ERR_OR_NULL(), which already uses likely() > internally. I found and fixed several locations, where that combination > has been used. Thanks for the patchset. However, I think we need a explanation for why switching to IS_ERR_OR_NULL() is an improvement over the existing code. IMHO, the necessity of IS_ERR_OR_NULL() often highlights a confusing or flawed API design. It usually implies that the caller is unsure whether a failure results in an error pointer or a NULL pointer. Rather than doing a treewide conversion of this pattern, I believe it would be much more meaningful to review these instances case-by-case and fix the underlying APIs or caller logic instead. Additionally, a treewide refactoring like this has the practical drawback of creating unnecessary merge conflicts when backporting to stable trees. Regards, Kuan-Wei