Re: Coccinelle: semantic patch for missing of_node_put

Re: Coccinelle: semantic patch for missing of_node_put

[Markus Elfring]

> $ spatch --tokens-c drivers/of/base.c  2>&1  | grep "Tag3 " | grep "of_node_put() on it when done." | awk -F " - " '{print $1}' | grep  -o "of_[[:print:]]*"

This command example points some details out for further software development considerations.

1. I find it questionable that relevant data are provided by the output channel
   “stderr” so far.
   https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle/blob/66a1118e04a6aaf1acdae89623313c8e05158a8d/docs/manual/spatch_options.tex#L165

2. The OCaml code “"Tag" ^ string_of_int t ^” occurs in three source files.
   * It is commented out in one file.
     https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle/blob/761cf6a1fbbf3173896ff61f0ea7e4a83a5b2a57/commons/common.ml#L305

   * These places refer to the source file “dumper.ml 1.2” by Richard W. M. Jones.
     Thus it seems that this code is relevant at the moment.
     https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle/blob/175de16bc7e535b6a89a62b81a673b0d0cd7075c/commons/ocamlextra/dumper.ml#L1

3. How will the software documentation evolve here?

4. Safe data processing can be performed only if the involved structures
   will remain clear for a while.
   Is the situation partly unclear?

   Should the information after which function calls the function “of_node_put”
   should be called be determined from any other documentation format?

5. A programming language like “awk” has got the potential to extract useful data
   (also without calling the tool “grep” additionally).

Regards,
Markus

Re: Coccinelle: semantic patch for missing of_node_put

[Markus Elfring]

> 2, A general method.
> We also try to get the list of functions to consider by writing a SmPL,
> but this method is not feasible at present, because it is not easy to parse the comment
> header information of these functions.

The situation was improved once more also for the Coccinelle software.
How do you think about to develop any more variants based on information
from a script (like the following) for the semantic patch language?

@initialize:python@
@@
import re, sys
filter = re.compile(" when done")

@find@
comments c;
identifier x;
type t;
@@
 t@c x(...)
 { ... }

@script:python selection@
input << find.c;
@@
if filter.search(input[0].before, 2):
   sys.stderr.write(input[0].before + "\n=====\n")
else:
   cocci.include_match(False)

@display@
identifier find.x;
type find.t;
@@
*t x(...)
 { ... }


Does such a source code analysis approach indicate any details
which should be improved for the affected software documentation?

Regards,
Markus

Re: Coccinelle: Searching for “when done” in function comments

[Markus Elfring]

> Does such a source code analysis approach indicate any details
> which should be improved for the affected software documentation?

I have constructed another SmPL script variant.

It can point out that the text “ when done” occurs in comment lines before
48 function implementations which are provided by 20 source files of
the software “Linux next-20190605”.
Will this source code analysis result trigger further development efforts
around detection of unique wordings in these descriptions?

Regards,
Markus