From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Greg KH Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:23:00 +0000 Subject: Re: [Question: Drivers/base/core.c] Why dev->init_name = NULL in device_add function ? Message-Id: <20140801192300.GB16085@kroah.com> List-Id: References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: Aniroop Mathur Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Aug 01, 2014 at 10:43:23PM +0530, Aniroop Mathur wrote: > Dear Mr. Greg Kroah-Hartman and Linux Community, > Greetings of the day !! :) > > I am Aniroop Mathur working on Linux Kernel for last two years. > I am stuck at one point and could not find the solution over internet. > I posted on linuxquestions.org too. > So I need your help and suggestion for it. > > Can you please help in answering my query as below: > > ==========================> In function device_add of /drivers/base/core.c file, it is mentioned: > /* > * for statically allocated devices, which should all be converted > * some day, we need to initialize the name. We prevent reading back > * the name, and force the use of dev_name() > */ > if (dev->init_name) { > dev_set_name(dev, "%s", dev->init_name); > dev->init_name = NULL; > } > > > Except forcing the use of dev_name to read device name, > Is there any other reason to make init_name as NULL ? Why would you want init_name to not be NULL? > And if it is not made NULL, is there any problem or side-effect ? Yes, people would start to use it thinking it was the real name of the device, when it might not be. greg k-h