RE: [PATCH 0/5] [RFC] printk/ia64/ppc64/parisc64: let's deprecate %pF/%pf printk specifiers

David Laight
2017-09-20T08:41:40Z

From: Helge Deller
> Sent: 19 September 2017 21:08
...
> > Using 'unsigned long' for any kind of pointer is an accident
> > waiting do happen.
> > It also makes it difficult to typecheck the function calls.
> > Using 'void *' isn't any better.
> > Either a pointer to an undefined struct, or a struct containing
> > a single 'char' member, is likely to be safest.
>
> David, you might be right in most cases, but in this case I'd prefer
> unsigned long too. I think this will create the least amount of
> typecasts here.

I've not looked at the specifics case...

Another option is using a struct with a single member and
passing it by value.
This could be used for things like user-space pointers or
even errno values.
The only problem is old ABI where even small structures are
always passed by reference.

David