Re: [PATCH v3 68/77] ncr5380: Fix whitespace issues using regexp

James Bottomley
2015-12-23T01:22:32Z

On Wed, 2015-12-23 at 11:56 +1100, Finn Thain wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Dec 2015, Joe Perches wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 2015-12-22 at 12:18 +1100, Finn Thain wrote:
> > > This patch is just the result of two substitutions. The first
> removes
> > > any tabs and spaces at the end of the line. The second replaces
> runs
> > > of tabs and spaces at the beginning of comment lines with a
> single
> > > space.
> >
> > I think the second of these isn't done well.
>
> The aim of this patch is not to fix code style, but to make it
> possible to compare these two files so that the fork can be repaired.
> Regexp is very helpful in creating uniformity (and a minimal diff).
>
> If this was a coding style issue, we would be discussing the use of
> kernel-doc format for the affected comments, not whitespace.
>
> > Many of these comments post reformatting are
> > much worse to read because of lost alignment.
>
> You exaggerate a very trivial point.
>
> I admit that a small proportion of comments are slightly less
> readable. But it is the diff that needs to be readable in order to
> resolve the fork.
>
> As I said in patch 0, I am aware that this patch series can be
> faulted on trivial grounds but in order to avoid churn I don't wish
> to address those issues until the fork has been resolved.

I don't think it is trivial. I can't actually find a single instance
in this patch where collapsing the space at the start of the comment
looks justified; most of the time it eliminates intended formatting.
Even if there's an odd one I've missed where space at the beginning of
a comment is a problem, I think not doing that part of the regexp and
just correcting the odd missed case by hand later will be much better.

James