Re: [checkpatch] - Confusion

Sören Brinkmann
2013-06-12T00:54:42Z

Hi Pintu,

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 11:49:00AM -0700, PINTU KUMAR wrote:
> >________________________________
> > From: anish singh <anish198519851985@gmail.com>
> >To: PINTU KUMAR <pintu_agarwal@yahoo.com>
> >Cc: "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>; "linux-mm@kvack.org" <linux-mm@kvack.org>
> >Sent: Sunday, 9 June 2013 10:58 PM
> >Subject: Re: [checkpatch] - Confusion
> >
> >
> >On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 11:21 AM, PINTU KUMAR <pintu_agarwal@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I wanted to submit my first patch.
> >> But I have some confusion about the /scripts/checkpatch.pl errors.
> >>
> >> After correcting some checkpatch errors, when I run checkpatch.pl, it showed me 0 errors.
> >> But when I create patches are git format-patch, it is showing me 1 error.
> >did  you run the checkpatch.pl on the file which gets created
> >after git format-patch?
> >If yes, then I think it is not necessary.You can use git-am to apply
> >your own patch on a undisturbed file and if it applies properly then
> >you are good to go i.e. you can send your patch.
>
> Yes, first I ran checkpatch directly on the file(mm/page_alloc.c) and fixed all the errors.
> It showed me (0) errors.
> Then I created a patch using _git format-patch_ and ran checkpatch again on the created patch.
> But now it is showing me 1 error.
> According to me this error is false positive (irrelevant), because I did not change anything related to the error and also the similar change already exists somewhere else too.
> Do you mean, shall I go ahead and submit the patch with this 1 error??
> ERROR: need consistent spacing around '*' (ctx:WxV)
>
> #153: FILE: mm/page_alloc.c:5476:
> +int min_free_kbytes_sysctl_handler(ctl_table *table, int write,
Rather a shot into the dark, but it looks like checkpatch is
misinterpreting 'ctl_table' as an arithmetic operand instead of a type.
I don't know how checkpatch learns about types created by typedefs, but
my guess is, that this line
typedef struct ctl_table ctl_table; (include/linux/sysctl.h)
is not correctly picked up by checkpatch.
So, I assume this actually is a false positive.

Sören